Gladiator II: And The Crowd Goes Mild

"Are you not entertained???"

Not really. You know, between Alien: Covenant, Napoleon, and now the mildly acceptable Gladiator II, I feel like Ridley Scott is running out of steam. Granted, I haven't seen House of Gucci, The Last Duel, or All The Money in the World, so maybe I'm just out of the loop and am missing a specific point of view that might add a little bit more gravitas to my opinion on the director of the famed and much-loved Alien. But that doesn't change the fact that Gladiator II, despite having some good aspects that keep it from being a total loss, really doesn't accomplish what it so desired, falling short of its predecessor in every aspect. Granted, I don't treat the first Gladiator as the impeccable masterpiece that so many view it as. It was a solid movie, but is it really that good? So I don't see this film as tarnishing some kind of legacy that the first one left behind in any way, shape, form, or fashion. And yet, I still see it falling short of the marker that the first film set, even if that marker might read something like good rather than untouchable masterpiece. Marcus Aurelias's "Dream of Rome" is said to have been forgotten in the opening credits of this movie, and I almost wonder if Ridley Scott's "Dream of Vision" has as well. This movie is a by-the-numbers revenge flick that doesn't justify its own runtime, doesn't sustain its own momentum, and too often falls back on visual spectacle when it doesn't know how to do anything else. And I count myself pretty disappointed, because the promotional material for this film actually wasn't bad, despite what those with a greater online presence than I would have you think. Sincerely, a long-time video editor.

Gladiator II follows Lucius Verus, the son of the legendary gladiator Maximus, as he is forced into the Roman Colosseum following the annexation of his home city of Numidia by Roman soldiers.

First, I do want to commend the production quality of the movie because, if there's one thing that Ridley Scott always gets right, it's his worlds. Every set and visual render in Gladiator II just looks incredible, and really brought Rome to life in all of its brutal, depraved, and bloody glory. So if you're walking into the theater looking for nothing more than beautiful visuals and a high-octane series of battles, I'm sure you'll walk out entertained. However, I truly find myself wishing that Scott had brought the same level of detail to the story of this movie because the narrative of Lucius is just so incredibly bare-bones, and instead of trying to fix its problems, leans back on impressive but distracting visuals instead. Lucius's epic is a simplistic one, and while initially, that provides us with some early victories, the minimalistic narrative approach of Gladiator II was only able to sustain itself for so long before this movie started to meander without really knowing how to fill its unnecessarily large number of scenes. Some really strange twists and turns that are way out of left field don't serve the film either. It's almost like Scott needed some of the characters to fight each other and ran with the laziest possible ways to make that happen. And yet, despite Scott trying to jumpstart this film's narrative with some less-than-desirable tricks, you still feel this movie's lack of momentum acutely, and it's not until the final act of the film that it finally feels like something of consequence actually happens, and I found myself wondering where plot beats like I saw in the third act had been the whole time. In short, Gladiator II doesn't have enough movie to its name.

Now, despite a severely wanting narrative, I must say that the acting on display here is quite good. Paul Mescal's performance as Lucius more than gets the job done, and Lucius can steal the attention of a room when he wants to. Pedro Pascal's acting job as General Acacius is enough. Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger's portrayals of Emperors Geta and Caracalla are unhinged, depraved, and satisfying. But the best performance in this movie is definitely Denzel Washington as Macrinus, who brings a surprisingly charismatic and scene-stealing presence to the mix. So if you're looking at this movie through the lens of performance, you may come away satisfied. Personally, I found myself wishing that the film could have transferred this sense of completeness it found in its characters over to the story, which felt to be way too long and yet simultaneously not enough. But at least the players involved make it interesting to watch, because even a train wreck can be entertaining, though I wouldn't go so far as to completely dismiss this film as such.

But despite some obvious strengths, Gladiator II is ultimately too simple to sustain momentum throughout, and too derivative in narrative to its predecessor to the point where I genuinely wondered why it had even been made in the first place. Oh right. Money. You know, I'm not one of those basement-dwelling YouTubers who thinks that a movie is automatically bad if it's a sequel and pre-makes videos bashing a movie like this one before it's even released. I'm personally all for sequels as long as they're good. But movies like this do make me understand the point of view some of these people might hold. Original doesn't necessarily equal better, but sequels can fall prey to certain pitfalls that original films can't, and Gladiator II is one of those sequels that is pretty much the poster boy for this idea, succumbing to a lot of narrative shortcomings. Not even solid performances are enough to hide a lukewarm narrative. I feel like Ridley Scott has been running out of ideas for some time now, and Gladiator II doesn't do anything to dissuade me of that notion in the slightest. If you're looking for a good popcorn flick, give this one a try, but if you're like me and looking for a little bit more from a movie than whether or not it made your endorphins rush for two and a half hours, I imagine that you'll probably walk away from this movie wanting more, disappointed, and possibly even not entertained.

Gladiator II - 6/10

1 Corinthians 15: 54-55