Review: Gladiator II

From legendary director Ridley Scott, GLADIATOR II continues the epic saga of power, intrigue, and vengeance set in Ancient Rome. Years after witnessing the death of the revered hero Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius (Paul Mescal) is forced to enter the Colosseum after his home is conquered by the tyrannical Emperors who now lead Rome with an iron fist. With rage in his heart and the future of the Empire at stake, Lucius must look to the past to find strength and honor to return the glory of Rome to its people.

What We Thought:

When I walked out of the screening for Gladiator II I was asked what I thought of the film and I said it was fine. Thinking about the movie almost a week later and fine is the perfect word for it. It’s not the beloved classic the first film is, but there’s also a lot worse out there. It should do well financially, but it won’t land the award nominations the Russell Crowe flick did.

I hadn’t seen Crowe’s Gladiator in a few years so I rewatched it before seeing this. I’m glad I did because there were characters fresh in my mind who come into play in Gladiator II. The sequel has some flashbacks and explanations to who people are, but I’m glad I did do a rewatch. If you don’t watch the original first, here’s all you need to know: this films takes place about 16 years after the first one. The deaths of Crowes’s and Joaquin Phoenix’s characters left Rome in a weird place with twin brothers now emperors. The young boy (son of Connie Nielsen and Russell Crowe in Gladiator) is now a man who wants nothing to do with Rome. He’s a leader on the battlefield and after suffering a huge loss to the hands of Pedro Pascal, he’s enslaved and becomes a gladiator. He wants revenge on Pascal, but soon fights for a higher cause, Rome and family.

The biggest issue with the movie is that it’s too long. The original was about a half hour shorter and feels much tighter. This film takes forever to get going and hides its real villain for almost 2 hours. By the end you could have cut Pedro Pascal’s character completely and still had the same results. Paul Mescal’s Gladiator wants Pascal’s head, but ultimately it’s meaningless with a more important enemy by film’s end. Pascal is simply in it because he’s a hot property right now whereas Mescal is not. Mescal is a very respected actor, but he’s not quite a box office draw. He should be after this and I can see him being handed a franchise in another film universe (Marvel’s next Wolverine?). The issues with the film aren’t Mescal’s fault.

Another issue is how over the top the CGI is. Yes Gladiator used CGI and Ridley Scott has always been a fan of the latest technological advances, but so much of this looks fake. It’s not quite as bad as Scott’s Napoleon, but a Colosseum full of water and sharks is a bit much. It’s one thing to fill the Colosseum with CG background actors, but the animals the humans fight are pretty shaky. Same for the opening battleship sequences. We’ve come a long way with CG and VFX, a huge movie like this should look better than a DC or Marvel flick.

Luckily most audience goers don’t care too much about that stuff and Gladiator II should make some money at the box office. Denzel Washington is completely out of place with his accent, but seems to be having a blast in the process. The twin emperors will get laughs and people will boo them so that works as well. Mescal is solid in the role and got into decent shape for it, but no one will be confusing him for Crowe in Gladiator. I wanted to love the movie like I do the first one, but it’s nothing more than a perfectly fine film that will make money that ultimately doesn’t add much to its lore. There isn’t much out there to compete against it when it opens and we haven’t quite hit the end of the year push for Oscar bait movies so it should open big with audiences looking for something to watch.

Directed By: Ridley Scott

Cast: Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, Lior Raz, Derek Jacobi, with Connie Nielsen and Denzel Washington