Gladiator II
As much as I have lived and loved Gladiator, the sequel has compelling reasons for its existence and I think anyone who enjoyed the first will enjoy this. That said, it is HIGHLY flawed. The lack of character development is jarring. By the end of this movie, the only character you care about is Lucius, and that’s because his character benefits from the previous movie having given you context for his existence. Every other character in this is just purely exists and maneuvers, but the story gives you no feeling towards any of them because there is no history given for any of them. And that sucks, because the acting here is phenomenal. Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal and Denzel all deliver A-performances, but they’re just not given much to chew on, and that leaves a lot to be desired. As much as I love Joseph Quinn, he and Fred Hechinger’s Joaquin Phoenix impersonation was bad. It’s likely not their fault though, as they were terribly written characters, and I’m sure, directed poorly. Ridley Scott showed he was cooked after Napoleon, so I’m not really sure why I got my hopes up again, but I will say, at least, that this was better than Napoleon. Again, if you enjoyed the first, you’ll enjoy this too, just temper your expectations. For what it’s worth, E didn’t think this was as far off as the original as I did.
-Z
