They basically took Maximus and split him into Lucius and Pedro. Which basically gave us two half-characters. I hate how there isn't an explanation to Lucius' prowess in battle. Like he's just a perfect warrior for some reason. For all we know he's only fought in one battle. Also the pacing was ass. They didn't give us any time to start caring about Lucius' wife before she gets wasted. Another thing, there was a reason for all the gladiators to respect and follow Maximus other than he was a good fighter. He was a famous general who was charismatic as F and a skilled tactician.
He's being cast in everything now because he's created a fan following (somehow) so the higher ups are putting him in everything while he's still "bankable" Don't forget the dude is basically 50 years old already. He's not gonna be able to do a film like this in another 10 years.
That's totally unfair: I'd cast him as the lead in an instant coffee commercial where he leads a burro with expressive eyes wearing a colorful wool blanket carrying huge fake bags of coffee. Okay so the Burro is actually the lead but Pedro is supporting the Burro with an epic and authentically hispanic-like presence and pencil moustache. EPIC BRO
The damage Ridley Scott has done to the historical epic genre between Napoleon and this movie is immense. Gladiator II perfectly illustrates almost everything wrong with Hollywood nowadays.
Ridley Scott and James Cameron should both join the list of "out of touch old men who have lost sight of what made their work great". They refuse to accept any (even mild) criticism and point to the box office or lash out at genuine criticism by fans/audience that 20 years ago they would have logically addressed/ explained or even succesfully defended.
I ❤ ancient Rome and absolutely adored the original Gladiator movie. All the reviews have been similar to yours, and I wondered WHY the hell did they do a sequel? It wasn't necessary. As much as I love ancient Rome I'm not sure I could stomach seeing something that ruins it unnecessarily. I'm not enthralled with Pedro, who's overrated, and I don't care for many of the other actors. Also, I know a lot about Roman history and having studied it for years and know there are SO MANY details in this movie that are false, I'll wait for it to be streamed.
If this movie absolutely had to happen, Acacius should have been the main character. The Emperors have no political, social or military pull, how exactly are they in charge? Acacius is shown to have all three straight out the gate, he’s married to Marcus Aurelius’ daughter, and yet he’s still not taken over?
Wait I got one: How 'bout "Alien vs Gladiator"? SETUP: This time, the alien is like an illegal alien who eats pets (but CARTOON pets) and Gladiator is the name of a trash compactor (The GE Gladiator Mach 4 or just "Gladiator" to internal management at GE). When the model is discontinued due to its terrible selection of colors it sets out on an epic journey and falls asleep at a gothic train station and wakes up in a POV shot with the Alien spray painting it a kind of pleasant mauve, and then plugging it in behind a potted fern by the magazine rack. It goes on like that for a while until Frances Ford Coppolla injects 130 million into it to allow the studio to hire a midget in a rubber alien suite and a LOT of cocaine. So, THEN... (DOOR FLIES OPEN) "NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!"
So sad that the director of the original followed it up with this rubbish. Ridley Scott's recent works will NOT echo in eternity,. They will echo down the toilet
The fact that Scott blamed the poor performance of the Last Duel on the kids spending time on social media, tells me everything about his attitude. He's an arrogant man who thinks he's above reproach.
@vittoriacolona I did not know that about the Last Duel and what Ridley said. That's interesting and I have noticed in interviews with him that he does seem a bit arrogant
You've articulated what I was thinking so well! I laughed out loud in some instances. I really liked Denzel Washington's character but the way it ended was blah.. if they made him go on the run and disappear that would have been better and more fitting to what kind of person he was
Even besides Ridley's utter lack of skill to create a proper script these days, every person and thing in this movie is either a has been, or at most a mid
This was a very thorough review and it sounds like you were fair about it which is always commendable! I don’t have any plans or desire to watch this movie but I always love to hear people’s opinions. 🙏😁
Many years ago, there was an idea for sequel where maximus would have found himself either in hell or the afterlife. He would have had to fight his way back out. As outlandish as that is, it would have been original and might have been awesome, if done right
I was enthralled by Gladiator as an 18 year old. It boggles the mind to think teenagers will watch this sequel and think that is what big budget film making is about. That's where the bar is.
So glad after the reviews that I didn’t see this movie now. It is one of my favorite movies of all time and I saw an interview. One reason why Maximus and Lucilla did not sleep together according to Russell Crowe is because that wasn’t in Maximus‘s character. So now you were going to totally butcher his character by basically saying he had a fair on his wife with Lucila and then produced the son Lucius…. In the first film, they both say that their children are nearly 8 years old so logistically with how long it takes a soldier to travel and considering Maximus had said he never went to Rome. How could he have possibly father two children nearly 8 years old? And this is me just nitpicking, but where the hell did Lucille get blonde hair?
I really don't have much hope when a new film comes out, they're all prequels, sequels, side quests, adaptions.. whatever else blood they'll get from a stone. Hollywood's industry now is : add a respectable actor for nostalgia bate, add a lot of shouting , exaggerated, over the top characters,. and violence - just noise . Spam the circuits with advertising that it's the next best thing to hit the screen and- done
Same failure as Matrix 4 with the original producers , weird , it's like a conspiracy that these original creators of these movies where not the ones that made these movies in the first place.... Or even these big Producers are not allowed to make great movies anymore. Just weird.
I think some creators are inspired to make art that really connects with people, but sometimes that's all they have and the rest is forced. The matrix is one of the most inspired movies of all time, but the sequels are a sloppy mess. Gladiator 2 may just be another victim of uninspired and forced hollywood sequels. It may be better to let some franchises stay as they are or pass them along to new creators that are more inspired to make something new.
There’s absolutely no logic in conspiracy theories. The simplest answer is that the directors told the entire story in the first movie, and there wasn’t a need to continue the story arc in a sequel other than that the movie studios wanted to make more money, thus continuing to beat a dead horse.
All good stories have 3 things, beginning, a middle and an END. Maximus tale was perfect it ended and he went to his family, let it go. Maximus was ham fisted into this movie and it didn't need to be. A gladiator and a slave trader wanting power that is an interesting story on it own.
Lets be honest, Ridley Scott was always an arrogant, self important ass. Only difference is now he has lots of CGI and apparently no quality writers to help him make a proper film.
This movie is atrocious and a disgrace to the original! Everyone in it sucks to one degree or another. Paul Mescal is especially atrocious! He should be banned from movies altogether. About as emotive and entertaining as a rock. Denzel Washington gives his least inspired performance of his career. And can someone tell me why, in a movie where everyone else has a British accent, Denzel has a modern day American accent????? Let’s not even broach the topic of battleships and live sharks in the coliseum! Literally everything about this movie was terrible! Acting, writing, directing, CGI….EVERYTHING!!!!! If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that Ridley Scott is on a mission to destroy his legacy. I mean, this is his second strike in 2024 alone (Alien Romulus being the other).
ridley scott makes cinematically great movies but they always butcher historical accuracy and worst of all his movies usually seem realistic, kingdom of heaven is the clearest case
I’ve seen the original film. Are there any other Roman gladiator movies out there that I haven’t already seen? Because I’m not into re-watching movies multiple times. So if you’ve got a better bloody Roman period piece you would recommend let me know. And please not the dated stuff from the 40s through the 60s. I’ve seen most of them as well.
This was the worst movie ever seen I can't stand Ridley Scott he divorced Napoleon and I didn't like the first gladiator this was horrible they need to run him out of Hollywood
@ damn, that critique is somehow more shallow than this stupid film. Denzel is one our finest actors. They’ve got sharks in the colosseum, man riding rhino, a mannequin pretending to be the main character and your gripe is diversity hire?
Let me crack a little egg of knowledge here for you. see they show you these people on screen and tell you that they made this or they made that, but most of the time they are lying and Hollywood has stolen it from the true creator. this is why you get horrible horrible horrible sequels and stuff like that.
@vittoriacolona I just re watched it last night. There was zero indication luscious was his. Zero indication he had an affair while married. They bonded over having son's the same age. He and her had a romantic past but this was when they were much younger. I'm assuming teenagers. He was bitter towards her when they met again. They did not have a smooth beeakup. He saw she was a loving mother and became and it softened him and made him admire her and develop feelings for her once he saw she was a good person. She told him her son will be killed. His last task was to save her son like he wished he had for his own. Noble man.
Sub-par acting. Fighting fake monkey's and riding rhino's...ahh NO. Reading a paper in a café? ummm NO. Sharks in Colosseum? Hell NO. Copy cat writing. Yes. Terrible writing. Ridley...stop making movies please.
I am so freaking tired of the "blame the director" nonsense, as if the director is in charge. Hollywood is not run by directors but mega international corporations, that have agendas far beyond what the sheep can comprehend, obviously, since all these talking heads on UA-cam just focus on directors, not those who actually make the decisions. Producers/Sony/Disney/Universal/Paramount...et all, hire directors, directors don't hire them. This is like blaming a Safeway store manager for Safeway store pricing, as if middle managers make actual company wide decisions. This is also asinine because this subversions of classic properties is industry wide, yet that fact seems irrelevant to the talking heads, who seem to have zero ability to comprehend the big picture. This is about subversion, destroying all the foundations of a society, they are talking down Hollywood. How can you think these mega companies would allow the loss of billions of dollars if that was not their goal, how can you be that naive? These are pros, they KNOW how to make good movies, and if you think they give a rat's ass about DEI, you don't know Hollywood. These corporations are predatory, Hollywood is a moral wasteland, yet so many think they are bowing to "social pressure", since when? THEY make social norms, and if you look at other areas around the world where they operate, you don't see DEI, you see slave labor and exploitation. DEI is just a cover for these criminals. If you think what I am saying is a bit extreme, you won't for long. The slogan "go woke, go broke", has idiot Americans cheering the collapse of ANOTHER American industry, you see the forest for the trees.
They basically took Maximus and split him into Lucius and Pedro. Which basically gave us two half-characters. I hate how there isn't an explanation to Lucius' prowess in battle. Like he's just a perfect warrior for some reason. For all we know he's only fought in one battle. Also the pacing was ass. They didn't give us any time to start caring about Lucius' wife before she gets wasted. Another thing, there was a reason for all the gladiators to respect and follow Maximus other than he was a good fighter. He was a famous general who was charismatic as F and a skilled tactician.
Yes, character development was azzzzzzzz! 👎🏼
You took the words right out of my mouth. I can't believe they actually went with that horrible/cartoonish character for Lucius.
Pedro Pascal is so mid. I actually like the guy, but he’s not a leading man.
I wonder why he is being cast in practically everything?
He's being cast in everything now because he's created a fan following (somehow) so the higher ups are putting him in everything while he's still "bankable"
Don't forget the dude is basically 50 years old already. He's not gonna be able to do a film like this in another 10 years.
He's not a leading man in this movie
That's totally unfair: I'd cast him as the lead in an instant coffee commercial where he leads a burro with expressive eyes wearing a colorful wool blanket carrying huge fake bags of coffee. Okay so the Burro is actually the lead but Pedro is supporting the Burro with an epic and authentically hispanic-like presence and pencil moustache. EPIC BRO
next unnecessary sequel: Titanic 2: Jack's ressurrection.
No need. The original sucked enough.
Titanic: Revengeance
The damage Ridley Scott has done to the historical epic genre between Napoleon and this movie is immense. Gladiator II perfectly illustrates almost everything wrong with Hollywood nowadays.
Ridley Scott and James Cameron should both join the list of "out of touch old men who have lost sight of what made their work great". They refuse to accept any (even mild) criticism and point to the box office or lash out at genuine criticism by fans/audience that 20 years ago they would have logically addressed/ explained or even succesfully defended.
They must have gotten the riding a rhino, from the Black Panther.
Pascal's character seems like Maximus if he hadn't died in the original.
I ❤ ancient Rome and absolutely adored the original Gladiator movie.
All the reviews have been similar to yours, and I wondered WHY the hell did they do a sequel? It wasn't necessary.
As much as I love ancient Rome I'm not sure I could stomach seeing something that ruins it unnecessarily. I'm not enthralled with Pedro, who's overrated, and I don't care for many of the other actors.
Also, I know a lot about Roman history and having studied it for years and know there are SO MANY details in this movie that are false, I'll wait for it to be streamed.
Subversion
If this movie absolutely had to happen, Acacius should have been the main character. The Emperors have no political, social or military pull, how exactly are they in charge? Acacius is shown to have all three straight out the gate, he’s married to Marcus Aurelius’ daughter, and yet he’s still not taken over?
I'm glad finally someone pointed out. How he survived by literal plot armor at the end of the movie.
Wait I got one: How 'bout "Alien vs Gladiator"?
SETUP: This time, the alien is like an illegal alien who eats pets (but CARTOON pets) and Gladiator is the name of a trash compactor (The GE Gladiator Mach 4 or just "Gladiator" to internal management at GE).
When the model is discontinued due to its terrible selection of colors it sets out on an epic journey and falls asleep at a gothic train station and wakes up in a POV shot with the Alien spray painting it a kind of pleasant mauve, and then plugging it in behind a potted fern by the magazine rack.
It goes on like that for a while until Frances Ford Coppolla injects 130 million into it to allow the studio to hire a midget in a rubber alien suite and a LOT of cocaine. So, THEN...
(DOOR FLIES OPEN)
"NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!"
So sad that the director of the original followed it up with this rubbish. Ridley Scott's recent works will NOT echo in eternity,. They will echo down the toilet
The fact that Scott blamed the poor performance of the Last Duel on the kids spending time on social media, tells me everything about his attitude. He's an arrogant man who thinks he's above reproach.
@vittoriacolona I did not know that about the Last Duel and what Ridley said. That's interesting and I have noticed in interviews with him that he does seem a bit arrogant
I don't think anyone expected a movie better than the first one For obvious reasons.
You've articulated what I was thinking so well! I laughed out loud in some instances. I really liked Denzel Washington's character but the way it ended was blah.. if they made him go on the run and disappear that would have been better and more fitting to what kind of person he was
Even besides Ridley's utter lack of skill to create a proper script these days, every person and thing in this movie is either a has been, or at most a mid
This was a very thorough review and it sounds like you were fair about it which is always commendable!
I don’t have any plans or desire to watch this movie but I always love to hear people’s opinions. 🙏😁
Many years ago, there was an idea for sequel where maximus would have found himself either in hell or the afterlife. He would have had to fight his way back out. As outlandish as that is, it would have been original and might have been awesome, if done right
I was enthralled by Gladiator as an 18 year old. It boggles the mind to think teenagers will watch this sequel and think that is what big budget film making is about. That's where the bar is.
So glad after the reviews that I didn’t see this movie now. It is one of my favorite movies of all time and I saw an interview. One reason why Maximus and Lucilla did not sleep together according to Russell Crowe is because that wasn’t in Maximus‘s character. So now you were going to totally butcher his character by basically saying he had a fair on his wife with Lucila and then produced the son Lucius…. In the first film, they both say that their children are nearly 8 years old so logistically with how long it takes a soldier to travel and considering Maximus had said he never went to Rome. How could he have possibly father two children nearly 8 years old?
And this is me just nitpicking, but where the hell did Lucille get blonde hair?
I really don't have much hope when a new film comes out, they're all prequels, sequels, side quests, adaptions.. whatever else blood they'll get from a stone. Hollywood's industry now is : add a respectable actor for nostalgia bate, add a lot of shouting , exaggerated, over the top characters,. and violence - just noise . Spam the circuits with advertising that it's the next best thing to hit the screen and- done
Same failure as Matrix 4 with the original producers , weird , it's like a conspiracy that these original creators of these movies where not the ones that made these movies in the first place.... Or even these big Producers are not allowed to make great movies anymore. Just weird.
I think some creators are inspired to make art that really connects with people, but sometimes that's all they have and the rest is forced. The matrix is one of the most inspired movies of all time, but the sequels are a sloppy mess. Gladiator 2 may just be another victim of uninspired and forced hollywood sequels.
It may be better to let some franchises stay as they are or pass them along to new creators that are more inspired to make something new.
There’s absolutely no logic in conspiracy theories. The simplest answer is that the directors told the entire story in the first movie, and there wasn’t a need to continue the story arc in a sequel other than that the movie studios wanted to make more money, thus continuing to beat a dead horse.
LEGEND 2 before Ridley leaves us!
They would have been better off with the original plan of a movie about maximus in hell, or whatever afterlife romans have.
I found that it was jarring how some of the texts inscribed in walls and structures was in latin (I assume) whilst others were in english. 😮
All good stories have 3 things, beginning, a middle and an END. Maximus tale was perfect it ended and he went to his family, let it go. Maximus was ham fisted into this movie and it didn't need to be. A gladiator and a slave trader wanting power that is an interesting story on it own.
Ridley continues to get off scott free.
Gladiator II: Gladiatorer
Lets be honest, Ridley Scott was always an arrogant, self important ass. Only difference is now he has lots of CGI and apparently no quality writers to help him make a proper film.
Ridley Scott should have JJ Abram do the story I thought it was as weak as the Force awakens
This movie is atrocious and a disgrace to the original! Everyone in it sucks to one degree or another. Paul Mescal is especially atrocious! He should be banned from movies altogether. About as emotive and entertaining as a rock. Denzel Washington gives his least inspired performance of his career. And can someone tell me why, in a movie where everyone else has a British accent, Denzel has a modern day American accent????? Let’s not even broach the topic of battleships and live sharks in the coliseum! Literally everything about this movie was terrible! Acting, writing, directing, CGI….EVERYTHING!!!!! If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that Ridley Scott is on a mission to destroy his legacy. I mean, this is his second strike in 2024 alone (Alien Romulus being the other).
There were battleships in the Colliseum. I do agree with you, though.
ridley scott makes cinematically great movies but they always butcher historical accuracy and worst of all his movies usually seem realistic, kingdom of heaven is the clearest case
Agree with this review. However, music is average and some shots out of focus
Forgeddabouddit
Scott should have retired after American Gangster.
I’ve seen the original film. Are there any other Roman gladiator movies out there that I haven’t already seen? Because I’m not into re-watching movies multiple times. So if you’ve got a better bloody Roman period piece you would recommend let me know. And please not the dated stuff from the 40s through the 60s. I’ve seen most of them as well.
This was the worst movie ever seen I can't stand Ridley Scott he divorced Napoleon and I didn't like the first gladiator this was horrible they need to run him out of Hollywood
Hell the first movie was overrated! This movie was good nothing great.
There were No black senators in Rome! Not a thing.
If all the half ass crafting of this story, and this is your issue with it?
Of course not, but DEI will DEI. They wouldn’t be able to make this otherwise, they get funding that way.
Rome was made up of people from many nations. You've been watching too much British propaganda.
@ damn, that critique is somehow more shallow than this stupid film. Denzel is one our finest actors. They’ve got sharks in the colosseum, man riding rhino, a mannequin pretending to be the main character and your gripe is diversity hire?
@@olivercoulter260 Yeah. It's ALL nonsense.
Let me crack a little egg of knowledge here for you. see they show you these people on screen and tell you that they made this or they made that, but most of the time they are lying and Hollywood has stolen it from the true creator. this is why you get horrible horrible horrible sequels and stuff like that.
Luscious being Maximus's son makes zero sense and completely ruins the entire first movie.... Just why?
In the first film. Both Lucilla and Max say they have 9 year old sons. So when was Max supposed to have fathered Lucius?
@vittoriacolona I just re watched it last night. There was zero indication luscious was his. Zero indication he had an affair while married. They bonded over having son's the same age. He and her had a romantic past but this was when they were much younger. I'm assuming teenagers. He was bitter towards her when they met again. They did not have a smooth beeakup. He saw she was a loving mother and became and it softened him and made him admire her and develop feelings for her once he saw she was a good person. She told him her son will be killed. His last task was to save her son like he wished he had for his own. Noble man.
Ridley Scott after 2000 is really truly a horrible director. Sickeningly bad, but I hates the Gladiator 1 as well
Sub-par acting. Fighting fake monkey's and riding rhino's...ahh NO. Reading a paper in a café? ummm NO. Sharks in Colosseum? Hell NO. Copy cat writing. Yes. Terrible writing. Ridley...stop making movies please.
I am so freaking tired of the "blame the director" nonsense, as if the director is in charge. Hollywood is not run by directors but mega international corporations, that have agendas far beyond what the sheep can comprehend, obviously, since all these talking heads on UA-cam just focus on directors, not those who actually make the decisions. Producers/Sony/Disney/Universal/Paramount...et all, hire directors, directors don't hire them. This is like blaming a Safeway store manager for Safeway store pricing, as if middle managers make actual company wide decisions. This is also asinine because this subversions of classic properties is industry wide, yet that fact seems irrelevant to the talking heads, who seem to have zero ability to comprehend the big picture. This is about subversion, destroying all the foundations of a society, they are talking down Hollywood. How can you think these mega companies would allow the loss of billions of dollars if that was not their goal, how can you be that naive? These are pros, they KNOW how to make good movies, and if you think they give a rat's ass about DEI, you don't know Hollywood. These corporations are predatory, Hollywood is a moral wasteland, yet so many think they are bowing to "social pressure", since when? THEY make social norms, and if you look at other areas around the world where they operate, you don't see DEI, you see slave labor and exploitation. DEI is just a cover for these criminals. If you think what I am saying is a bit extreme, you won't for long. The slogan "go woke, go broke", has idiot Americans cheering the collapse of ANOTHER American industry, you see the forest for the trees.
Denzel was good, any part without him I instantly forgot
I was entertained.
I loved this sequel.
Gay movies 🍿 aren’t for me 😊
Better than the first one
Woke trash