Paul Mescal breaks a rhino’s horn in the Colosseum, and that is only the fourth or fifth craziest thing that happens in Gladiator II.
You can probably understand Ridley Scott’s impulse to up-level the chaos. The legendary filmmaker has much at stake with the 24-year legacy sequel to Gladiator, the Oscar-winning cultural juggernaut starring Russell Crowe. It is a possible return to form after the middling critical and commercial reception of The Last Duel, House of Gucci, and last year’s Napoleon, or another stone on the path of decline. The film could also serve as the official coronation of a new batch of marquee-ready actors, led by Oscar nominee Paul Mescal in his biggest role yet, in an action-packed blockbuster, no less. Finally, Gladiator II seeks to capitalize on the growing popularity of legacy sequels, kickstarted in earnest by Top Gun: Maverick and extended this year by Twisters and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. If it fails, Hollywood probably won’t course correct until years later, but it will at least ring the bell on audiences’ shifting tastes.

With all that in mind, Scott takes us to two decades after the death of Maximus. Lucius Verus (Mescal), Maximus’s son with Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), is a warrior for the city of Numidia, fighting alongside his wife as a Roman armada led by Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) invades. The Romans beat the Numidian forces, and Lucius is captured and sold into slavery. Lucius’s remarkable battle skill catches the eye of the cunning Macrinus (Denzel Washington), a wealthy patron who seeks to overthrow Rome’s co-emperors, Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger). He isn’t the only one: Marcus, who is now married to Lucilla, is also plotting to dethrone the tyrannical rulers with his armada. The political maneuvering is the backdrop for Lucius’s battles in the Colosseum as he fights for freedom for himself and Rome, as his grandfather Marcus Aurelius once dreamed of.

Like House of Gucci and Napoleon, Gladiator II is split between camp sensibility and high-minded drama. Scott understands and appreciates the absurdist excesses of the Roman Empire’s waning years and taps that chaotic energy for the film’s high-wire action in and out of the Colosseum. Very few filmmakers can stage an action sequence like Scott, and he ensures that every slash, punch, or slam into a wall hits with a resounding boom. Even the more outrageous set pieces — the aforementioned rhino, a group of ravenous chimpanzees — are ferocious, true-blue spectacles that retain the inherent silliness at the battles’ core. Scott’s trademark command of high-impact action infused with a comedic undercurrent makes for a wildly entertaining experience. There are few other films where the shocking brutality of a gladiator biting a chunk out of a monkey’s arm exists comfortably alongside the sheer ridiculousness of it happening in the first place.

The earnest absurdity on the battlefield also bleeds into Gladiator II’s political machinations. The film’s human interactions are most successful when it embraces the unhinged energy permeating Rome’s halls of power and teases out its cataclysmic underpinnings. The film’s most compelling characters walk the sharp ledge between cruelty and comedy, keeping us on tenterhooks over their true motivations and ruthlessness in resolving them. Macrinus is the standout character because of that reason. He’s a chaos agent relishing the opportunity to capitalize on Rome’s fraying political ties, but his every interaction carries a carefully modulated menace. Denzel Washington makes a meal of Macrinus, walking across the screen with an absorbing, playful swagger that overlays his ruthless pragmatism. He’s most plugged into Scott’s tongue-in-cheek atmosphere, so much it feels like he’s in another film. Joseph Quinn’s Geta comes closest, shrouding his unhinged cruelty in boisterous, obnoxious majesty.

The rest of the cast operates within Gladiator II’s high-minded drama, its weakest side. The film leans heavily on its predecessor, name-checking the deceased emperor Marcus Aurelius’s dream for a free Rome and the legacy of Maximus. You don’t need explicit knowledge of the first film, but you sense that its sequel draws heavily from a prior text. That reliance leaves the story and characters feeling quite slight and emotionally hollow. While a problem for all the characters, it’s especially pronounced for Lucius and Marcus. They feel less like fully formed people and more like idealist archetypes. The film’s emotional arc relies heavily on Lucius reconciling his legacy. However, we get a limited window into Lucius’s thoughts and feelings about his circumstances. It leaves some critical scenes feeling flat, like Lucius and Lucilla’s first meeting since his childhood.
The script’s flat emotionality can leave the actors within that framework in challenging positions. In his first blockbuster role, Paul Mescal fits Lucius’s intense physicality well but lacks the immediate imposing gravitas of his predecessor, Russell Crowe. He does settle more comfortably in the third act, where his scenes land with grace and power, similar to his performances in Aftersun and Normal People. Pedro Pascal’s Marcus is positioned as Lucius’s foe, and his marriage to Lucilla offers plenty of dramatic opportunity, but the script glances over them, ultimately leaving Pascal with little to do. Connie Nielsen fits the dramatic rhythms best, possibly because of her relationship to the first film. She imbues Lucilla with a gentleness that reflects her years as a political pawn and her anguish at Lucius being a gladiator and his rejection of her overtures.

With the overwhelming expectations surrounding the film, one would assume that Gladiator II would draw close to the original to recapture, or at least reference, the magic. It isn’t surprising that the attempts to mirror Gladiator don’t entirely work, as they inevitably draw comparisons to a cinematic triumph of the early 20th century. What makes Gladiator II successful in its own right are the ways it seeks to differentiate itself. The humorous tone and embrace of the absurd and the fantastical, combined with the ferocious blood spattering, make for a rousing, fist-pumping cinematic spectacle. It is also Scott’s most successful attempt at crafting a camp atmosphere in his latest runs of films. The film would’ve done well to go all in instead of splitting the difference, but there is no denying that audiences will, indeed, be entertained.
Gladiator II will debut exclusively in theaters on November 22, 2024, courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

What makes Gladiator II successful in its own right are the ways it seeks to differentiate itself. The humorous tone and embrace of the absurd and the fantastical, combined with the ferocious blood spattering, make for a rousing, fist-pumping cinematic spectacle.
-
GVN Rating 8
-
User Ratings (0 Votes)
0

A late-stage millennial lover of most things related to pop culture. Becomes irrationally irritated by Oscar predictions that don’t come true.