Ridley Scott’s latest film “Gladiator II”, a sequel to his Oscar-winning film “Gladiator” (2000), is a ponderous sequel which does not provide anything fun and new to enjoy. Sure, “Gladiator” is not exactly a great film, so it seems easy to follow the footsteps of that rather overrated movie (In my humble opinion, it is the worst Best Picture Oscar winner during last 25 years except “Green Book” (2018) – yes, I am much more generous to “Crash” (2004) or “American Beauty” (1999) than many of you), but the sequel keeps stumbling and plodding mainly due to its weak story and character, and I could only observe its few inspired elements from the distance without much care during my viewing.
Because, as many of you surely know, the titular character played by Russell Crowe in “Gladiator” dies in the end, “Gladiator II” begins with a new character destined to end up being in the middle of the Colosseum of Rome. He is played by Paul Mescal, and the opening part depicts how his fairly good life with his wife in a big free city in Northern Africa is suddenly disrupted by the invasion of the Roman Army led by Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), a brave and respectful general who also does not like much what he and his soldiers will have to do for another vain glory for the twin emperors he is supposed to serve.
Anyway, after the city eventually falls despite the courageous resistance of our hero and many others in the city, he and many other men are sent to Rome as slaves. When he shows some potential during a rather outrageous action scene featuring a lot of angry CGI monkeys (I am not kidding), he is noticed by a rich dude named Macrinus (Denzel Washington), and he is soon taken to Macrinus’ training place for gladiators.
What follows next is pretty predictable to say the least. Still quite angry for the death of his loving wife, Mescal’s character is willing to go through anything for getting his revenge on General Acacius, and Macrinus is ready to exploit his new gladiator’s furious anger for a certain purpose to be revealed along the story. Right from when he enters the Colosseum for the first time, our hero quickly distinguishes himself in front of many audiences including the twin emperors, and he certainly notices his target sitting near the twin emperors.
Meanwhile, the movie also gradually reveals some background information of its hero. Around its middle act, it turns out that there is actually the hidden connection between its hero and a couple of the main characters in “Gladiator”, but I doubt whether this will surprise you a lot, mainly because the movie already implies a bit too much to us from the very beginning. Again, Connie Nielsen, who is incidentally still graceful as she was 24 years ago, is merely stuck in her rather thankless role, and she unfortunately has an unenviable job of handling several contrived melodramatic scenes handed to her.
In case of a number of duel scenes unfolded in the Colosseum, they are mostly well under Scott’s competent direction in addition to being as brutal and violent as required, but they often lose their way between seriousness and campiness. The movie surely wants to be as serious as its hero, but it also cannot help but go for some craziness just like the twin emperors in the story, and you may roll your eyes when the arena of the Colosseum is filled with water and a pack of big white sharks at one point later in the story (Again, I am not kidding at all).
Mescal valiantly tries to hold the center as much as possible, but, like many of his fellow cast members, he is frequently limited by glaring plot contrivance and bad dialogues. Sure, this young Irish actor can be quite interesting as shown from his recent Oscar-nominated performance in “Aftersun” (2022), and he can also be quite hot and charismatic in “All of Us Strangers” (2023). However, his character in “Gladiator II” is a rather bland figure from the very beginning, and we can only observe how much Mescal struggles to fill this blank spot as much as he can.
In case of the other cast members in the film besides Mescal and Nielsen, most of them do not have much fun with their respective parts either. While Pedro Pascal, who can also be very compelling just like Mescal, seems constantly depressed about not getting any juicy moment to chew, Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger, who play the twin emperors, frequently go over the top without much control or impact at all, and you may come to miss more of Joaquin Phoenix’s Oscar-nominated villain performance in the previous film. In contrast, Denzel Washington, who previously collaborated with Scott in “American Gangster” (2007), often elevates his materials with not only his own star presence but also some sense of humor and intelligence which the movie desperately needs, and we are reminded that he can still be as cunning and ruthless as he was in his gritty Oscar-winning performance in “Training Day” (2001).
In conclusion, “Gladiator II” is disappointing for not having enough fun and interest to hold our interest during its 148-minute running time, and its failure only reminds me more of how much things have changed since its predecessor came out. During last 24 years, we have had a fair share of brutally violent and realistic period drama films including Scott’s previous film “The Last Duel” (2021), and I must tell you that “Gladiator II” looks pretty inconsequential compared to them as well as its predecessor. Although he gave only 2 stars at that time, my late mentor/friend Roger Ebert later said that he should have been more generous to “Gladiator”, and now I also feel pretty much same now.
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