Director Ridley Scott is a mercurial force in film making, because viewers can rarely predict what kind of film he will deliver. Will he create a maximalist, overstuffed explosion of violent spectacle, like he has done before (with Alien: Covenant in 2017)? Or will he create a more introspective, emotionally-focused drama of relationships, like he has done before (with All the Money in the World in 2017)? Ridley Scott's latest release, Gladiator II is a little bit of both worlds.
Gladiator II is a sequel to the Ridley Scott film Gladiator from 2000 which won five Oscars and was the second highest grossing film of that year. (So it was obviously a success for many people.) This sequel starts a few years after the events of the first Gladiator film when an ordinary man named Hanno (Paul Mescal, All of Us Strangers, 2023) sees his wife murdered and his village conquered by an army of the Roman Empire in the year 211 A.D. After this conquering, the grief-stricken Hanno is sold into slavery and forced to fight in the famous Colosseum where he plans to gain his revenge.
If I could summarize this film in one word, it would be BIG. It has big muscles, big catapults, and big animals. It has even bigger action scenes than the previous film; one of which is a nautical battle of ships floating on the water of a flooded Colosseum floor. These action scenes are honestly thrilling with swords, arrows, blood, and realistic CGI. The plot structure and story of this film are also big. It starts out feeling very similar to the preceding Gladiator, being mainly about vengeance.
Then it transforms into a quieter analysis about individual identity and destiny when the lineage of our leading man Hanno gets some people talking. Then the story transforms (again) in a valiant fight to counteract the carnage of Rome and stop the perpetual corruption of the ruling emperors (who, by the way, are two twin brothers trying to remind viewers of the insane 1979 Roman epic, Caligula). But these two emperors get so little meaningful screen time, it's difficult to absorb the weight of their dangerous leadership.
Covering so much thematic ground, with a large cast of characters, and the story leaning into schizophrenic territory to hit so many plot points, Gladiator II feels too big to make a lasting impact. Most of the acting is done convincingly, but the only memorable person on screen is Denzel Washington (The Little Things, 2021) as a greedy stable master who sneaks his way into the Roman senate in a clever quest for imperial power.
Denzel Washington adds a bravado to this film that makes it more fun, like a small-time gangster was plucked from the 20th century and placed in the world of ancient Rome. Paul Mescal embodies his role with a surprising physicality since his past roles have been more inward or cerebral. But he gives a few too many serious monologues in this film, and they all sound the same.
With a length of two hours and 28 minutes, this film feels like an initially exciting, focused idea on paper. (It has some surprises that actually work.) But then that paper gets handed through 10 different offices for edits, approvals, and feedback which inevitably creates a much different film trying to address too many ideas and too many twists. Director Ridley Scott can sometimes successfully balance his love for giant spectacle with a well-controlled story. He did it with the films Black Hawk Down (2001) and American Gangster (2007). But Gladiator II lacks the control to keep viewers interested.
Gladiator II falls short of being a tent pole event kind of film this year, because it tries to do too much in its allotted time. It isn't as bad as Ridley Scott's last historical epic, Napoleon which was released last year. (That film is a perfect example of an overstuffed explosion with no idea what it's about.) So I'm comfortable leaving Gladiator II in a pile marked "just okay".
