Gladiator II is many different films; an abstraction on the power and corruption of legacy, a Roman political soap opera, and a sweaty, muscled action spectacular, all wrapped into a semi-historical epic and sequel to the acclaimed, now-iconic 2000 film of its namesake. But where the original, Russell Crowe-starring film became such a cultural touchstone, from horny (and underrated) Starz series about life in the ludus, to samples on Jay-Z singles, Gladiator II’s many different identities feel smaller and more fragmented – bombastic and heartfelt in all the right ways, but never able to find the harmony between its many tones to leave a lasting impression.
Set sixteen years after the events of Gladiator, Gladiator II immediately throws audiences into the deep end of the original’s Roman politics, opening with a gregarious, loud naval siege before slipping back into familiar rhythms – those of the previous film, and of Scott’s recent work, from Napoleon and The Last Duel, with even a few shades of The House of Gucci thrown in, if you squint hard enough. Set against a corrupt, expansionist Roman empire (led by two Albino-esque man-boys, played by Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger), Gladiator II quickly lays familiar narrative tracks for its audience, keenly observing how neatly history repeats itself with the parallels drawn from Maximus’s journey, to those of Paul Mescal’s Lucius, who finds himself a brutal tool in the middle of a delicate dance of power, led by a disillusioned Roman general (a muted Pedro Pascal), an ambitious gladiator-turned-man-of-influence (Denzel Washington), and the power-hungry emperor siblings.
It makes for a film that is at once, abundantly familiar and absolutely its own, finding unique bits of voice in bits and spurts, in between sequences of the film literally dragging itself back into the coliseum, to make sure Gladiator II gives the people what they want – which apparently includes rhinos, terrible CGI baboons, and shark fights? A film constantly moving backward as it looks forward, Scott’s unexpected sequel only finds consistency in its bloodshed – when it isn’t growling or slashing, Gladiator II constantly bounces between tones and ideas, all of which look great on paper, but never find any meaningful momentum once put into motion.
The best of the films inside Gladiator II is undeniably Washington’s Macrinus, an aspirational former slave whose purchase of Lucius becomes an important tool in his dreams to remake Rome in his own name. Washington treats the film like a Shakespearean work, a calibrated, dramatic performance that will undoubtedly earn him some award attention once the calendar flips over.
One can see a better film centered on his character navigating his way from the sands of the battlegrounds to the heights of the emperor’s throne, rather than on Lucilla – Connie Nielsen, reprising her role from the first film – and her realization of her unfortunate place in political history (or Mescal’s Lucia, whose nuanced performance is a bit at conflict with the film’s tone and pace). With Washington, Gladiator II crackles to life as a brasher, sneakier, more playful and ambitious version of where the film ultimately lands in its story of peasants, slaves, masters and commanders – which isn’t a total snooze fest, but is grim-dark and serious in ways that are incongruous with its most interesting, unique elements.
The biggest, and most obvious, flaw with Gladiator II is that familiarity, grounded in its own reverence to the original; there are times where the film almost feels like a Marvel sequel, like when Mescal’s Lucius beheads a man with two swords, or when he puts on a familiar set of armor for the film’s climactic fight sequence – which again, partly takes place in a water-based coliseum with multiple rounds of boat combat… it is not the most visually rich sequence, but its conception is batsh*t crazy in a way I wish the rest of the film embraced.
Gladiator II is a film with a lot of different moves and tricks; however, most of them lack depth, or exist in the shadow of the original, which was a bit less magnanimous, but distinctly more focused and emotionally potent at its core. Some of this comes from Scott’s direction (which under editor Claire Simpson for the third film in a row, continues the inconsistent, underwhelming editing of his recent films), but it certainly doesn’t help that Harry Gregson-Williams’s score is mostly a re-interpretation of the original – and when it isn’t, is as mushy and washed out as some of the film’s often-strange color grading.
There’s just so many different things happening in Gladiator II; ideas about revolution and authoritarianism, legacy and family, all of which are given about eight seconds to breathe before the film starts working itself back to its central spectacle of political unrest and gladiatorial violence. While it makes for an entertaining movie (one that moves at an incredibly fast pace), it also unfortunately makes for an extremely fragmented film, one torn between its louder, more operatic elements, and the quieter, character-focused ideas of the film, the depth of which is often only glanced at.
Perhaps the most interesting place is where it ends; with rumors of a potential Gladiator III already rumbling, the ending of Gladiator II certainly presents a number of interesting potential stories Scott could tell, should he return to make an unlikely trilogy out of the films. It’s only in the final thirty minutes, when the film truly begins to shed its lineage, and becomes the weird, loud, goofy and performative melodrama it really wants to be, does the film begin to shine – and at that point, the film’s main character mostly exists as an embodiment of an idea, less a character the audience is invested in, than an unanswered question for a potential third film to answer.
Without that third film, however, Gladiator II feels like a bit of an unfinished idea, a decent film with glimpse of greatness marred slightly by its unwillingness to truly strike its own path – a familiar feeling for any modern-age Hollywood sequel, I suppose, but one that undeniably limits the lasting effects of Gladiator II’s maximalist vision.
Grade: C+
Other thoughts/observations:
- What the hell was Matthew Lucas doing in this film? Again, feels like an element left over from a completely different version of this film.
- I also wish there was some nod in there somewhere to Nick Cave’s script (which featured a time-traveling, resurrected Maximus who eventually worked at the Pentagon).
- The cuts to crowd shots in the coliseum scenes are consistently off-putting – maybe it’s just me, but they consistently felt disruptive to the tone of any given scene.
- I do wish this film was a bit hornier; Marcinus’s bisexuality is left ignored, we don’t even get a regretful, sad fuck scene for Mescal to show off some butt cheeks (shout out to Normal People fans)… while I don’t necessarily miss the incest plot line of the original, there’s a distinct lack of horniness in this film.
- I don’t know what Quinn and Hechinger are trying to do with their characters – but it never quite works, and helps explain why the film’s tone snaps into place a bit once their presence is curtailed a bit.