Gladiator
Gladiator II, U.K./USA 2024. Directed by Ridley Scott, written by David Scarpa.
CineStar Theater 2, Row 3 Seat 11. Original version.
(This post also appears at my Letterboxd account.)
I was thoroughly prepared to dislike Ridley Scott’s 2024 Gladiator II intensely, not least because of its borderline atrocious trailer. But I was pleasantly surprised. It’s good! Not great, certainly, like Scott’s original 2000 Gladiator, but good.
What Gladiator II doesn’t have is the original’s insanely straightforward and fast-forward pacing; Maximus’s raw existential masculine energy that had my jaw on the floor constantly even though Crowe’s totally not my type; and Zimmer & Gerrard’s relentless punch-in-the-gut score.
What it does have is Mathieson’s (again) excellent cinematography, Simpson & Restivo’s solid cut, solid acting (Washington, however, is sublime), good pacing, and Scarpa’s competent script, dialogues mostly included (eons better than that absolute lemon he wrote for Scott’s 2023 Napoleon, but that’s a pretty low bar). It plays in interesting ways with both general expectations and expectations brought on board from knowing the original movie.
There were misgivings in many reviews that the script were too similar to the script from the original movie; that’s not a sentiment I share. (I know the original Gladiator in and out—it’s up there in my personal Hall of Fame together with movies like The Matrix or Fury Road that I watched three times in the first two weeks of their respective theatrical runs, just for starters.) Sure, there are similarities, but there have to be—one of my mantras is that to be a good sequel a movie must also surreptitiously be a clever remake (e.g., Alien/Aliens, Terminator/T2:JD; if you look closely, you will see it). It’s a balance that’s very hard to pull off, and I think the script does a good—though not stellar—job.
So, all in all, yes, it’s good. It’s fine. Not everything is top notch, but it’s entertaining, and it has its emotional moments. Which is much better than what I expected!
As for “historical accuracy” or some such, come on. It’s not a documentary, and neither was the original! But again, what you think is totally out of line historically often isn’t, and what you think is fine historically is often totally out of line. (Not to forget my forever hill-to-die-on—as someone well-educated in classical studies and languages—that it’s Decimus Meridius Maximus, not Maximus Decimus Meridius, for Cthulhu’s sake.)
If you have something valuable to add or some interesting point to discuss, I’ll be looking forward to meeting you at Mastodon!