Gladiator II

Review by Mark Woodring

I noted before screening Gladiator II that in 2000, my Father’s Day present was to go see the original film in theaters by myself. That was my gift.

And what a gift it was: an incredible film with superb performances, incredible cinematography, and a score that drove straight through your heart.

I hoped that they didn’t make a sequel, as we all know the sequels almost never live up to, much less surpass, the original films.

**NOTE: this post may be updated with audio once we actually have the chance to talk about it. Until then, you can read Mark’s review below. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**

Gladiator II - Review
Gladiator II (Paramount)

148 Minutes, Rated R
Written by David Scarpa
Directed by Ridley Scott

Synopsis:

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 his past to find strength and honor to return the glory of Rome to its people.

Twenty-four years later, there I was, sitting in a theater watching a film I had never hoped for, and found myself hoping that maybe this one would be worth it, wouldn’t be so vastly different from that glorious original experience as to be unwatchable.

Did Gladiator II manage that feat? Mostly.

Let’s get the good stuff out of the way first:

Denzel Washington, as you may have heard, is ABSOLUTELY the best thing in Gladiator II. He steals every scene he’s in, even when he’s sitting in the background, because you can see him weighing every word he hears and is processing the best way to use them to move himself forward. That quiet intensity, paired with his character’s self-deprecating and all-too-helpful manner put me in mind of his performance in The Tragedy of Macbeth (available on Apple TV+ and highly recommended, BTW): the calculus of ambition paired with tragic circumstance… beautiful.

Weirdly, Denzel is likely to garner tons of awards buzz, but in supporting categories, as the film is, in design if not execution, the story of Paul Mescal’s Lucius, son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) and, as the film confirms for us, Maximus (Russell Crowe).

Ridley Scott takes us 16 years forward in time from the ending of the original Gladiator, where Lucius has been sent in to hiding by his mother to protect him from the fallout of Maximus’ killing of Commodus. This is a bit of a logical flaw for me, as at that moment, his mother is the most popular woman in Rome, and if she had revealed Lucius as Maximus’ son, he’d have been hailed, as well.

But plot’s gotta plot, am I right?

Having never been brought back to Rome, he travels to Africa, where he winds up a soldier, living an anonymous life with his wife, protecting his adoptive people from Rome’s incursions… lead by General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), who orders Lucius’ wife killed (as she’s an archer decimating his men in battle).

Taken as a slave back to Rome (the Empire, not the city), Lucius is bought by Macrinus (Denzel), a merchant with a penchant for gambling and accumulating other people’s debts. He clearly has designs, which become apparent as the movie progresses. He becomes a gladiator.

Bottom line, as good as the performances are, and they are, Gladiator II plays like the Roman equivalent of what Star Wars: The Force Awakens was to Star Wars: A New Hope. It’s not a perfect replica, but all the pieces are there, and they move in surprisingly similar ways.

And honestly, there’s nothing wrong with that, per se, but it’s kind of disappointing that we don’t get to see the failure of the Senate to establish an Emperorless Republic or the rise of twin Emperors Geta and Caracalla, who are both unmitigated disasters as human beings, much less rulers. The interlude is glossed over by some title cards which tell the audience only where Rome is now, and not how it got from there to here.

As with the first film, Ridley Scott gives us some incredible visuals, including an early boat-based siege of Lucius’ new home. Inside a flooded Coliseum we also get a sea battle, but it’s a bit off-putting in that the scale of those boats would seem to make the battle we get completely unrealistic as it’s played out.

And the sharks are a bit much.

Again, the real draw of Gladiator II is Denzell Washington. He drives the entirety of the story from the shadows before slowly stepping into the light as his plans move closer to completion.

Paul Mescal is Hollywood’s “it” star right now, but here, he feels overwhelmed by the scale of the production and is overshadowed by the sheer brilliance of Denzell’s performance.

Pedro Pascal feels like he’s in every single project hitting theaters over the last couple years, so I hope he takes a break soon so we can appreciate him more when he shows back up on our screens.

Our twin Emperors are played by Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger, but they’re just cardboard cut-outs whose purpose is to out-Commodus Joaquin Phoenix and stand in Macrinus’ way. I mean, they both play their limited roles well, but those roles are limited.

Connie Nielsen is back as Lucilla, who is stuck as wife to Acacius and despondent mother of Lucius, but the script doesn’t really support those wild swings.

The biggest problem with Gladiator II is that despite the scale of the Coliseum and the rousing and impressive battle visuals, the film itself feels… smaller?… than the original. The 2000 original was so unexpected at the time that everything felt massive, from the sets to the stakes to the performances… it’s held up so well over two decades the bar for this is extremely high.

That’s not to say Gladiator II isn’t a thrilling watch; it absolutely is. The action sequences are on par with the original’s, and play out beautifully on screen (in IMAX, especially, which is how we screened it), and I can say it absolutely won’t disappoint fans of the original (of which I’m one).

Gladiator II charges into theaters November 22 and stars aul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, Lior Raz, Derek Jacobi, with Connie Nielsen and Denzel Washington.

And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.

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