Gladiator II

Set two decades after Gladiator, Ridley Scott’s much-anticipated sequel follows Maximus’s son Lucius (Paul Mescal) as he loses his family and homeland in the face of a Roman invasion. As he fights for his freedom as a gladiator in the arena, Lucius reunites with his estranged royal mother, Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), unearthing a larger conspiracy to upturn the Empire.

Crowd-pleasing fun, but don’t expect the original’s depth or nuance. On the surface, the original Gladiator is a standard revenge drama. A morally broken warrior loses his family and vows revenge against the Empire he once represented. But what made Gladiator such a cult classic is its ability to scratch beneath Maximus’s tough exterior and reveal his vulnerability and yearning for peace. Here too, we see Paul Mescal’s Lucius thinking about wheat fields and passionately kissing his wife before he indulges in blood-soaked carnage. And despite Mescal’s dove-eyed efforts, Lucius mostly plays out as a one-dimensional hero. Yes, he’s enraged by his enslavement and curses his mother for abandoning him, but these are just a few exceptions in an otherwise convoluted swords-and-sandals drama.

David Scarpa’s screenplay mainly includes vignettes instead of playing out as a grand Roman epic. So, we have Lucius moping about his “daddy issues,” followed by political conspiracies spearheaded by slave-turned-warlord Macrinus (a scenery-chewing Denzel Washington). And then we have an eyebrow-raising, CGI-driven action scene in the arena. And then we have Lucius delivering a Shakespearean monologue that almost always plays out like a parody of Maximus’s original speech from Gladiator. This cycle continues for the film’s 2hr+ runtime. All in all, Gladiator II is entertaining and keeps the momentum running with its ensemble cast. But when seen as a whole, the storyline cracks and crumbles like the dying empire it explores.

Even with questionable CGI, Gladiator II offers immersive battle sequences. Regardless of Gladiator II’s narrative shortcomings, it succeeds as an action entertainer. Scott amps up the challenges from his first film with video game-like efficiency. Not only do we get the adrenaline-fueled naval battles inside the Colosseum (a historian’s worst nightmare just because of the sharks), but we also see Paul Mescal curl his dust-covered biceps while fighting off feral baboons and gigantic rhinos. The CGI might not look convincing in such combat scenes, but they are choreographed and sequenced with such over-the-top frivolity that you can’t help but get entertained. This big-screen madness is perhaps the closest we plebians can get to recreate the actual joys of witnessing barbaric violence in the Colosseum from millennia ago.