Paul Mescal plays Lucius and Pedro Pascal plays Marcus Acacius in Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures. © 2024 Paramount Pictures.
Paul Mescal plays Lucius and Pedro Pascal plays Marcus Acacius in Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures. © 2024 Paramount Pictures.

Review: Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II”

By: Robert Prentice
Rating:

Ridley Scott returns to Gladiator with a sequel set 16 years after the first film’s events. Scott’s last few films have been a mixed bag of good and not-so-good, so here he falls back on a familiar property beloved by fans going back 24 years. So how does the sequel hold up? Our review after the preview but be warned, spoilers ahead.

Years after witnessing the death of Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius must enter the Colosseum after the powerful emperors of Rome conquer his home. With rage in his heart and the future of the empire at stake, he looks to the past to find the strength and honor needed to return the glory of Rome to its people.

Gladiator II | New Trailer (2024 Movie) - Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington, Ridley Scott

Review

Gladiator (2000) is a classic and well-crafted film with a killer cast that includes Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Djimon Hounsou, and Connie Nielsen just to name a few. The film ended on a perfect note that summed up the themes of the film, and the idea of a future Rome. Nobody, I mean nobody, thought there should have been a sequel. And as far as I know, nobody asked for one. Yet, here we are 24 years later, and we have a sequel.

Understandably Crowe and Phoenix are not returning given their characters’ status at the end of the original film, which is dead (don’t yell at me it’s been 24 years, it’s beyond too soon). However, the film is set 16 years after those events, while from an actor/age standpoint, it’s been over 24 years. This means that the original child actor who played 12-year-old Lucius in the first film (Spencer Treat Clarke) did not reprise the role of a 28-year-old as he is in his late 30s now. To be fair Hollywood has cast much older actors to play younger characters all the time but Clarke has given no specific reason for not returning to the role. Nielsen does return as Lucius’ mother, along with Derek Jacobi as a senator.

Visually Gladiator II is stunning and the set pieces are amazing. The stage feels bigger and broader than the first film, with fewer isolated locations as we saw in the first film. We get siege battles as Rome continues to expand its domain under the rule of twin brothers who are of course corrupt and care nothing for the people. There are a few visual elements that simply don’t work and take away from the good effort the set and FX teams attempted to build, and that was the simulated sea battle in the Colosseum. While yes it is historically accurate that they would flood the venue for such simulated battles, what has not been shown in historical records was adding sharks to said water. Infer all the jokes you want there, cause the audience thought of them all at that moment.

Let’s talk about the new cast, Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) as the new General to the twin emperors of Rome, who is married to the daughter of Marcus Aurelius Lucilla (Neilsen). From a character arch perspective, Lucilla doesn’t grow at all from the original film, which is a shame. Acacius has a decent story arch that fits the character and acts as a catalyst for Lucius (played by Paul Mescal). Lucius you will remember was but a boy in the first film, and the sequel focuses on his escape from Rome and his quest for revenge after the events of the first battle in the film. Mescal plays the role well, but the writers made some serious mistakes with his character arc when it came to his relationship with his mother who at first didn’t know he was still alive. At one point in the first when they first meet he acts as if he has no idea who she is and wants nothing to do with her, claiming Lucius is dead. Not 30 min later, suddenly he cares for her and is ready to fight to overthrow the emperors.

Paul Mescal plays Lucius and Denzel Washington plays Macrinus in Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.

The second part of his character story in the sequel was completely unnecessary, which is that Lucilla claims to him, that his father was Maximus (from the first film). This feels like a retcon as that was never confirmed in the first film. It also takes away from the heartwrenching scenes of Maximus going back home to find his family (wife and son) killed and all of the talk about his faithfulness to his family. And what value did it add to the sequel? None.

The Emperors played by Stranger Things alum Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger are frankly uninteresting. They are not the same level of the psychopath that Phoenix’s character was in the first film and far less menacing. Frankly, that’s all there is to say on those two. Then there is Macrinus (Played by Denzel Washington), who was enjoying every minute of playing his character throughout the film. Macrinus’s rise within the Roman world of politics in the film was rushed and forced which left us to wonder how much film was left on the editing room floor because it didn’t stitch together very well. Ultimately Washington’s character still ended up the better villain than the twin emperors. Ultimately that left the story a bit disjointed as Macrinus and the emperors fought for dominance as the lead villain of the story, overall ‘Rome’ was the star in that role, which may be the entire point.

Overall, Gladiator II was a safe sequel whose story formula was nothing new or unique and didn’t venture into new territory on the Roman history front but tried to place off the nostalgia and love of the first film. You might be asking me “Are you not entertained?” I was, but at the end of the day Gladiator was a movie that did not need a sequel and as usual Hollywood forced one upon us. It’s fun, and good at-home viewing if you enjoy stories focused on ancient Rome but it’s nothing we haven’t seen a thousand times before.

Courtesy of Paramount Pictures.