'Gladiator II' A Review

Gladiator II is a historical action movie, a direct sequel to 2000's Gladiator, that follows a grown up Lucius(Paul Mescal) the grandson of Marcus Aurelius and son of Maximus as Rome invades his adopted home, his wife is killed, he's enslaved, and bought as a gladiator by the ambitious Macrinus(Denzel Washington).

Mescal is miscast, misdirected, and lost in his performance. He deploys his standard breezy charm which was relatively effective in emotional indies like All Of Us Strangers and Aftersun but here its a baffling and ineffective choice. To give him his due he looks the part, he got buff, but he doesn't have any electricity, he's too understated and in a sequel like this you cannot help but make direct comparisons to Russell Crowe and its not favorable. It's another case of Hollywood catapulting an actor to stardom before they really have the chops. Denzel is the only cast member who understands what movie he's in and gives a legitimate performance. He's having a ball, making a meal out of the(sub-par) dialogue, and absolutely having a field day with his costuming. It's a delight to watch but he's only a supporting character and the rest of the cast(like Mescal) are just adrift, hamstrung by references to the original movie and a wooden script.

Visually the movie is uneven, some of the action scenes are engaging but there's some choppy CGI particularly with some of the wider shots. The score is equally uneven, sometimes effective sometimes glaringly distracting, treacly. The costuming is superb and even if the production overall is a bit uneven it is serviceable. The main issue is the script and the direction, the script is too beholden to the original and recycles a lot of its themes and ideas verbatim, the characters(save for Denzel's) are all flat, the plot is overly convoluted and misunderstands what we liked about Gladiator. With due respect Ridley Scott at 87 is past his prime, he hasn't made a decent movie since 2015's The Martian and a really great movie since before that(I'd argue Matchstick Men but there are justly lots of fans of American Gangster). He either doesn't have the stuff any longer or he can't be bothered to put in the required effort. His last several movies are a kind of a case study in wasted budget, cast, and opportunity.

Overlong and only mildly diverting solely as a result of Denzel's limited presence.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

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