Battle of the Sequel: A Review of Gladiator 2

04/01/2025

Edie Bell-Brown (she/her) explores how Gladiator 2 struggles to live up to the legacy of its predecessor

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Image by IMDb

By Edie Bell-Brown

Gladiator 2 (2024) was one of the most highly-anticipated films to come out of 2024 and an unexpected sequel to Gladiator (2000), one of the most iconic and praised films of all time. The film earned twelve Oscar nominations and five wins, with Russell Crowe receiving an Oscar for ‘Best Actor’ for his portrayal of Maximus. When Ridley Scott controversially announced that he would be making Gladiator 2, many Gladiator fans felt faithless in Scott’s ability to re-capture the magic of the first film and I think their doubts were proven to be right.

Ridley Scott is the director behind many classic films such as Alien (1979), Thelma and Louise (1991) and of course Gladiator (2000). Yet, over recent years his latest projects notably seem to be diminishing in quality. From House of Cards (2021) to his most recent film Napoleon (2023), which have both been box-office failures and flops in the eyes of both critics and fans, it seems to be a downward spiral for now 86-year old Scott’s filmography. However, this doesn't seem to be enough to stop him as he has already announced that he is working on a Gladiator 3, despite mixed opinions and some (fairly) harsh criticism following the release of Gladiator 2.

Firstly, my initial problem with the film was the storyline. Many sequels should act as a continuation or some sort of retelling of the first film, which was already a hard task for Scott considering the tragic ending of Gladiator. The plot was derivative and almost a remake of the first film. Maximus’s son, Lucius (Paul Mescal) seeks vengeance on Rome after they destroy his home and murder his wife, to which he is enslaved and forced to partake in Gladiator fights within the Colosseum. Sound familiar at all? The only key difference between the movies was Scott’s bizarre (and rather historically inaccurate) animal additions. Lucius is put up against some cartoonish-looking barbaric monkeys, and is forced to fight in a water-filled Colosseum with a bunch of sharks swimming around. Whilst I think Ridley’s choice here was to add a bit of variety to the fighting scenes, which already felt tediously repetitive, the poor quality of CGI used was so distracting that it felt impossible to take these scenes seriously.

In terms of the acting, I felt that Paul Mescal’s brilliance was wasted and he did as much as he could with a lousy script. Mescal was never going to recapture the power of Russell Crowe’s performance, yet he gave it a good go with what he had. Mescal’s performance was reduced to mainly action sequences wrestling monkeys, and when we did hear him speak, all he seemed to do was recite poetry, rather than give moving monologues. This left Lucius’s character feeling undeveloped and rather dull, certainly not living up to the expectations of what we as an audience would expect of the great Maximus’s son. Similarly, Pedro Pascal’s acting was wasted on his character whose purpose and contribution to the storyline ended up being futile. As well as this, the only returning cast member from the first film was Connie Nelson, who once again played Lucius’s mother and Maximus’s past lover Lucilla, and whose fate also meant her character was rather pointless.

The most disappointing performances I felt were from Joseph Quinn as Emperor Geta and Fred Hechinger as Emperor Caracalla: two tyrannous (and rather camp) Emperor brothers. It's clear that Scott felt he needed not one but two Emperors to try and fill the footsteps of Joaquin Phoenix’s creepy performance as villainous Commodus, to which they failed and felt like forced imitations. The two characters were like comedic caricatures that certainly didn't feel convincing as powerful, threatening leaders. I felt the only redeeming performance was Denzel Washington’s eccentric portrayal of deceptive Macrinus, the only character that had nuanced layers to him. Washington plays Macrinus with such flamboyance and charisma. With his head-turning cape swishes and stacked jewellery,  his character couldn't help but steal the scene every time.

Despite having a run-time of two and a half hours, which felt longer than necessary since I felt the film took too long to reach its climax, the film overall felt rather rushed. From poor CGI, an average script, disappointing performances and an underwhelming musical score (which could never compete with Hans Zimmer’s work on the first film), Gladiator 2 is certainly not Ridley Scott’s finest work. The most famous line from the first Gladiator spoken by Maximus, and campaign slogan for the second film– ‘Are you not entertained?’-- is a question directed both at the viewers within the Colosseum and at us as an audience. To answer this question, whilst the film did succeed in entertaining me, any true meaning or purpose behind the film felt absent. Therefore, I feel its lack of memorability will seal the film’s fate as another forgettable Hollywood blockbuster and certainly an insult to the legacy of its predecessor.