Gladiator (2000) was a classic of its genre, and rightly won Russell Crowe an Oscar for best actor, so the news of a sequel to a film that pretty much had the perfect ending, much like Joker and we all know how its sequel tanked at the box office, didn’t seem like the best of ideas. Sadly having seen Gladiator II it turns out that it wasn’t a good idea.
Set two decades after Gladiator ends, Lucius (Paul Mescal), the son of Maximus (Crowe) is living in hiding somewhere in Africa. After a battle with the Romans led by Marus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) Lucius is captured and sent to Rome which is now ruled over by two brother Emperors Geta and Caracalla (Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger).
Bought by arms dealer Macrinus (Denzel Washington) he’s to fight as a Gladiator in the Colosseum. Here his sole aim is to stay alive so he can kill Acacius who just happens to be married to his mother Lucilla (Connie Nielsen reprising her role from the original).
If the plot sounds familiar it’s probably because it has more than a passing resemblance to the original, the opening battle and Lucius’s journey to Rome feels like a lazy remake of the opening scenes of Gladiator.
Director Ridley Scott has been known to pay little attention to historical detail in the past (Napoleon being an example of that) and Gladiator II takes it to a new level. Whereas Crowe fought other Gladiators’ Mescal is now pitted against Monkeys’ that look if they’ve been captured from Kong’s Skull Island, Rhinos that can be turned on a dime by the riders on their back and of all things giant sharks that look as if they’ve been borrowed from some cheap B movie like Sharknado. If it all sounds ridiculous it’s because it is.
One of the main reasons that Gladiator worked so well and how it still stands up nearly a quarter of a century later is partly because of great characters. Sadly the same can’t be said of Gladiator II, Mescal is no Russell Crowe and how his character manages to inspire those around him, as his father once did, is one of the films greatest mysteries.
Gladiator, which ran for nearly 3 hours was never boring, sadly the same can’t be said of Gladiator II.
