Turns out size really doesn’t matter
It’s been 24 years since Gladiator dropped on the big screen, with an inspired Russell Crowe screaming to a crowd of blood lusting spectators “Are you not entertained?” And for most of those watching, the answer was “Yes Russell, yes we are.”
The first Gladiator was a solid, well written historical epic, telling a simple story of heroism through the eyes of a disgraced General who became a slave, only to rise up as a prolific gladiator and defy an emperor. All the while, our protagonist stood by two words that would become his mantra – Strength and Honour. Remember that guys, we’ll be circling back to it later.
Interwoven around this tale was a larger plot at work in the city of Rome. Political corruption and power struggles were rife; the Senate are beholden to the Emperor, Commodus. A man in love with his sister and bitter at the world, he made a very easy antagonist to hate thanks to his ties with Maximus and the way he swiftly executed his own father to seize power for himself.
The ending to the original Gladiator saw Maximus overcome tremendous odds. With a fatal wound leaving him injured and bleeding out, the arena was graced with one final fight – Commodus VS Maximus. Maximus came out on top, and with the powers of the emperor bestowed upon him, he turned that power to the Senate, carrying out Marcus’ Aurelius’ last wishes of turning Rome into a republic and away from tyranny.
As Maximus collapsed, the combined efforts of slaves, Praetorian guards and Senate members joined in unity to carry Maximus’ body away, forging a new future for Rome.
Of course in true Hollywood fashion, we need another sequel and this time it falls to the feet of Gladiator. So much for the republic dream; 19 years after the events of the first movie and Maximus’ struggles were all for nothing. The hopes of an Empire are gone and Rome is even more lost than it was before before. Instead of one tyrannical emperor, we now have two. Instead of simple games pitting gladiators against one another, we now have sharks, rhinos and murderous monkeys to combat. It really is a very different time and ironically echoes Hollywood’s desire of sacrificing simplicity for CGI heavy action.
At the center of this story is not one but two protagonists (this is becoming a bit of a theme isn’t it?) as we follow the exploits of a Roman general called Acacius (Pedro Pascal), and Lucius (Paul Mescal), the son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) from the first movie and a man who’s very much on the side of the free people.
When his partner is killed in battle against the Romans, Lucius sets out on a crusade, wanting revenge against Acacius, but as a slave, he’s quickly whisked up by the charismatic Macrinus (Denzel Washington) instead and forced into becoming a Gladiator. These two end up on a collision course together, with Macrinus very much at the heart of the gameplaying, before the attention turns to power struggles and issues with the two Emperors. This culminates in a couple of late-game twists and a big fight while the whole of Rome (okay, two opposing armies) watch on.
The problem with Gladiator II stems almost directly from its characters. With the exception of the two tyrannical emperors and Denzel’s Washington’s theatrical (and perhaps a tad over-acted) performance as Macrinus, everyone else is just kinda… here. There’s no true heroic moments, no goosebump-inducing speeches and everything just falls flat as you’re left with very few people (if any) to rally behind.
Pedro Pascal plays Pedro Pascal in dress-up General gear, while Paul Mescal has about as much charisma and leadership skills as a 45 year old, morbidly obese drunk trying to chat up a supermodel. He’s not exactly an imposing figure in the arena itself, and after one fight with a rhino we’re just led to believe he’s the right man for the job and that’s that.
But what’s particularly annoying here is the constant feel of deja vu. There are so many moments and repurposed scenes that have been directly ripped from the original movie and thrown in here to give those key jangling moments of nostalgia. Everything from the opening battle (last free people VS unstoppable Roman war machine) to Acacius refused the ability to go home, across to the constant reminders of previous characters that show up. All of this feels very much like a lazy retread of what we’ve already seen before.
Then we come to the plot itself, which can only be described as a gloriously beautiful mess. The cinematography and visuals here though are both excellent. Seeing the naval battles take place in the arena (with the added addition of sharks because of course, we have to always go bigger) or the civil unrest in the street works so well to give a feel for the mood and tone of Rome. There’s some solid action and camerawork through all of this, and it feeds into the choreography for the fights which is generally very cinematic and tense.
But all of this is just pretty dressing and to distract you from the main story which, when you really break it down, fails on every single level. Lucius’ journey from a blood lusting slave to a compassionate leader doesn’t work, lacking key scenes like bonding with his men or exuding leadership qualities. Instead we get one scene where he rows a pretend boat by himself and another where everybody makes monkey noises and he laughs it off.
There’s also a complete rewrite and bastardization of Maximus’ story too, which is perhaps the most damning part of this whole endeavour. Remember that mantra of Strength and Honour? How Maximus was a noble man and did everything he could to avenge his wife and son because he was so dedicated to them? The man went through hell and back to gain his vengeance, and was even prepared to die and wait for Commodus to inflict his revenge there. A man who’s dedicated to his family so strongly that when he did find himself reunited with his wife and son in Elysium, it felt like a well-earned, triumphant conclusion to this hero’s journey.
All of that is undone here by the constant reminder (I counted at least four instances of this) that Maximus had an affair with Lucille and Lucius is their son. Given Lucius is around the same age as Maximus’ son, the implication is that Maximus slept with Lucille while also being madly in love with his own wife and off on duty in Germania. Strength and Honour indeed.
Meanwhile, Acacius’ story is weak, with his confliction between working for the Emperors and trying to stage a coup, while also just wanting to go home, lacking any sort of urgency or bite as the story flip flops between its two central protagonists. And all the while, the film never dives deep enough into the two tyrannical emperors, who really should have been the more central antagonists and force of nature here.
The true story around these two is so fascinating, and for those unaware, their joint leadership saw a massive rift in the palace, with the two emperors divided and completely paranoid of one another. Everyone within the palace were afraid of being assassinated, and while there was a united front in public (held together by their mother), they were divided in every aspect in private. In fact, they even tried to split the empire down the middle before eventually turning on one another and staging assassination plots.
There’s such a fascinating well of potential with this story that you could easily have implemented our two protagonists into and harmonized the plot around, but instead it simply runs parallel to what’s going on inside the arena, until it’s awkwardly crowbarred together at the last second. I’m being careful not to spoil anything here, but this revenge plot is wrapped up in such a shocking (but ultimately underwhelming) way that it sucks all the momentum out of the film there onwards.
Ultimately, Gladiator II exemplifies everything wrong with modern Hollywood. This is an unnecessary sequel, that rewrites the past while also sacrificing story and character for bigger action. Turns out size doesn’t really matter; stick with the original rather than this bloated, unnecessary mess.
Feel free to check out more of our movie reviews here!
-
Verdict - 4/10
4/10