Gladiator 2 (2024) | REVIEW

Directed by Sir Ridley Scott (The Last Duel; Alien) — Screenplay by David Scarpa (All the Money in the World).

Set around fifteen or sixteen years after the events of the original film, Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2 follows Lucius Verus (played by Paul Mescal) who has built a new life for himself in Northern Africa, where he goes by the name ‘Hanno.’ When his new home is invaded by the Roman Army, led by General Acacius (played by Pedro Pascal), his wife is killed, he is taken as a slave, and is later acquired as a gladiator. He is forced to return to the capital region of the Roman Empire, which he was once a prince of but now holds hatred for. Lucius’ services as a gladiator are bought by the ambitious Macrinus (played by Denzel Washington), who aspires to control all of Rome, and Macrinus promises Lucius that, if they work together, he will work towards giving Lucius the opportunity to fight and take down General Acacius, who Lucius blames for the death of his wife. Unbeknownst to Lucius, however, General Acacius is married to Lucius’ mother, Lucilla (still played by Connie Nielsen), and he, in fact, has secret plans to start a revolution, restore power to the Senate, and remove the dangerous co-emperors of Rome, Geta (played by Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (played by Fred Hechinger).

As you may be able to tell from that description of what’s going on in the film, there are a lot of story elements for Sir Ridley Scott to juggle in Gladiator 2. This may be due to the fact that the story for the long-awaited sequel has been worked on and reworked repeatedly ever since the original film wowed audiences 24 years ago. Reportedly, Russell Crowe was adamant that a continuation of the story would need him to return with his character somehow brought back to life (including in a legendary script proposal from Nick Cave), but those ideas, reportedly, didn’t gel with what the studio wanted (something more conventional, not unlike what we get here with Lucius). In contrast, Scott was supposedly more interested in telling a story about the state, or perhaps even the gradual fall, of the traditional Roman Empire. Whether those rumors were true or not, what is absolutely the case is that you can actually feel many of those ideas in this sequel (though, admittedly, here it seems the only leftovers from Crowe’s wishes are some quite dark visions of the afterlife that Mescal’s character has, which has a Styx-esque quality to them). Some may feel that the juggling act is unfulfilling or too messy, but I actually think the many story elements surrounding the state of the Empire complement the film and the principal narrative, as it helps to take away from, frankly, how trite the gladiatorial plotline may appear on its own.

This is because the film is really at its worst when it feels like a legacy sequel, which isn’t so much the case when it focuses on Acacius and Macrinus, but is definitely, and unfortunately, the case when it focuses on Lucius, whose parentage is under-explained, and whose character arc severely lacks that emotional oomph necessary to take the film to the next level. As you would expect from a Hollywood legacy sequel, lines from the first film are repeated in ways that feel unnatural (though it doesn’t take you as much out of the movie as it did in the recent Alien: Romulus), and the film’s gradual gladiatorial rising through the ranks has a structure that lacks freshness from time to time (though it does have its moments like the over-the-top VFX-animal spectacle of it all and the efforts to make Mescal’s gladiator a ‘poet’). This insistence on keeping such a focus on Maximus in the dialogue, even weakens the very ending of the film.

Despite its issues or my annoyance regarding its nature as a formulaic legacy sequel, you might be thinking to yourself, similar to the words of Maximus Decimus Meridius, “were you not entertained?” And let me tell you, yes, in spite of those issues I was entertained throughout. There wasn’t a minute that I was bored, and I was thrilled by the ways the narrative had tricks up its sleeves, like the characterizations of Denzel Washington and Pedro Pascal’s characters, which, especially in the case of Denzel’s character, was far richer than I had expected. You understand their motivations fully, and, for a while, Pedro and Paul’s narratives almost run side by side, meaning that, again, the formulaic gladiator narrative smartly never stood on its own. I mentioned the VFX animals in parenthesis above, and while, yes, there are historical inaccuracies to be found here — and even though the visual effects in creating the animals and the ocean sometimes aren’t as convincing as you would hope — it is, undeniably, still super exciting to watch a gladiatorial battle with sharks circling or unrealistically blood-hungry apes jumping at characters mouth agape.  The production design and costuming are off-the-charts good as expected (the purple of the praetorian guard really looks extraordinary, and the various robes are really well done as well).

It is a super entertaining film because Scott understands how to set up these grand battles — both in and out of an arena — and, to add to that, the political schemes and aspirations manage to pull you in. This is largely due to Denzel Washington just eating up this film. Washington is by far the best thing about the film, and you wholly buy his character’s motivations, which makes it really entertaining when he goes down a separate path from the principal protagonist. Denzel Washington, frankly, elevates every single scene he is in (the big laughs, the well-chosen smile, the darting eyes, and subtle expressions — it all tells a riveting story on its own like only the best can), and he prevents the political scenes from ever feeling stuffy. It also helps that Quinn and Hechinger have dialed their co-emperor characters all the way up (one of them is asked to deliver a line as outwardly and unabashedly silly as “they can eat war,”), so that whenever Pascal is asked to be a little bit more conventional or noble, all of the principal characters complement each other. And what about the leading lad? Paul Mescal is one of the brightest young actors working today, and he is exceptional at communicating a narrative’s emotional heft through his performance. However, Mescal doesn’t really get enough to do here, since the emotional aspect of it all seems half-baked and he mostly figures into the film’s most unoriginal parts. So, yeah, I’d say Mescal isn’t given enough to work with.

If the original Gladiator is a prestige film capable of bringing forth great emotion in its audience, then Ridley Scott’s long-awaited sequel is more of a sword and sandals popcorn epic with emphasis on hard-hitting, sometimes over-the-top action and multiple relatively rich or colorful characters in an attempt to fill out Russell Crowe’s shadow. It is, admittedly, at its weakest when it leans into the line-repeating and formula-insistent legacy sequel territory, but it is never boring, in part thanks to Denzel Washington’s highly entertaining performance and the inclusion of Pedro Pascal’s general, who is, thankfully, not the straightforward villain some trailers made him look like. It probably won’t be in the best-of-the-year territory, but Scott’s sense of historic action spectacle, Washington’s performance, and the exceptional production design and costuming make this film more than worth the price of admission.

7.9 out of 10

– Review Written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.