Gladiator II is best described as an entertaining, less refined cousin of its predecessor. The film perfectly encapsulates the pop-culture perception of Imperial Rome, one where might makes right, where deluded emperors and fierce warriors vie for control and earn glory through combat and conquest. The twin emperors in the film, who act as antagonists, are caricatures of themselves: selfish, greedy men who care only for war and Roman victory while the rest of their empire despises them. The main character is a fighter practically raised for the Colosseum, bent on the destruction of Rome. The casting sells the characters. Paul Mescal, who portrays the lead, does a good job of playing into the stereotypical anti-establishment “tough guy” persona, and clearly did the best with the material he was given. Good performances are given by Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington, who play the stoic war general and scheming aristocrat respectively, yet like Mescal their parts were stunted by poor writing. The movie’s visuals are the most impressive part. The city has been rendered perfectly, and the Colosseum recreated in detail. There were moments where one stops noticing that a given scene is ninety-percent CGI and is overwhelmed by the dramatics. This movie is very entertaining. There is no shortage of action, and the stunts and fight choreography are very fun to watch. This movie makes you feel like you’re in Rome through its atmosphere and visuals, and immerses you in the world to great effect.
Unfortunately, this movie suffers from a lackluster plot. The movie has the problem of establishing motivations and plot lines early in the movie, only to stack unnecessary details and plot twists on top and make the story hard to follow. There’s a continuity until the halfway point, where the story which had been developing is literally and metaphorically killed off, and the main characters seem to devolve. The protagonist, Hanno, has a revelation around this point in the movie which reveals him to actually be a descendent of the original film’s protagonist, planting one foot in the Roman door and one foot out, which only confuses his character and tears him between two guiding motivations and muddles his aspirations. It was a choice which, while interesting in theory, was executed poorly and somewhat diminishes the impact of the final encounter. For the last forty-five minutes of the movie, it became increasingly unclear why any of the characters were doing what they were doing. The villains became the easiest characters to understand, despite spending most of the film establishing the story of the “good guys.” There just isn’t a lot of emotional depth, and what a given character might be thinking is very surface level. While it’s clear that there was an effort to develop Hanno through the establishment of his lineage, the movie just doesn’t go very far emotionally.
Despite the shortcomings of the plot, the film is still quite enjoyable. At its heart, Gladiator II is an action movie, and taken as such it’s great, just not as great as the first. The visuals may be better, but the opaque ending and confusing characters make it hard to compare to its predecessor. It’s fun if you go into it with the right expectations. Ultimately, it’s worth a watch for the world and visuals alone.
