Gladiator II: Redundant Redux

Rating: 5.9/10

Gladiator II is a boring revision of the groundbreaking Gladiator, and is not worth the time. 

Highlights: 

• Denzel Washington executes a powerful performance 

• Great world of Rome

• Exciting, and good balance of drama and fighting

Lowlights: 

• Paul Mescal is distracting

• Plot is unoriginal 

• World is too similar to original film

Gladiator II endeavors to continue the riveting and powerful story told in 2000's Gladiator, but it feels much too similar to the original, and I can think of no reason to watch it instead of just rewatching Gladiator. It's the exact same world, which is perhaps inevitable, but with the same political unrest and focus on gladiator battles, the audience gleans no new entertainment. The story isn't different enough, and it's weaker than the original plot. Lucius' motivation for wanting to be a good gladiator isn't nearly as strong as Maximus' in the original film; though we understand his wife has been killed, this is not emotionally impactful and the audience is given no time to get to know his wife and feel her absence as a character. Additionally, though Denzel Washington fantastically plays a power-hungry patrician, his performance alone isn't enough to save the film. The choice to cast Paul Mescal -- and Pedro Pascal, though less so -- felt like a mistake, as I couldn't see him as a Roman-era gladiator due to his strong presence in modern-day pop culture. (I compare Mescal in this role to Timothee Chalamet in A Complete Unknown, who contrastingly completely transformed into Bob Dylan for the film. Though Chalamet is similarly domineering in modern culture, I did not see Chalamet at all in this film -- I only saw him as Dylan. Mescal did not achieve this level of performance, which I think was completely crucial to his success.) Gladiator II could have remained a drafted screenplay, where it had been sitting for nearly twenty years, and the cinema world would be no less for it. I'm not sure what a good sequel to Gladiator would have been -- in fact, what is the perfect sequel? Should it be a different story in the exact same world; with or without the same characters? It's always a tall task to create a sequel that lives up to whatever glory the preceding film had, and Gladiator II is just another movie that fails to live up to these expectations.

Liked Gladiator II? Check out Gladiator, obviously. Gladiator is the blueprint (literally), and you'll find yourself much more satisfied after watching the classic film rather than the sequel that tries too hard.

Watch the trailer!