Gladiator II Review
There was once a dream that was Gladiator II. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish…it was so fragile. For a quarter century, people dreamed of a sequel to Ridley Scott’s historical epic, but it seemed condemned to development hell. How could anyone hope to top the spectacle of this tale of honor and revenge? Yet, here we are, and Gladiator II is in theaters. It’s bigger, grander, and most importantly, it has Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington’s star power going for it. But how does it compare to the original film, and was it worth the decades-long wait?
Let’s have Maximus answer that.
This Feels Familiar
Sixteen years after the death of Maximus and Commodus, nothing has changed. Rome remains an Empire, now ruled by a pair of sadistic twins. Lucilla’s son, Lucius, is now living in exile in North Africa, estranged from his former life and society. Then the Empire comes in, conquers his adoptive city, kills his wife, and enslaves its population, including Lucius. Forced to become a gladiator, Lucius makes it his mission to reach the general responsible for his wife’s death and…wait. Why does this seem familiar?
All jokes aside, a notable criticism of Gladiator II is that it follows the original a little too close. The man who becomes disillusioned with Rome losing a loved one and vowing revenge of the one responsible. The one responsible being a high-ranking member of the Roman Empire, if not one of their leaders. They even have a mentor as a Gladiator in the form of a cynical ex-slave who seeks to use them for their own benefit. It’s like looking at Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The fact that the general responsible for killing Lucius’ wife is Pedro Pascal only hammers the similarities home!
However, despite starting out following the original film, Gladiator II differs in a number of ways, and it has to do with three of the main characters.
The Big Three of Gladiator II
Firstly, we have Lucius, the exiled Prince. Gone is the wide-eyed and sweet little boy we knew in the first film. After Maximus died, Lucilla sent him away to keep him from the power struggle that would ensue. Since she and Marcus’ loyalists failed to restore the Republic, that never happened, and he’s rightfully bitter over it. Not helping matters is the fact that General Acasisus, played by Pedro Pascal, is now Lucilla’s husband. Lucius, though, is initially too blinded by his anger to see that his step-father isn’t the villain he appears to be.
In recent years, Pedro Pascal has won great accolades for playing stoic, world-weary characters like the Mandalorian and Joel Miller. Those roles have served him well, as he brings that weariness to the forefront as Acasisus. Far from being the monster Lucius thinks he is, he hates the Roman Empire just as much as his step-son. He’s tired of foolish people in power spilling the blood of Rome’s youth for pointless conquests. That leads him to secretly conpsire to ovethrow the corrupt Emperors and fulfill the Dream of Rome. TV Tropes puts it best when they describe him as a decomposite character of Maximus. Lucius got Maximus anger and desire for revenge, while Acasius got his dream to restore the Roman Republic and his military background.
Unfortunately, those plans are soon muddled thanks to another character who manages to toss the script of the original Gladiator out the window. This is Macrinus, played to perfection by Denzel Washington. At first glance, he seems to be Gladiator II‘s version of Proximo, the man who put Maximus on the path to being a Gladiator. Whereas Proximo became an ally of Maximus, ultimately dying for him, Macrinus makes it clear that he’s only in it for himself, and always will be. Like Lucius and Acasius, he’s also disgusted with Rome’s current state, but as the film comes to reveal, he doesn’t want restore the Republic. He just wants to put himself at the head of Rome for past grievances. He’s the hatred that Lucius starts out feeling for Rome at its logical endpoint, not caring if it lives or dies so long as he gets to be in charge.
Combine these three characters together, and by the time of the third act, Gladiator II has gone in a different direction from Gladiator.
Gladiator II Doesn’t Win Points for Historical Accuracy
Given that it’s a sequel to a movie about gladiators and the battles they fought for entertainment, Gladiator II had to go twice as big on the spetacle. And, historically accurate or not, it managed to do so the majority of the time. The film opens on a pretty epic amphibious invasion of Lucius’ adoptive city of Numidia, and from there, the fights only get crazier. Lucius’ first gladiator bout has him fighting a pack of crazy baboons, and biting one of them! His first time in the Colosseum has him fight a champion riding a rhino. And that naval battle seen in the trailers? The Romans filled the water with tiger sharks!
Is any of this historically accurate? Yes and no. There’s no evidence that the Romans had gladiators fight rapid monkeys, the Mediteranean doesn’t have sharks big enough to eat humans, and riding a rhino isn’t very pratical. However, they did hunt Rhinos in gladiator arenas alongside other exotic animals, and knowing them, they would have used baboons if they could. Furthermore, as crazy as it sounds, flooding the Colosseum for a mock naval battle is true. They actually did that! Say what you want, but the Romans wanted to do something, they got it done!
A Good Way to Kill a Few Hours
I won’t say when it happens, exactly, but I will say that at least one of the fights in the film turns out to be pretty anti-climactic. You’ll know it when you see it, but it did leave me disappointed. Not enough to sour my entire view on Gladiator II, though.
With this film being released right before Thanksgiving and competing with the likes of Wicked, Gladiator II has its work cut out for it. That being said, I do think that it manages to live up to the two decades of anticipation. I might end up going to see it a second time alongside Wicked.
