Gladiator II opens in Australia and New Zealand on November 14, the U.K. on November 15, and the U.S. on November 22.
It’s surprising that prolific director Ridley Scott has only made four sequels in his long career: Hannibal, Prometheus, Alien: Covenant, and now Gladiator II. His two Alien follow-ups remain divisive, seen by some as overcomplicating the original work’s simple, ferocious beauty. Gladiator II does not burden itself with overcomplication. In fact, it’s a pretty simple restaging of Gladiator’s tale of political upheaval seen through the eyes of a warrior. But as history has shown time and again, the classics can always hit home when staged with verve. Gladiator II is incredibly light on its feet, thanks in no small part to an enthusiastic cast. The modern polish Scott puts on the historical action framework he nailed two decades ago makes this sequel no one asked for a real champion blockbuster.
Like Maximus Decimus Meridius before him, exiled heir Lucius (Paul Mescal) finds himself in Roman custody and forced to engage in gladiatorial combat. Lucius’ anger with the system clashes with his devotion to the ideals of strength and honor espoused by Maximus, which provides some nice conflict for Mescal to play with in Gladiator II’s first half – and helps distinguish his form of heroism from that of Maximus. He enters the arena seeking revenge on Acacius (Pedro Pascal), a popular general who has conquered Lucius’ current homeland. But the story quickly puts Lucius’ personal motivations aside in favor of using him as a symbol for a younger generation fed up with the old ways. There are larger political machinations which increasingly play out around the colosseum games being held in Acacius’ honor and Mescal shoulders the weight of that brewing revolution well. He lets just enough humility and charm shine through in the early scenes, and by the time the character becomes more of a vessel for Gladiator II’s thoughts on leadership, he feels worthy of the mantle.
Maximus casts a long shadow over Gladiator II, but rather than completely mythologizing him, Scott smartly grounds the character’s positive influence in the recollections of those who witnessed his journey - namely, Lucius and his mother Lucilla (Connie Nielsen). That’s mostly handled well, but it does make Acacius, a statesmanlike character very much in the mold of Maximus, stick out a little. He helps remind us there’s still some sense at the highest levels of Roman power. But with Lucius already retreading Maximus’ footsteps, Acacius’ embodiment of Maximus’ ideals feels redundant.
Maximus’ defeat of Commodus in the arena 16 years prior should’ve led to a new golden era in Rome, but the resulting vacuum of leadership left the city an even more paranoid, dangerous place than it was before – a failure of better angels that gets swiftly glossed over in Gladiator II. The Senate has been crippled by the Emperors’ hunger for conquest, leaving old fogeys in the Senate like Gracchus (Derek Jacobi) completely ineffectual. But Lucilla has found her steel in the years since Maximus’ sacrifice, paying for her brother Commodus’ hobbling of Rome by staying close to the levers of power and advocating for justice. With that idealism, and the price she’s willing to pay in service of it, Nielsen adds a lot of depth to a character who felt relatively extraneous last time out.
Rome may be in a sad state, but that doesn’t stop Scott from having a good time. Rather than getting bogged down by the empire’s dire straits, the director often mines them for levity. The frequency with which Gladiator II keeps its tongue firmly planted in cheek is a welcome surprise, considering how familiar the plot feels – even cutaway shots to obviously eavesdropping servants feel like intentional winks at the audience. Gladiator II is loyal to the first film’s structure to a fault, so the lighter tone that Scott strikes really spices up scenes and plot developments that otherwise could’ve felt like rehashes.
That element of Gladiator II is most apparent in the current stewards of Marcus Aurelius’ “dream of Rome”: brothers and co-emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger). Their bloodthirsty whims and equally unpredictable mood swings make this nightmarish pair of little freak boys worthy successors to Joaquin Phoenix’s supremely simpering Commodus. Their antics border on slapstick, but Quinn and Hechinger are each so temperamental and off-putting that they never let you forget the danger Geta and Caracalla pose to Rome’s future. They may not possess the same dramatic weight as Phoenix’s conniving villain, but they do have a lot of eye shadow and a little monkey who wears a dress. That’s pretty much an even trade here in Gladiator II, especially given that Scott finds balance elsewhere.
The more nuanced examination of who holds power and how comes through Macrinus (Denzel Washington), a gladiator trainer who rose up from slavery to wield influence over the city’s politics. This aspect of the character becomes more apparent and impressive as the story goes on, and Washington is absolutely electric in the role (Mescal’s own performance is often at its best when he’s working to match the Oscar winner.) Macrinus is constantly calculating how to advance his cause, and whether Washington channels that through a whispered threat or a showy display of charisma, he owns every room and always says the right thing. Whether Macrinus will use all that influence for good or ill – to either exploit or benefit Lucius – shifts from scene to scene. It makes Macrinus as imposing as any threat Lucius faces in the arena and a reliable screw for the script to turn when the chaos of Geta and Caracalla’s rule gets a little too predictable.
Gladiator II strikes a winning balance between its palace intrigue and the action of the games, and Scott maintains a breezy pace through the two-and-a-half hour runtime. The arena scenes that serve as the movie’s steady heartbeat tend to put a little more emphasis on size over substance; armed with 20-plus years of VFX advancements, Scott floods the zone with larger-than-life spectacle. A duel with angry baboons and full-on naval combat within the Colosseum walls (a thing the Romans actually did, which shocked me) are no doubt greater than what Scott was able to achieve last time, but it’s not always to more effective ends. The battles are quite distinct from each other (again: baboons and boats), but they all feel just a little bit rushed, a little less focused than their more visceral and immediate counterparts from the first film. Gladiator II’s one-on-one encounters – like a simple swordfight Lucius is forced into at the behest of the Emperors – often wind up feeling more impactful than, say, a CG rhino barreling around the arena floor. But the games’ blend of decadence and brutality completes its most important tasks: showing us the stakes of Lucius’ continued success, and demonstrating that being good at killing other people is a pretty f***ed up metric for that success.
