Written by Peter Craig And David Scarpa
Directed by Ridley Scott
Lucius: "What does my past matter, when my future is only to die as a gladiator?"
Ah, the legacy sequel. When they hit, they can really hit and when they miss, they certainly miss. Where does this one fit into things? If I'm being honest, there's elements of both at play here. I liked but did not love this movie.
Following a slew of critically acclaimed and some financially successful smaller movies, this was Paul Mescal's chance to prove he could play in the blockbuster space. I think he has the knack for that and with Lucius "Hanno" Verus, he effectively was given a superhero role without actually taking one.
Lucius was the son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) and Maximus Decimus (Russell Crowe) and like his father, he too, started this movie by losing his wife (Yuval Gonen) and winding up in slavery. It's not long before he's acquired by villain of the piece, Macrinus (Denzel Washington) and trained up to be a Gladiator. It's a path that Lucius grudgingly embraced along with a tense reunion with his mother.
Of course like his father, Lucius was motivated by revenge to offset Macrinus's thirst for power and control over. Macrinus in particular certainly played brother Emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) off each rather well. On top of that, he also managed to orchestrate the respective downfalls of both Lucilla and her new husband, Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal).
Getting to Marcus Acacius, I was expecting more from Pedro Pascal. Not in terms of performance because Pascal doesn't put a foot wrong here but more in terms of screentime. He's actually not got a lot to do here and there's a revenge subplot between him and Lucius that felt poorly fleshed out with an almost rushed conclusion to it. I have similar thoughts about Lucius's subplot with Lucilla as well.
On the other hand, the dynamic between Lucius and Macrinus was easily the best thing about the movie. Both Paul Mescal and Denzel Washington are magnificent in their scenes together with the final few minutes dedicated to their rivalry coming to a rather swift conclusion. Fortunately the movie was smart enough to make sure it didn't the exact same ending as the first one in regards to Lucius's fate, thus opening that door for a third chapter.
- May Calamawy was meant to be the female lead in this movie but her scenes were cut big time. You see her very briefly though.
- Macrinus is bisexual and even kissed a man but that scene also got cut. Saying that, Denzel Washington certainly played him like a bisexual man.
- Derek Jacobi popped up again as Senator Gracchus and even Matt Lucas had a few scenes as the Master of Ceremonies.
- There was some genuinely mad ideas involving a massive rhino that should've killed Lucius and mutant baboons. Caracalla also appointed his monkey Dondas as first consul.
- Standout music: The soundtrack has some good ones, including Strength And Honour, Let The Gods Decide, War Real War, The Dream Is Lost and Now We Are Free.
- Chronology: It's been sixteen years since the events of the first Gladiator movie for Lucius.
Gladiator II was something that treaded similar ground to it's first movie with a few differences but didn't quite come as well as it could've done. The lead performances are great, the action sequences executed well and there's some mad ideas that are to be admired. Overall, it's a good follow up to a classic movie but not without it's flaws.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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