GLADIATOR 2
(director: Ridley Scott; screenwriters: David Scarpa/story by Scarpa & Peter Craig; cinematographer: John Mathhieson; editors: Sam Restivo, Claire Simpson; music: Harry Gregson-Williams; cast: Paul Mescal (Lucius), Pedro Pascal (Marcus Acacius), Connie Nielsen (Lucilla), Denzel Washington (Macrinus), Derek Jacobi (Gracchus), Joseph Quinn (Emperor Geta), Fred Hechinger (Emperor Caracalla), Yuval Gonen (Arishat), Tim McInnerny (Senator Thraex), Alfie Tempest (Lucius at 12); Runtime: 148; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Michael Pruss, Douglas Wick, Ridley Scott; Paramount Pictures; 2024-UK/USA)
“Great villainous performance by Denzel Washington.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The 86-year-old Brit filmmaker Ridley Scott (“Napoleon”/”The Martian”) directs this uneven but satisfactory crowd-pleasing sequel to his Gladiator (2000). It’s a big-budget film in its return to the Colosseum, in the Rome of 200.
It repeats the original film’s story but with the hero now Lucius (Paul Mescal), son of Commodus’s sister Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), unknowingly fathered by Maximus.
After Maximus’s death, the 12-year-old Lucius (Alfie Tempest) has fled Rome to be protected from certain death.
While under a different name Lucius becomes an adult while living without his mother in the African province of Numidia. But the invading Roman general Acacius (Pedro Pascal) has his warrior wife Arishat (Yuval Gonen) killed and takes him back to Rome as a slave. There Lucius becomes the number one gladiator in the arena for the wealthy, sinister and politically ambitious slave owner games broker Macrinus (Denzel Washington).
The twins Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) are the corrupt co-emperors.
As Lucius stars in the arena, the general Acacius, who hates all the corruption in Rome, plots with his wife Lucilla, Lucius’s mother, to murder the detestable twin emperors and return Rome to a Republic.
There are good uses of CGIs for its entertaining gladiator fight scenes, particularly the one that has a gladiator atop a rhino.
If you are entertained by sword-and-sandal action pics, grizzly depictions of decapitations, of human beasts in action, along with a mildly told tale of decadence and palace intrigue, this middle-brow spectacle should be a thumbs up for you. I appreciated it for its lush visuals, its absurdities about Roman life under its corrupting rulers, and the great villainous performance by Denzel Washington.
REVIEWED ON 11/12/2024 GRADE: B-
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