Gladiator II Movie Review
on Nov 15, 2024
Cast: Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, Lior Raz, Derek Jacobi, Connie Nielsen, Denzel Washington
Crew:
Based on Characters created by David Franzoni
Story by Peter Craig, David Scarpa
Screenplay by David Scarpa
Cinematography by John Mathieson
Edited by Claire Simpson, Sam Restivo
Music by Harry Gregson-Williams
Directed by Ridley Scott
Produced by Ridley Scott, Michael Pruss, Douglas Wick, Lucy Fisher, Walter F. Parkes, Laurie MacDonald, David Franzoni
Gladiator became global blockbuster and a cult epic period drama from Hollywood. The fictional story about a gladiator - a slave turned into a trained warrior who fights against another warrior or an animal in an arena during celebration in Roman empire, became a great novelistic attempt and an inspiring story. Russell Crowe became a huge star with the film and Ridley Scott delivered another huge classic with the film in his illustrious career. Now, he has decided to deliver a sequel after 24 years. Gladiator II took time to release due to production delays and strikes. Finally, the most awaited sequel released on 15th November in India, a week early from USA and 2 weeks later after AUS/NZ release. Let's discuss about the movie in detail.
Plot:
Lucius(Paul Mescal) lives in Numidia with his wife Arishat(Yuval Gonen). They both are warriors in the army and try to defend their city against invading Roman troops. General Marcus Acacius(Pedro Pascal) kills Arishat and Lucius gets distracted because of her death. Roman troops conquer Numidia and Lucius sworns revenge against Acacius. Lucius is brought to Rome as a slave and Macrinus(Denzel Washington) buys him as his warrior. He becomes a gladiator like a his father Maximus. And his mother Queen Lucilla(Connie Nielsen) identifies him and tries to reconcile with him even though Lucius decides to stay away from her. Why? What is Macrinus plan? Will Acacius identify Lucius? Watch the movie to know more.
Analysis:
Ridley Scott has been one of the most celebrated directors of World Cinema from 1979, when he delivered Alien. The filmmaker has been one of the prominent creative personalities to bring new wave filmmaking to Hollywood. He has been delivering such great films from time to time that he is renowned as one of the greatest directors of Hollywood. But when it comes to Gladiator II, he did not seem to bring his A-game in terms of writing.
The script just seems to meander around the same plot points as Gladiator and every character is shown as either fan of Maximus or afraid of him. When you talk about an ideal Roman Empire where everyone is free, you cannot just talk about Gladiators being free or them trying to achieve freedom. The topic is bigger and wider than the concentrated storytelling in the first one. When people did not know that such Gladiators existed, the emotional connect that a character like Maxmius could establish with audiences made the movie such a classic.
Here, it almost feels like Scott wanted to just showcase the similar sequences and play on nostalgia rather than giving us an account of another strong character's journey through tough times. The writing surprisingly is pale compared to the first film which created revolution at the box office. While the technical values are once again phenomenal from the director and collectively, the team did deliver an aesthetic piece of art yet it just feels like an over-stretched tv drama episode with concentration on hero worship of Maximus.
It almost feels like an after thought from Ridley Scott to continue the franchise by hook or crook. He might have wanted to make a prequel and maybe he got the idea of re-introducing Gladiator to Gen Z generation with the sequel and then go on for a prequel. But this story lacks the strong hold that Maximus story had on people. And for Indian audiences, it would look like Baahubali story re-told as Gladiator. Every performance, technical aspect work yet writing falters big time.
In Conclusion:
Gladiator II tries to bat on nostalgia and works only in parts.
Rating: 2.5/5
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