2000's Gladiator is packed with spectacular action sequences. But in what is probably the most iconic scene of the five-time Oscar-winning film, the eponymous Maximus Decimus Meridius trudges through a cornfield and lets his hand gently brush the ears of grain swaying in the wind. The fact that such a quietly poetic moment doesn't seem completely silly amid all the testosterone-dripping muscular machismo in the arena is the great mastery with which Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe have created one of the outstanding historical epics in cinema history. And that's exactly what the director is trying to build on in the sequel, which costs at least $250 million, when he lets his new leading actor Paul Mescal carefully let grains trickle through his fingers in the very first shot.
But a success like “Gladiator” cannot be repeated that easily. Ridley Scott himself discovered this when his later bombast epics “Kingdom of Heaven”, “Robin Hood”, “Exodus: Gods and Kings” and most recently “Napoleon” were far less well received. Also “Gladiator II” clearly loses out in comparison to its predecessor: the personal thirst for revenge and the political intrigues do not develop the same pathos-soaked punch in the sequel, which remains very close to the original in terms of plot. Nevertheless, a visit to the cinema is worth it: after all, this time Ridley Scott not only floods the Colosseum for a sea battle complete with sharks, he also lets Denzel Washington off the leash, who, as the devious owner of a gladiator school, plays everything and everyone to the wall!
Paul Mescal does a really good job in the arena, but even he can't replace the pathos of Russell Crowe.
Maximus' sacrifice at the end of the original apparently didn't pay off as hoped, 16 years after the events of “Gladiator.” Instead of a popular republic, the tyrannical twin emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) have taken power in the Roman Empire. Driven by vanity and a desire for recognition, they constantly strive for new conquests, whether they make strategic sense or not. To do this, they rely on their most successful general, Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), who has long since lost all faith in his task. That's why he and his wife Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), the daughter of the former emperor Marcus Aurelius, are already secretly planning a military and political coup.
During one of Marcus Acacius' attacks on a city in North Africa, the farmer and soldier Lucius (Paul Mescal) not only loses his wife, he himself is also taken to Rome as a slave. In the arena he quickly attracts the attention of the gladiator school operator Macrinus (Denzel Washington), who is in the highest circles. A multi-day event will soon take place in the Colosseum in Rome – and Lucius will compete there as its new champion. As a reward for his success in front of the cheering crowd, Macrinus promises to hand over the hated Marcus Acacius to his protégé. Will the gladiator realize in time that the target of his thirst for revenge could actually be his ally?
The pathos isn't nearly as impactful this time
In “Gladiator,” we get to know Maximus long before he loses everything. His pain is so incredibly devastating at this moment that we are then fully involved in his revenge plot. Lucius' wife, on the other hand, is pierced by an arrow within the first five minutes of “Gladiator II” – and after that Paul Mescal plays a lazy, thoughtful, poetry-reciting modern action hero who is suddenly omnipotent in the arena à la John Wick. The “Aftersun” shooting star doesn’t do it badly at all, and he’s also gained a lot of muscle. But where you were about to cheer Russell Crowe on from the cinema along with the Colosseum visitors, the fate of Lucius largely leaves you cold.
The same applies to the secretly forged plots against the paranoid Kaiser twins. Pedro Pascal (“The Mandalorian”) gets the most out of his flat role as an insurgent commander, while Connie Nielsen (“Wonder Woman”), who continues her role from the original, has no chance at all against her particularly poorly written dialogue. Denzel Washington (“Training Day”) turns out to be an outstanding acting highlight: We have never seen the two-time Oscar winner so lustfully soapy! It's just a great pleasure to watch his devious drive to the top of power – especially since the finale is so appropriate for his character over the top It turns out that there will certainly be applause in some cinema screenings.
Attack! Especially when a wide variety of animal species, such as a rhinoceros, are used in the arena, the entertainment value of “Gladiator II” skyrockets.
But whether the story grabs you or not, you can still rely on Ridley Scott when it comes to spectacle, even at the age of 86: As in “Napoleon,” he takes no prisoners in the battle scenes! During the first large-scale attack by a fleet on a coastal town in North Africa, one of the defending soldiers is rammed through by a ballista arrow, while the rowers burn miserably in the belly of the galleys when the ships are hit by one of the incendiary bombs. Of course, the outstanding unique selling points of the franchise are not the soldier battles outside, but the gladiator competitions inside the arenas – and that's exactly where “Gladiator 2” really goes even further!
There will certainly be purists who would have preferred to do without the killer baboons, which are almost more reminiscent of giant rats, and the CGI sharks. But hey, many of the Roman emperors were also notorious for their megalomania. And if Ridley Scott now channels this in his show value sequences, including a spectacular, cracking sea battle in the flooded Colosseum, then one should – like Scott himself, as he has repeatedly emphasized in interviews for decades – perhaps prefer to give a damn about the last few percent of authenticity , and instead just enjoy the brutal, bombastic action in the arena sand, which will soon be colored blood red.
Conclusion: “Gladiator II” is largely a weaker, but still worth seeing copy of the original, which is particularly convincing when Ridley Scott gives the monkey a lot of sugar – for example with bloodthirsty baboons, sharks in the Colosseum or Denzel Washington as wonderful sleazy power manipulator.