Seeing Gladiator in the movie theater is a memory I hope to hold on to forever. The impact this movie has had on cinema carried over to the home theater. I remember when we had purchased the DVD and rushed home to watch It. Within the opening scene, my dad quickly turned it off and said "This is not the way". We left the house and purchased our first large-screen TV. Keep in mind, that this was when large scaled TVs were still in the classic box form. After getting it set up and wired to our home surround sound system, we immersed ourselves in the coliseum with Maximus. I never thought Gladiator needed a sequel. Hearing that Ridley Scott had started on a script had me excited but I was still skeptical. Scott has one of the most impressive portfolios of films and has directed many of my favorites. I was lucky to catch this a few days early at a Monday Cinemark Secret Screening. Set 16 years after the first movie, Lucius (Paul Mescal) a.k.a Hanno is battling for his hometown Numidia, the last free city in Africa Nova. General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) is leading the Roman army to conquer the city and in doing so, kills Hanno's wife Arishat (Yuval Gonen), and enslaves Hanno. While the set pieces and battle sequence here were awesome to watch, I couldn't help but feel this hit a little too close to being a carbon copy of the original. Much of the first act plays exactly like the original. It's not until Macrinus (Denzel Washington) comes in that things get more exciting. Rome is now ruled by twin emperors, Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) who start the games in the Colosseum to celebrate their new victory. Behind the scenes, we learn that General Acacius and his wife Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) are playing a game of House of Cards to take over Rome with an army of 5,000 soldiers.
Macrinus is also taking this opportunity to make his moves towards the thrown. He now owns Lucius and promises him he will get to battle Acacius in the games. Through these moments in the games, we find a similar story structure from the first where Lucius must prove himself as the winner and leader among the slaves. The games do differ from the first as the gladiators are faced against animals vs. humans. Yes, there are still other soldiers they will have to fight, pending they survive bloodthirsty sharks or the charge of a giant rhinoceros but this new level does amp up the brutality and bloodspill of the games. I found some of these moments taking away from what made the first Gladiator so thrilling. The graphics do not land in many of these scenes, which is a shame with the technology available today and the massive budget of this film. The script is decent enough but not all of the performances worked for me. Denzel is the standout and gives his all as he plays his own House of Cards to make his way to the thrown. It's the performance from Mescal that didn't fully land for me. Much of his moments on screen felt forced and there wasn't the full emotional impact of his character that we received from Maximus (Russell Crowe) in the first. I also wish we would have gotten more stories of the twin emperors. Their moments were few and rushed to build any connection with them.
Don't get me wrong, this movie is entertaining. Fans of the first movie will definitely find enjoyment from this one. I just wanted more from all of the actors. I love the political takeover subplots and the one Denzel was given was excellent. I'm hopeful that more time will be put into a third movie if we are to get one.
Rating: 3/5
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