As if made by the “if you like that you’ll like this” algorithm, Gladiator II takes all the bits you liked in the first film and does them all over again, with a bit more blood, a touch less swagger and far better CGI than Ridley Scott could muster in 2000.
Scott is again at the helm, with quite a few members of the same technical team from the first film – DP John Mathieson most notably – a couple of the same actors in the shape of Derek Jacobi and Connie Nielsen, and pretty much the same storyline.
The original Gladiator opened with a spectacular battle sequence, and so does this film – flaming fireballs once again – and then went on to tell the story of a man with some status who is busted down to being a slave and then fights his way back to the top of the heap in ancient Rome via the gladiatorial arena. Nobility will out.
Paul Mescal plays the slogger this time out. Hanno is a fighter in an army defeated by the Romans under the leadership of General Acacius, who is taken into captivity and then singled out by a gladiatorial impresario, Macrinus, to join his boy band of fighters. What Hanno does not know is that he is in fact the son that Lucilla – daughter of dead emperor Marcus Aurelius – had with lover Maximus (Russell Crowe, who turns up only in flashback) back in the day.
Now, thanks to the ruinous reign of the cruel, corrupt, effete twin emperors Geta and Caracalla, the empire is in terrible shape and conspirators are gathering in the wings plotting their overthrow. What’s really needed is a man stout and true to step forward in Rome’s hour of need – preferably one with some legitimate claim to the throne… Can you see where this is all going?
For all its schematic and obvious plot, and its character arcs semaphore-signalled from the outset, this is an entirely enjoyable old-school historical epic. The script is not stupid and though some of the actors roll the lines around in their mouths a bit – see Peter Ustinov, Charles Laughton, Rex Harrison and other Shakespeare-trained actors for where this intoning style came from – most of them do not. Mescal occasionally summons a bit of Russell Crowe in his playing of the beefy Hanno (real name Lucius, it turns out), and nobly takes his shirt off as much as possible because cinemas are in trouble and bums are needed on (damp) seats.
Other actors adding a belt of electricity include Denzel Washington in a pivotal role as the gladiatorial entrepreneur with designs on the throne. Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger are the terrible twins and would be the best thing in it if Washington hadn’t been hired. Pedro Pascal plays Acacius, the sort of mighty, proud general Rome needs more of, but who’s sick of snivelling brute Geta and giggling ninny Caracalla. Nielsen again has one of those roles where she’s playing a person of significance who isn’t particularly dramatically important and does her best with it.
But. The fights. That’s really what it’s about, whether it’s Hanno in the arena one on one with another gladiator. Or fighting a rhinoceros with a crew of gladiator slaves (a sequence planned for the first film, but the CGI wasn’t up to it). Or in the big set pieces, like the impressive one where a naval battle is staged in a flooded Colosseum (the Romans called this a naumachia, and they actually were staged in the Colosseum).
Scott pulls off all these action sequences big and small with great skill and style. They’re dynamic, bloody and don’t go on too long. It’s tempting to think that this is as it should be. Scott is an old hand at the historical epic, after all. But in that long list including Napoleon, Robin Hood, Kingdom of Heaven and The Last Duel, there are quite a few duds. The Duellists is Scott’s best historical movie, but that’s too intimate and small of budget to be called an epic. There’s clearly something about ancient Rome that gets Scott’s juices going.
If there is politics in there it’s hard to spot it – is Lucius the new man in Rome to drain the swamp? Can the Republic be re-established and dictatorial rule be vanquished? Choose a side but the pickings are thin. The aim is to make something to stand next to the likes of Ben-Hur, Spartacus, Quo Vadis and the other big Roman epics. On those terms Scott has achieved what he set out to do. Quod erat demonstrandum, as the Latins used to say.
Gladiator II – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2025
