Gladiator II
Gladiator II
Years after witnessing the death of the revered hero Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius is forced to enter the Colosseum after his home is conquered by the tyrannical Emperors who now lead Rome with an iron fist. With rage in his heart and the future of the Empire at stake, Lucius must look to his past to find strength and honor to return the glory of Rome to its people.
stuhannaford reviewedMay 27, 2025
It passes a couple of hours, it isn’t a dreadful movie, but the weight of expectation makes it feel such a let down. Standing beside the original, it feels little more than a grand, heavy handed cash in. On its own, it’s perhaps a Hollywood blockbuster, that will live in the memory for a summer and nothing more.
The subtleties of the original are replaced by bombastic moments that fail to land. It is at times, an almost play for play reenactment, with small variations, to trick you into believing it’s an original story. Almost every character a substitute with a new name, each with added ‘drama’. Each scene has a touch of, ‘do kind of what we did before, but bigger, bolder and louder’… or just add a shark. Where we once watched Phoenix announce himself to the world with a performance of a complex man child, fighting to disprove his fathers beliefs, only to compound them, we now get subjected to one dimensional, petulant school kids with zero character or charisma. Maximus, a man you would happily follow into war yourself, now little more than a sulky chap with a chip on his shoulder. The intricacies and intelligence of the battles and fights, now just the standard run of the mill CGI scenes that could be plucked from a list of modern movies. The same classic score is used over and again, but added for nostalgia rather than effect, and doesn’t fit. Pascal and McInnerny are the only actors to forge their own way and really hold their own. Even Washington, a great actor by any standard, is hampered by problems, some within his control (the American accent jars), but mostly out… the odd, loud declaration of his sexuality during his first on screen meeting with McInnerny, feels forced and unnecessary. The performances of two outstanding professionals make this abundantly clear, but it’s as if the writers sat down and said, ‘are we sure we’ve hit our inclusivity targets? Let’s add a line just to make sure.’ And it’s these sledgehammer moments throughout, that reduce the project to ‘meh’ rather than ‘yeah!’