REVIEW: Gladiator 2
Last Updated on November 14, 2024
Gladiator 2 has been a long time coming. Ridley Scott’s masterpiece arrived at the turn of the millennium and made a megastar of Russell Crowe in the title role. Decades later, we are back in Ancient Rome in the glorious Colosseum in a sequel that may have come as a surprise to many considering the first film’s ending. So Gladiator 2 is here with Paul Mescal in the main role with a lot to live up to – do the film gods stand with Gladiator 2 or should it have been killed with a merciful stroke of the sword?
Gladiator 2 is a great film. Paul Mescal holds his own as Lucius, Maximus’s son (bit of a reach following the first one but I went with it), who was sent away from Rome following the events of the first film and now lives in Numidia where General Acacius’s forces arrive to conquer and end up killing Lucius’s wife. Driven by vengeance, he cuts his way through his opponents and rises to the position of gladiator during the Colosseum games thanks to the help of the sneaky Macrinus (played by a film-stealing Denzel Washington who will be making some more room for another Oscar following this perfect performance). Rome is in turmoil and led by brother emperors, both nasty and chaotic and as far away from the dream that Lucius’s grandad Marcus Aurelius had for the great city. Connie Nielsen returns as Lucille, doing pretty much what she did in the first film and looking to convince Pedro Pascal’s (The Last of Us, Game of Thrones) weary General Acacius to overthrow the emperors with his loyal army.
Gladiator 2 lives in the shadow of the original. There haven’t been many performances as good as Crowe’s since and nothing has touched the quality when using Ancient Rome as a setting (Those About to Die being one example). It at times suffers from legacy sequel syndrome where it relies too much on the earlier film for the plot beats and ends up feeling like a parody of itself. With a weaker director and cast, this would stick out like a xenomorph in the colosseum but Gladiator 2 is filled with phenomenal performances from its incredible cast and amazing set-pieces. There isn’t a weak performance in the film and Mescal in particular deserves praise for donning the gladiator gear in the knowledge that he would be compared to such a great. He works alongside some greats of the screen and more than holds his own throughout as a man focused only on revenge to begin with but then growing to see that he could be part of something more. Some of the writing forces the comparisons with Crowe which doesn’t do him any favours but he comes out of this film with his star shining brighter than ever. Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things) and Fred Hechinger play the young emperors well with manic glints in their eyes and again, they make the roles their own whilst trying to distance themselves from the brilliance of Joaquin Phoenix in Gladiator.
As expected from a Ridley Scott movie, the set-pieces are incredible. The opening battle is brilliant and brutal as General Acacius leads his troops in an attack against Numidia and the scenes in the colosseum deserve to be seen on the big screen. I never thought I’d see a mock sea battle with sharks in the colosseum but I’m glad I have. The violence in Gladiator 2 will delight grimdark fans as Scott’s direction lingers on the brutality of Rome at its most chaotic and the camera never shies or pulls away from the brutality of life being cut away in an instant. Gladiator is about life and death and actions that live on forever and echo through eternity and the action focuses on this throughout and makes the story better for it.
Gladiator 2 may have a Russell Crowe sized hole in it, but it is another great Ridley Scott film in Ancient Rome filled with great performances from a cast on the top of their game. At times it leans on the original a bit much but when the original is that good, I can’t really blame them. Gladiator 2 is a brutal action film that builds on the legacy of a masterpiece and deserves to be seen on the big screen. You will certainly be entertained!
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