By Grace Brake Staff Writer
On May 5th, 2000, a film called Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, came out in theaters in the US. The story of a vengeful roman general turned gladiator was a critical and financial success making $277.8 million on a $107 million budget. In 2018, Gladiator II was announced by Dreamworks Studios.
While the first film was an absolutely fantastic story and character building, its sequel unfortunately does not have this opportunity. Gladiator II focuses on Lucias played by Paul Mesca, fighting in the Roman Colosseum to take down the tyrannical rules, Emperor Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Emperor Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) after his wife is killed in battle.
The biggest issue with the film is that it’s essentially the same plot as the first. Revenge story, family death, and tyrannical rulers. There were plot points in the film that were interesting. This can’t be discussed here because they do contain spoilers. However, it’s just the first film with literally no character development or interesting characters in general.
The action was the best part of this movie. The fight choreography is done surprisingly well with some fun and badass fight scenes. Acting is also not great, especially with Denzel Washington’s character, Macrinus. The performance is monotone and lackluster at best.
All in all, Gladiator II could’ve been interesting, but it felt like it focused on being what the first film was. The cinematography and choreography at least was pretty good.
ECC Cornerstone 