Way back in 2000, coming off a critical and box office slump that consumed most of the ’90s, Ridley Scott struck back with Gladiator. (It’s hard now to remember that at the time it was only Scott’s 11th feature film.) It told the story of Roman general Maximus (Russell Crowe), who is betrayed by his emperor and exiled into slavery in combat, and his thirst for revenge. It was heralded as a return to form for the mostly dead genre of big budget historical epics and was generally a huge success that, regardless of its relative quality, went on to win Best Picture and immediately cemented itself in pop culture as a dad movie classic, one of those undeniable flicks that you always finish when it turns up on cable.
Twenty-four years and a whopping 17 features later, Ridley — now 86! — is back with the cleverly titled Gladiator II, a movie that contains all of this pretty legendary director’s greatest strengths, worst instincts, and most fascinating tics, all wrapped up into a story that’s essentially a complete rehash of the original. It’s at once a maximalist (pun intended) epic and a complete drag, exactly the sort of forced IP that manages to will itself into existence these days.
Twenty-five years after the events of the first film, Maximus’ son Lucius Verus (formerly Spencer Treat Clark, now Paul Mescal) is living under an alias in exile in Numidia, which unfortunately is just about to be conquered by Rome, like, this very second. During the battle, of course, Lucius’ warrior wife is killed. He is subsequently taken prisoner and firmly ensconced as a gladiator by roughly minute 20, so there’s no arguing that Gladiator II doesn’t get off to a brisk start. Lucius swears revenge on the general who lead the conquest of his people, Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), who coincidentally is married to Lucius’ mother, Lucilla (Connie Nielsen, reprising her role from the original). Meanwhile, Lucilla and Acacius are secretly plotting against the decadent twin emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger). One of them — it’s hardly worth remembering which — also has a pet monkey that he makes a Senator. And all of this is overseen by the ambitious, vengeful Macrinus (Denzel Washington), a former slave turned power broker who has his own designs on the throne and who attempts to mentor Lucius in the ring.
It’s a decent enough setup for the aforementioned maximalist spectacle. Lucius becomes a fan favorite fighter after killing a feral baboon with his teeth, and that leads to further encounters with a giant twin-horned rhino and a truly goofy set piece in which the Colosseum is flooded to recreate a famous naval battle, complete with man-eating sharks. Scott, not for nothing, has lost none of his vigor for his sort of pageantry, and the improvements in VFX tech between movies have made these sequences nothing less than convincing. But the sheer go-for-broke goofiness of them all smacks a little bit of flop sweat, though mileages may vary depending on how self-serious you want your Gladiator sequel to be.
Amusing action aside, most of the movie remains a morose drama of familiar palace intrigue, as Macrinus manipulates events to put his enemies out of commission, while Lucius lurches from bloodthirsty killer out for revenge to bitter abandoned son to savior of the Glory of Rome, all with very little motivation or depth. His insistence that he has no wish to reconcile with his mother switches to a tearful wish to not have to lose her again within about 15 minutes of screen time, and the less said about his sudden embrace of Maximus’ legacy the better — everything that happens here is merely because the script says so. Mescal, for his part, is a fine actor; just look to Aftersun or All of Us Strangers to see the sort of smoldering but deeply sensitive figure he can substantively embody. But in Gladiator II, he’s asked to do little more than give Braveheart speeches and seethe with violence, and frankly he doesn’t have the right kind of juice for it; this is just not his lane. Elsewhere, much has already been made about Denzel’s scenery chewing, which while certainly fun to witness, has somehow been largely understated.
Speaking of which, Gladiator II is also a strangely but very ordinarily conservative movie, with Macrinus’ villain being an openly queer Black man who intends to subvert the Republic from within. Committed performance aside, it’s a little regrettable to see this great actor having a blast twirling his mustache in service of something so stodgy. And then there’s the climax, which has Lucius uniting two opposing armies, one clad in red and the other blue, for crying loud, under a vision of the Dream of Rome. Gladiator II is absurd, stale, and, sadly, not a little bit pathetic in this day and age.
DIRECTOR: Ridley Scott; CAST: Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen, Joseph Quinn; DISTRIBUTOR: Paramount Pictures; IN THEATERS: November 22; RUNTIME: 2 hr. 28 min.
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