“Strength and honor” is a popular phrase in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator films and now 24 years later with his return to the Colosseum 24 years later in “Gladiator II,” Scott brings a lot of strength to the sequel and honor regarding its status as a sequel to “Gladiator” (2000).
“Gladiator II” takes place a generation after the first film and follows the story of Lucius (Paul Mescal), the son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) and Maximus (Russell Crowe), as he seeks revenge against the Roman General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) who conquered his newly found home of Numida and killed his wife in the process.
Thrust into the world of gladiators upon capture, Lucius becomes Macrinus’ (Denzel Washington) tool with a deal being struck between the two: Lucius gets the general’s head and Macrinus gets to take over the throne from the twin emperors, Emperor Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Emperor Caracalla (Fred Hechinger).
Just like the first film, the casting choices and acting in the sequel are phenomenal. It’s difficult for me to choose who the standout was as everyone proves their acting skills many times over, but I can choose who the best castings are.
Mescal and Pascal are two of the most Roman looking men I have ever seen. When Entertainment Weekly did a photoshoot with the two next to busts of actual Romans, the resemblance was near perfect.
Another great casting is the legendary Washington. Every scene he was in, which is a good chunk of the film, is amazing as his energy and skill shine in his role.
Nielsen returns for the sequel as Acacius’ wife (she’s 100% got a thing for war generals) but, like the first film, doesn’t have a performance that capture my attention.
That being said, all of these actors have excellent chemistry with each other, especially in dialogue intensive segments that utilize a past speech making even the simplest of sentences and phrases sound more powerful.
Another powerful part of this film is the design. Something I praised the first film for was amazing design between costumes, sets and CGI.
All of those praises are present again in this film with more work being done to make everything from the naval battles in the Colosseum to monkey fights feel realistic.
Speaking of fights, the sequel managed to fix my biggest complaint with the originals: fight scenes. In the original, fight scenes had a lot of unnecessary cuts and was afraid to show gore without cutting around it.
The sequel fixes this by showing every last detail without cutting, especially during the famous beheading move. The lack of cuts allows for fight scenes to be easier to track and for moments of gore to carry more impact than they otherwise would have.
While “Gladiator II” has a lot to praise, it has a lot to criticize as well.
The first act of the film retreads practically the entire path of becoming a gladiator seen in the first film which is a bit repetitive.
Luckily this only takes one act instead of all three allowing for more political drama to be present between the twin emperors and Macrinus.
This split attention normally wouldn’t be a problem, but it becomes a problem with characters magically switching motives between scenes.
For example, Lucius yells at Lucilla to leave his cell at one point, but he’s magically not mad at her the next time they meet. Eventually Lucius does make peace with Lucilla, but this scene takes place before then making the random motive change feel out of place.
There’s also a lack of explanation for how the twin emperors came to power following the events of the first film, they simply just were now in power.
This little annoyance doesn’t detract from the film, but it does pile up when you add it to the list of little annoyances like the unfulfilling ending, lack of a standout score, historical inaccuracies and the previously mentioned switching of character motives.
“Gladiator II” has a lot of strength, primarily in its acting, casting and design, and honors the original by improving upon the original’s flaws, even if the sequel doesn’t care to fix its own flaws.
Gladiator II — ★ ★ ★ ½
Release Date: November 22, 2024
Director: Ridley Scott
Runtime: 2hr 28m
Rating: R