‘Gladiator II’ Is So Obsessed With 'Gladiator' It's Kinda Cringe

This sequel to the award-winning classic can't stop thinking about its predecessor.

I remember when Ridley Scott’s 2000 film Gladiator was first released. As a young film lover who was just starting to develop his cinematic tastes, I was enthralled by the story of General Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe), whose family was murdered and whose status was stripped from him. Maximus eventually fought his way back to glory in the Roman Colosseum, besting the reprehensible Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) before dying of his wounds. The film was a smash hit, grossing over $465MM worldwide, and the fact that it was a period piece with great acting made it catnip for the Academy, which showered it with five Academy Awards including Best Picture.

As for me, I was obsessed. I remember thinking that Maximus was probably one of the greatest badasses of all time. I watched Russell Crowe’s performance until I could recite many of the lines myself. I listened Hans Zimmer’s score for the film constantly. I explored all the special features on the DVD until my head was filled with trivia about how every major scene was filmed.

I say all this because it feels like the filmmakers behind Gladiator II felt the same way I did about Gladiator. The shadow of the 2000 film looms large over its sequel, which is out in theaters November 22. Set decades after the events of the first Gladiator, Gladiator II centers on a Numidian war hero, Lucius (Paul Mescal), who loses a battle against Rome’s Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), and is forced into slavery. Like Maximus, Lucius must also fight as a gladiator to avenge his loved ones and maybe even do the Roman people a solid along the way.

Gladiator II is mostly a fun time at the theater and is carried by a handful of great performances. Denzel Washington is probably the highlight here; his performance as Macrinus (a gladiator master/arms dealer of sorts who has his own designs on the throne) is a blast to watch. Macrinus is so full of swagger and cunning that you can’t help but root for him, even as he does reprehensible things to further his own ends. The function of Commodus is played this time around by two separate characters, Emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger), who are so over-the-top that they border on parody. As for Paul Mescal: he is thoroughly capable as the new lead of this film, but I have to say that he’s no Russell Crowe. Mescal brings great physicality and a steely resolve to his performance as Lucius, but not much else.

As you might expect, the action set pieces are magnificent. Visual effects have evolved tremendously since the first Gladiator and the new film looks spectacular. I felt like I could often see the seams in the original film much more often than in Gladiator II, which felt convincing to me even as I was watching stuff I knew would be impossible to stage in real life. Ridley Scott, who’s about to turn 87, still knows how to bring it when it comes to staging and directing action scenes of epic size and scale. One thing I particularly appreciated was that Scott was not content to repeat the same action beats as the first film. Every fight has some kind of interesting twist on it that makes it feel fresh and inventive.

I wish I could say the same thing about the script, which is mostly a remix of the first film but somehow feels edited to shreds in the final cut. None of the character arcs are particularly satisfying, with individual scenes and transitions feeling abrupt and unpleasant. The relationship between Lucius and Lucilla (Connie Nielsen, reprising her role from the first film), is particularly ill-served. Gladiator II crams in tons of characters and subplots but gives no time for any of them to make any kind of impression. By the time the film ground to its conclusion, I felt more exhausted than exhilarated.

But the film’s worst sin is its obsession with Maximus. There’s a scene in The Simpsons where Homer Simpson is giving notes to Itchy and Scratchy execs about a new character he’s voicing named Poochie. His advice? “Whenever Poochie’s not on screen, all the characters should be asking, ‘Where’s Poochie?’”

Gladiator II takes that ethos to the extreme. Many characters in the film spend time thinking about Maximus, talking about Maximus, or quoting Maximus. When they’re not doing any of those things, they’re trying to carry on Maximus’s ethos of restoring glory to Rome. “Wasn’t Maximus great, guys?” is a question on the lips of every character. Gladiator II needs to perform multiple narrative contortions to make it so Maximus is a relevant character in the new film and every single one of them feels strained and cringe. The result is a film that is so obsessed with its past that it doesn’t dedicate enough time and care to crafting a compelling narrative for its present characters.

This is all reflected in something Ridley Scott told People magazine while promoting this film: “It's as good as the first one. I didn't say better. It's as good.” Even for Scott, the ceiling of quality on Gladiator II is how good the first film is. For folks like me, it didn’t even quite reach those heights and that’s a shame.

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• In addition to my video review of Gladiator above, you can also check out my thoughts on Heretic and read Matt Goldberg’s review.

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