Years after witnessing the death of Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius must enter the Colosseum after the powerful emperors of Rome conquer his home. With rage in his heart and the future of the empire at stake, he looks to the past to find the strength and honor needed to return the glory of Rome to its people. If you’re a fan of Ridley Scott and have been keeping up with his filmography, I think that most people would agree that he has been very hit or miss in recent years. When I heard there was going to be a sequel to the original Gladiator, I wasn’t quite convinced that it needed to exist, seeing as how that film ended on a fairly conclusive note with the deaths of Maximus and Commodus. Lo and behold, Hollywood is running out of ideas, so why not make a sequel 24 years after Scott’s beloved classic? Gladiator II goes through many of the same narrative beats that the original film went through during its first half. We are introduced to Paul Mescal as Lucius, son of the late Maximus (Russell Crowe) and Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) who becomes enslaved by the Roman General Acacius (Pedro Pascal). Once that happens, we are thrust right back into the arena for some brutal fight sequences. This is essentially the premise without giving away any important details, because the movie itself goes into lots of political drama and builds upon other more intricate story threads from the original film.
Paul Mescal is serviceably good (yet a bit miscast) as Lucius even if he lacks some of the natural gravitas that Russell Crowe brought to Maximus as a lead character in the original film. Mescal holds his own quite well in the action sequences and adds a more violent and ferociously feral fighting style that Maximus did not possess. Pedro Pascal is also solid as General Acacius, who is somewhat of a sympathetic villain for reasons I won’t get into. Connie Nielsen’s Lucilla is really the emotional lynchpin of this story and whenever she has any interactions with Lucius, there is plenty of dramatic depth to the film. While all of the acting ranges from good to great, this really is Denzel Washington’s movie and his slickly charismatic performance as Macrinus elevates the entire film. Washington unsurprisingly brings out the best acting in everyone who shares a scene with him, particularly Mescal and the two evil Emperor twin brothers Caracalla and Geta played devilishly by Fred Hechinger and Joseph Quinn. When it comes to the battles in the Colosseum, they are as massive as one can expect, with but one element that may throw some viewers off. In two of the arena battles, there are CGI creatures, the first one being a bunch of feral baboons, and the second being a handful of sharks. I would personally say that the feral baboons looked a bit fake while the sharks were a little more touched up. I wasn’t too bothered by the sharks in the naval battle sequence (which was a genuinely epic part of the movie), but the feral baboons could have been easily replaced by other, more photorealistic looking animals. Nonetheless, a good majority of the combat scenes are thrilling, visceral, and at times, completely gnarly, showing that 87 year old Ridley Scott has no signs of slowing down in crafting exciting action. It’s seriously impressive how the man is able to still direct these epic spectacles, year after year.
What really won me over with this film was actually less so the action and more so the complex political dynamics and relationships between characters. Without going too deep into it, Denzel Washington’s Macrinus becomes rather close with Caracalla and Geta throughout the film and this relationship adds some tension and nuance to the story as a whole. As expected, this movie does not reach the levels of depth or emotional resonance as the original did, which is in part because it tells many of the same basic narrative elements we’ve seen before, making Gladiator II best viewed as a standard medieval popcorn action blockbuster. Does this movie absolutely NEED to exist? I would not say so. However, for a sequel that has come out 24 years after the first film, I can safely say there is nothing here that retcons any elements or tarnishes the legacy of the original. In fact, there are just enough narrative based reasons and character arcs that justify its existence. Overall, while Gladiator II never quite reaches the level of emotional depth of the original, Ridley Scott’s sequel offers just enough brutal arena battles, complex political drama, and a charismatically engaging performance from a scene stealing Denzel Washington to keep most fans and general audiences… entertained.
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