Gladiator II (2024)

Does an Oscar-award winning film really need a sequel twenty years later? And does this one live up to the hype? The answer to both is, unfortunately, no. From a writing point of view, this script is inferior to the first and tries too hard to copy it beat for beat, while failing to build up the character development that dominated the first one, and it does something worse... it undermines the arc of the first film, introduces a plot twist that character assassinates its original hero, and renders Maximus' sacrifice in the arena as useless. In short, it's a bad movie with a weak script that misses the tremendous greater potential it had to be truly excellent.

Twenty years after the Gladiator-General Maximus (Russell Crowe) saved Rome from an insane tyrant, two insane brother emperors rule Rome, and demand more and more impressive Gladiator games... not to mention victories in foreign fields. They send their current best general, Acacius (a miscast Pedro Pascal) to conquer yet another territory, leading to the death of the wife of Lucius (Paul Mescal). He is also captured in the battle and handed over to the arena to train as a gladiator, though he appears reluctant to do so. However, he is soon spotted by Macrinus (Denzel Washington), a ruthless politician who has his eye on the throne of Rome, who sees his untapped potential for rage and intends to use it to manipulate events in Rome in his favor.

A war-weary Acacius returns to his wife Lucilla (Connie Nielson), tired of battle and of the politics it involves to stay afloat in Rome, where everyone is out to injure or impede their rivals. Lucilla tells him a horrific truth, once she discerns Rome's latest victor in the arena... the young man now fighting for his life and leading others in mock battles is her son with Maximus, whom she sent away for his own protection after the general's death. And what's worse, his only desire is to kill Acacius...

This movie has a lot of problems, so let's get right to the point. By establishing Lucius as Maximus' son, and with him being the same age as Maximus' murdered boy, the implication is that the honorable, righteous Maximus cheated on his wife with Lucilla while in Rome, which is not consistent with the highly moralistic Maximus in the first film. Maximus died in the first film to establish handing over the central power of Rome back to the Senate; the fact that this film has two insane empererors in charge proves that failed. It is not a great way to start off a sequel, by stating that everything accomplished in the first film was worthless. Then there's the bad writing, for example, Macrinus is always telling us that Lucius is full of rage and has a bad temper -- but we never see it. Most of the time, this supposed powder keg is laughing and joking around with his friends. The script is telling us one thing, and showing us something else. By making Acacius sympathetic, there is no reason to root for Lucius to defeat him in the arena, because we like both of them... so the villain is "weak." And because he's a weak initial villain who turns out to not be one, we get three more ineffectual villains, all of whom are an enormous waste of talent.

The script has a few good moments, and all of them revolve around the emperors, Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger). Some of the absolute best moments in the film are Denzel's character manipulating them, one of which truly is insane and the other who could have been a terrific antagonist. Their murder scene, and the subsequent scene with a severed head in the senate are the film's finest moments... if only there would have been more with them, rather than with the utterly bland main character. He's boring and uncharismatic. The script also wastes (literally) two of its original-film characters by killing them both for no reason other than shock value; and one of them is dispatched so fast, the audience doesn't have a chance to process it at all. Not that it matters much, because it's relying on our memories of the first film to carry an emotional impact. A much stronger script would have had a gladiator seeking power and influence through victories through the arena, only to come to realize that he could serve Rome on a higher level, possibly through falling in love with a senator's daughter, who convinces him an uprising is necessary to overthrow two demented emperors.

The cast range from terrible to excellent. Quinn is fantastic as the more sane emperor, and Denzel isn't bad as Macrinus, although he simply shows up and plays himself. But Mescal and Pascal are both dull. It's a shame, too, because the movie looks like a million bucks. It has gorgeous set design, costume design, period hairstyling and armor, and some truly spectacular (if unbelievable) arena battles, including filling the coliseum with water and having mock sea battles (imported sharks pick off anyone who falls into the water). But there are some bad CGI moments as well, such as the mange-riddled baboons. And unfortunately, Hans Zimmer did not return to score the film, so the glorious, sweeping tones of the first film are absent. Overall, it's entertaining but a far inferior product to the original and not something that I'll ever watch again.

Sexual Content:

We see a semi-bare-breasted woman at a party in Rome. References to homosexuality and bisexuality. Naked male and female statues. Men are affectionate with each other. Rumors of incest, and of syphilis moving from a man's loins into his brain.

Violence:

Tons of gore, slashing, people being beheaded, shot with arrows, cut down with swords. Explosions tear through ships. The gladiators are branded and sent into the arena to die. A baboon tears a man's throat out, then gets bitten by a human, before it's strangled with a chain. There are a few beheadings, characters are gored by charging rinos (which is tricked into bashing its head into a wall; we're unsure if it survives). Sharks take out people who fall into the water with bloody clouds of water. A man's arm is cut off; elsewhere, a severed head is paraded around the senate and set down for all to look at, a man is stabbed in the ear and through his brain. Lots of war injuries and gory wounds.

Language:

One GD. A few minor profanities.