Put on Your Gladiator Rags

If you're watching the opening battle of Gladiator 2, where siege tower adorned ships attack a city, and thinking "this isn't how it would have gone down", then this is not the film for you. Ridley Scott's twenty four years in the making sequel is a historical epic with emphasis firmly on the epic part. Is it as good as its predecessor? Obviously not. But you'll be too enthralled by the spectacle to care.

Picking up sixteen years on from the events of the first movie, Paul Mescal is Hanno, a Roman by birth who has settled in Numidia. Pedro Pascal's General Acacius brings his Roman army to conquer the city, leaving Hanno in chains and his wife dead. After watching the captive Numidians in a forced fight against some seriously savage (and ripped) monkeys, a wealthy slave owner called Macrinus (Denzel Washington) is impressed by Hanno's rage and brings him to Rome to fight in the colosseum, promising him a chance to kill the general if he impresses in the arena. Unbeknownst to Hanno, General Acacius did not want to sack his home and is plotting to oust the mental case twin emperors who keep making him wage war. Cue insanely grandiose fight sequences and political skullduggery.

The tale of a gladiator fighting for his life and ultimately playing a large part in the future of Rome is all very reminiscent of the first film (it's a Gladiator movie, what else was it going to be about?) but things are updated for the current climate. Whereas Russel Crowe's Maximus funnelled his rage into a stoic determination, the central character Mescal portrays is a far more emotional one. Biting monkeys and spouting poetry, he wears his pain for all to see, in keeping with a more modern ideal of masculinity. The modern lens extends to the world as a whole too, Maximus still clung on to a sense of duty and "the dream of Rome", while Hanno (to start with at least) couldn't give a toss about a place that has clearly succumbed to greed and corruption, with starving people lining the streets rather than well wishers. Ridley Scott has even described Washington's Macrinus as "a billionaire who wants to take over the government", reminding us of nobody I'm sure.

Where Gladiator 2 most shines is, unsurprisingly, in the colossal action. The anti is suitably upped this time around with navel battles in a water (and shark) filled colosseum and a rhino riding arena champion among the highlights. Huge sets, including the colosseum, were built for filming and the effort really pays off, delivering a sense of scale that would have been nigh on impossible to achieve with CG effects alone. Mescal shows he has action chops, throwing himself into the violence with an infectious glee and its nice to see him displaying his considerable talents in a film that doesn't kick you in the soul repeatedly.

It's a good job the action is so strong because cracks start to show when the film slows down. There is a larger emphasis on the politicking this time round, not necessarily a problem, but it does feel a little bit like two separate movies running side by side. It's also unclear how the twin emperors came to power and the senate dynamics are under explored making it difficult to fully invest in the broader scope of proceedings. Plenty of these scenes are still fun though, with Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger camping it up a storm as the mad brothers in charge and Denzel Washington absolutely burning up the screen every time he appears.

The film does fall into the legacy sequel trap of being too in awe of its predecessor. What begins as a new story ends up buried in references to Maximus and former emperor Marcus Aurelius, to the point where this would almost feel like a coda to Gladiator were it not for the set piece muscle on display. It's also a shame that only returning cast member Connie Nelson has her character reduced to evangelising the men from the first film while asking the men of this one for help.

Gladiator 2 lacks the heft of the 2000 epic and is unlikely to find itself burdened with that films haul of Oscars. What it doesn't lack is big film making, packing in massive scale and outsized performance. The kind of thing we see all too rarely and should celebrate when we can.

8 monkey politicians out of 10.

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