Gladiator II

The sword-and-sandals sequel plays it safe by retelling the same story

It seems that when it comes to sequels, Hollywood is afraid of actually taking stories forward, instead choosing safe pseudo-remakes instead. This was the case with Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015) and Creed (2015), which delivered satisfying if unoriginal recreations of Star Wars (1977) and Rocky (1976) respectively. The latest film to get the treatment is Gladiator (2000), one of my personal favorites.

In Gladiator II (2024) 16 years after the first film’s events, we follow Lucius (Paul Mescal) heir to the throne in Rome, but in hiding in North Africa. When his town is razed and his wife (Yuval Gonen) killed by the reluctant Roman General Acacius (Pedro Pascal), Lucius is taken captive. He is sold into slavery and eventually bought by the sly aristocrat Macrinus (Denzel Washington) who trains him to be a gladiator in Rome. Amongst it all, the empire has again fallen for tyrant rulers: twin Emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger), whom Acacius and Lucius’ estranged mother Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) are trying to depose to restore the republic.

Sir Ridley Scott returns to the director’s chair after his seminal sword-and-sandals epic in 2000 reignited the genre (Troy (2004), Alexander (2004), 300 (2006)). With his return to Gladiator II the size of a story regarding Roman emperors is retained. The mix of practical sets, on location shooting, and staging of battle sequences continues to amaze viewers. Scott does rerun through familiar territory from the first film, from the opening battle sequence, to various bouts in the Coliseum, to the warnings of populist tyranny overtaking democracy. There are slight moderations to story beats by screenwriter David Scarpa (All the Money in the World (2017), Napoleon (2023)), including more villains, varying the Coliseum fights (one includes historical restaging of naval battles), however, these serve as distractions rather than additions in story and character.

A main issue with the central narrative is the character motivation. In Gladiator there was the simple drive of revenge for a murdered wife and son. Gladiator II stages the death of Lucius’ wife in a predictable and cliché way, so we never feel his anger. Added to the increased political drama and it distracts from the clearcut revenge story. In this latter element, Gladiator II loses itself, including too many shifting main villains, making it hard to know who we are rooting for Lucius to encounter in a grand finale, robbing the film of necessary build up. As a result, Lucius is not as fervent a protagonist to root for as Maximus (Russell Crowe) in the first film.

By sticking so close to the original’s structure Gladiator II derives both benefits and drawbacks. A benefit is that it remains an enjoyable film, with incredible production value, and a satisfying tale with action. The drawbacks, however, are that it is inevitably setting itself up to be compared with a Best Picture winner.

Gladiator II also strays close to imitating superhero beats, with Maximus’ armor and swords seeming like costumes for the next hero to wear. However, if that’s the case, then a hero’s theme song has to be used. Gladiator has one of the best soundtracks in cinematic history by Hans Zimmer, and while the German composer doesn’t return in this film, his replacement Harry Gregson-Williams barely uses any themes from the original in this film. They are teased in two scenes and played over the credits. It proves such a frustrating missed opportunity. When one has such an iconic tool at your fingertips, it is such a shame not to use it.

Gladiator II does assemble a spectacular cast. While none reaches the heights of the original’s performances, they are acceptable imitations. One standout is Washington, who both enlivens and distracts the film. The American actor relishes his scenes, employing his iconic long pauses between words, having viewers lean in to catch his every intonation. However, the actor also hams up his performance in a way that seems satirical, clashing with the more serious performances of the rest of the cast.

In the end, Gladiator II is a fine action film, cut above the usual epics delivered nowadays. There is a reason it took 24 years to make a sequel to this film: there simply wasn’t a clear story to continue telling, and filmmakers clearly just chose to retell the same one. The inevitable comparisons to the original make it seem like a pale imitation. However, imitating great art will deliver a more than serviceable watch.

6.7/10