Gladiator II review: Scott made a $470 million epic spectacle, but does it live up to the original? Maybe not

Are you not entertained? Well might one ask after watching Ridley Scott’s $470 million Gladiator II, but this sword-and-sandal epic ultimately falls short of the original.

Despite an impressive cast, including two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington and the internet’s boyfriends, Paul Mescal (Normal People) and Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us), Scott’s sequel gets bogged down trying to create connective tissue with the first movie, which is now nearly 25 years old.

From flashbacks and retcons to a fistful of Colosseum sand (what passes for a paternity test in Ancient Rome, apparently), Gladiator II wastes a significant portion of its entirely too long 150-minute runtime on making sure the audience knows this isn’t a standalone story.

But maybe it should’ve been because the least successful parts of the new film are when it draws direct comparisons to the original and Maximus, the character that earned Russell Crowe an Academy Award for best actor in 2001.

FYI, Crowe said in an interview he felt “slightly uncomfortable” that Scott was making the sequel without his involvement, but, let’s be honest, Maximus is in no shape to be sporting a toga these days.

Mescal, on the other hand, was born to wear one — be still my beating heart! — and looks more authentically Roman than Crowe ever did.

He also brings considerable acting chops to the role of Lucius — who was just a wee boy in the original movie — having recently given us acclaimed turns in low-budget indie dramas, Aftersun and All of Us Strangers.

The sequel finds Lucius all grown up in Numidia, circa 200AD, where he has been effectively exiled for 16 years since the events of the original, in which he witnessed Maximus slay his uncle, Emperor Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix).

These days Rome is under the crazed rule of bloodthirsty twin emperors, Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger), who are obsessed with expanding their empire.

General Acacius (Pascal) is tasked with achieving that goal, and his conquest of Numidia kills Lucius’ missus and turns him into a captured slave, destined to fight in the Colosseum.

After coming into the possession of the devious Macrinus (Washington), Lucius agrees to channel his rage into gladiatorial excellence if his new owner can help him get revenge on Acacius.

Spoiler alert: Acacius is married to his mum, Lucilla, played here and in the original by Connie Nielsen.

Of course, to taste vengeance, Lucius will first have to survive a series of brutal encounters in the arena (which the production recreated in painstaking detail in Malta), including, but not limited to, hand-to-hand combat with legitimately terrifying baboons, playing chicken with a rhino, and a naval battle reenactment, complete with sharks.

Did Ridley jump the shark himself with that last one? Perhaps, but the fight scenes are otherwise visceral and arguably better than those of the original.

Washington is outstanding, too, and looks like he’s having the time of his life as a bisexual schemer, while Mescal, in his first blockbuster, delivers a leading performance worthy of the film’s budget.

However, that performance is occasionally undone by regular Scott collaborator David Scarpa’s screenplay, which is notably lacking in memorable quotes.

You can rattle off two or three quotes from the original, even if you haven’t seen it in a decade, but you’ll struggle to remember a single thing Mescal says in the sequel by the time you’ve gotten to the cinema carpark.

That this excellent Irish actor has moments of gravitas without the dialogue to match is a constant frustration.

Scott is a master of spectacle, and, from that perspective, Gladiator II is a success, with jaw-dropping sets and costumes, while his use of practical effects over CG imagery is to be commended.

But he should have applied the same ethos to the plot, which is unnecessarily adorned to the detriment of its emotional impact, and adds confusion to the motivation of key characters.

As Maximus famously said, “What we do in life echoes in eternity”, but, unlike the original, it’s hard to see this sequel reverberating a quarter of a century from now.

3 stars

Gladiator II is in theatres on Thursday.