Rip-roaring sword-and-sandal sequel returns to the arena for more blood sport action in good ol’ ancient Rome
Gladiator II
Starring Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington & Connie Nielsen
Directed by Ridley Scott
R
In theaters Friday, Nov. 22
Director Ridley Scott returns to the scene of the crime—the Roman Colosseum—in this big, brawny, blood-spattering, furiously entertaining sequel to his 2000 sword-and-sandal Oscar winner.
And the impressive shadow of Russell Crowe’s Maximus, the Roman slave who became a revered gladiatorial hero in the original Gladiator, looms large here, in more ways than one—in flashbacks, lines of dialog and visuals, woven into the movie’s very DNA. There’s even a hallowed, altar-like display in the catacombs of the arena, with Maximus’ armor and sword. Pretty impressive for a character who died, strolling off into the fields of Elysian afterlife nearly 25 years ago!
Paul Mescal plays Lucius, a farmer who becomes a slave forced into service as a gladiator (just like Maximus). Pedro Pascal is a lauded Roman general, increasingly conflicted about the part he’s playing in the empire’s ruthless quest for world domination. As a sly slave master plotting a bold power play, Denzel Washington chews the scenery like basilicas were made of beef jerky. Petulant, prissy twin-brother emperors (Joseph Quinn, and Fred Hechinger) rule like Romulus and Remus crossed with Beavis and Butthead, topped with a sneery dash of Caligula.
Danish actress Connie Nielsen reprises her role from the first film, as the daughter of Rome’s former emperor Marcus Aurelius. All the characters find themselves connected and drawn together in the drama swirling around the arena.
It’s a grand, gloriously rendered spectacle, just like events in the ancient Colosseum itself, where the citizenry of Rome cheered on hyper-violent blood sports. We see Lucius and his gladiator cohorts fighting in faux sea battles, the arena flooded with water churning with sharks waiting to chomp down on anyone who goes man-overboard. Warrior slaves defend themselves against the massive horn of a monstrous galloping rhino, and in another battle, face ferocious CGI baboons that look—curiously—like mutations from a mad scientist’s lab, or another planet. And, of course, they fight each other, often to the death.
It’s all supposedly mostly historically accurate—sea battle reenactments, wild animals against humans, all those togas and stewing senators. (But did so many Roman muckity-mucks wear eyeliner and rouge?? Really, now?)
The scenery and world-building are truly impressive, and the performances gritty and committed. Mescal—in quite a departure from his portrayal of a soft, sensitive gay man in All of Us Strangers—digs into the layered complexities of his character, hiding a big secret and channeling a fiery inner rage to become a crowd favorite down on the field… kinda like the A.D. equivalent of Patrick Mahomes.
There’s some deep-dish commotion—political intrigue, conspiratorial subterfuge and whispers of treachery—going on in the royal palace, the slave market and the side streets of the piazza, and a bit of recurring blather about the “dream of Rome.” But the movie’s real draw is its brawly, gut-punch wallop of its action scenes in the epicenter of ancient Roman life, where combatants often fought to the death.
Gladiator II is a movie that knows its place and hews to its mission, just like the Colosseum—to keep the crowd roaring, revved and ripped for the eye-popping, head-lopping, flesh-tearing show they’re watching.
—Neil Pond
The Media Tourist 