A review of the new blockbuster movie “Gladiator II”
Ridley Scott is an outstanding director with a terrific canon of work. Many of his films cry our for sequels and he regrets now not having directed the sequels to “Alien” and “Blade Runner”. He’s been working on a sequel to “Gladiator” for decades and now, 24 years later, here it is. The guy is now 86 and I’ll have whatever he’s having.
Of course, “Gladiator” was so good – it was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and won five – that even Ridley Scott could never equal it, but this is a very satisfying sequel that does what good sequels should do: reprises all the main themes but with variations and inversions. So, for instance, we have an enthralling opening battle sequence again, but this time on a different edge of the Roman Empire on a different terrain and with the hero on the losing side.
All the character types in the first movie are reprised but, with only two exceptions (Connie Nielson as Lucius’s mother and 86 year old Derek Jacobi as a senator), all the actual actors are different. Most notably, of course, we have Paul Mescal in the eponymous role, with a voice and body far removed from his breakout role in television’s “Normal People”, and he plays the part ably with more sensitivity than the macho version that we had with Maximus.
The most interesting character is the owner of the gladiator school Macrinus because his motivations are obscure. If one can overlook his American accent, this is one of Denzel Washington’s finest performances.
The greatest strengths of “Gladiator II” are the same as the original: convincing costumes, stunning sets, clever special effects, and exciting battle and fight sequences but, as well as not exhibiting the sheer originality of the 2000 film, the sequel rather plays lose with history in its main colosseum scenes, does not have similarly quotable lines of dialogue, and has a weaker ending. Nevertheless, you will be entertained.