Gladiator II Review

 

Gladiator II is an epic historical action movie and the sequel to Gladiator. Scott Free Productions and Lucy Fisher/Douglas Wick Productions produced while Paramount Pictures disturbed. The film is written David Scarpa and Peter Craig, while Ridley Scott returned to direct.

The story is, sixteen years have gone by since the death of Maximus, in those years Rome as been ruled by corrupted twins. They've sent armies to conquer lands they desire, during these invasions Lucius' wife is killed. He now seeks revenge for the General who lead the army, but he'll soon discover something bigger is at play.

Initial Reaction

At first I didn't want to see this. Mainly because I thought there was no reason for Gladiator. Then the first trailer came out and I decided to give it a chance. Although the choice of music for that trailer really sucked.

Cons

Nothing here folks, just move onto the next part.

Middle Ground

There's two gray areas with the movie. One of those being the pacing. With the first movie it was things felt slower than they should be, with this one there's instances where things are going almost at a break neck speed. To the point where some parts almost flip on a dime. How much you wanna bet this is a Kingdom of Heaven and Napoleon situation where there's a director's cut and it's better? Jokes aside, the other mix bag was our villains. Now the stuff with Macrinus (played by Denzel Washington) is really good. I loved what they did with him. The twins Emperor Geta and Caracalla was okay. I loved seeing both of them go full blown psychotic, but what we really needed to see even if it was a small detail was their rise to power. It worked for Commodus, maybe it would've worked for them?

Pros

Now let's get into the good stuff, like the performances. While the sequel material isn't as strong as the 2000 film, that didn't stop the cast from giving out some very strong acting. I thought they did great. Especially the likes of Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, etc. Then there's the story. While I still have grips with it I still enjoyed. Mainly cause this one did have a political thriller chess game to it. The last thing I'll credit is the action. I still lean more towards the first, but the action for Gladiator II did have some excitement to it. Especially during the last half of the movie. I'd go into more detail but it's very spoiler heavy and you know I don't do spoilers unless I find it to be something stupid and I don't want you to waste your time.

While not as strong as its predecessor, there's still somethings to like about the sequel.

My final rating is, Good.

That's all for me. Come back on Monday, Nov 25th where I'll return to the Road to Superman (2025) with my review of...ugh, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.