Paul Mescal as Lucius in “Gladiator II.” Credit: Aidan Monaghan/Paramount Pictures via TNS
Any attempt to recreate the magic of Ridley Scott’s Academy Award-winning Best Picture Film “Gladiator” (2000) was going to face high expectations.
Whether or not the film would be able to live up to the epicness of the original was difficult to determine, but with Scott returning, and a major cast headed by Paul Mescal (“Aftersun,” “Normal People”) and Pedro Pascal (“The Mandalorian,” “The Last of Us”), there was hope.
Luckily, for fans of the original, “Gladiator II” captures the heart of the original, while also adding new, exciting action pieces and characters.
And yet, the film is a bit of a mess.
The storyline follows Lucius (Mescal), a gladiator with a secretive past, on his journey for revenge against Roman general Acacius (Pascal), following the death of his wife at Acacius’ hands.
Mescal echoes Russell Crowe’s original film protagonist Maximus’ charisma, becoming a strong, poised leader throughout the film. Pascal plays an interesting, multi-layered Roman general who is married to Connie Nielsen’s Lucilla from the original film, offering fans of “Gladiator” a familiar face.
The other major characters in the film play power-hungry, weak-minded sibling emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger). Their performances offer a polar opposite view of empirical power compared to Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus from the original film, who, though also power hungry, was a much stronger-willed individual than the weak brothers.
But the best performance of the film is by far Denzel Washington’s (“Training Day,” “The Equalizer”) Macrinus, a former slave in charge of gladiators and mentor to Lucius.
Though Washington sometimes feels like he’s playing himself, it’s extremely entertaining to watch him play mind games with politicians and the sibling emperors as he climbs his way to the top of the power scale in Rome.
The other exciting aspect of the film is the action sequences.
The film opens with a bombastic Roman assault on the city of Numidia. The scene resembles the opening battle from the original “Gladiator,” and fans of Scott’s filmography will notice some of his added flare and use of blood from his 2023 film “Napoleon.”
The rest of the action scenes take place in various gladiatorial arenas throughout the Roman Empire. The sword fighting in the film is extremely fast-paced and enjoyable to watch.
Outside of the swordplay, the action scenes bring about the film’s main issue, which is its apparent overreliance on CGI.
Early in the film, Mescal’s character has to face wild baboons that are so clearly computer generated, it becomes one of the most jarring things seen on film in recent memory.
The baboons are then followed by animated sharks later on in a gladiatorial naval battle. The film’s overuse of CGI in these fights takes the viewer out of the action instantly.
The other major issue in the film is the pacing.
The first act sets everything up perfectly, but then the second act slows everything down — in fact, the main plot point for a roughly 40-minute-long portion of the film is merely Mescal fighting in the Colosseum as other minor story plots develop in the background.
After the second act, there is a 20-minute period of the film that abruptly moves the plot forward at a hyperspeed pace. During this portion of the film, things happen so fast that it’s tough for the viewer to keep up.
Thankfully, the end of the film sticks the landing and provides a satisfying fight between two of the film’s characters.
Though “Gladiator II” is not a perfect film — with its horrific CGI animals and messy pacing — its strong characters and exciting action-packed scenes make for a fun watch at the theater.
Rating: 3.5/5
