Gladiator II

by Mike McGranaghan

Did Gladiator deserve to win the Best Picture Oscar in 2001? Its victory seems increasingly like a botch, considering it beat out Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the not-even-nominated Almost Famous. Then again, I wasn’t a fan of the movie in the first place. Dazzling CGI aside, it was too old-fashioned and self-important to pull me in. Maybe director Ridley Scott feels the same way. His sequel, Gladiator II, strips away the artsy veneer and simply exists as an action picture. I think it’s far more entertaining than the original.

Hanno (Paul Mescal) has vowed revenge against General Acacius (Pedro Pascal) after Roman troops invade his province, leaving his wife to die in battle. That isn’t easy, given that he’s enslaved and forced to participate in a gladiatorial game involving a pack of vicious baboons. Hanno’s victory against the primates catches the notice of Macrinus (Denzel Washington), a guy who sponsors fighters. The two strike up a deal in which Macrinus promises to arrange an opportunity to kill Acacius if Hanno wins enough matches. During this process, the gladiator also discovers his connection to Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), the lover of Russell Crowe’s character from the earlier film.

Although it takes a back seat to the action, Gladiator II does have a story. The secret from Hanno’s past is easy to guess. We’ve seen this general arc done before, although the impassioned performances from Mescal and Nielsen make it palatable once again. More engrossing is the subplot involving Macrinus’s efforts to subtly gain power within the empire, which include manipulating the tyrannical sibling emperors Geta (A Quiet Place: Day One’s Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Thelma’s Fred Hechinger). All the fighting is central to these story threads, allowing Scott to glide smoothly into violent mayhem on a regular basis.

In what is perhaps the single most inspired element of the movie, authenticity is thrown out the window. Aside from the feral, snarling baboons, Hanno takes on a rhinoceros. Another scene finds the Colosseum flooded with shark-infested water for a naval-style challenge. These sequences are crafted with the intent to create huge levels of excitement in the viewer. They’re gloriously over-the-top, as is the violence in general. If the original Gladiator often played as though it had awards in mind, the follow-up simply wants to be rousing entertainment. That goal is successfully met.

Mescal, Pascal, and Nielsen are rock-solid in their roles, while Quinn and Hechinger go pleasingly broad as the emperors. The film belongs to Denzel Washington, though. He takes Macrinus’s cunning ambitiousness seriously, yet still plays it with an almost impish quality. Some of his line readings are intentionally off-kilter, implying the character is fully enjoying the fact that nobody realizes how devious he is. Does Washington’s New York accent sound appropriate to ancient Rome? Of course not, but who cares? Here’s one of our best actors commanding every single scene he appears in.

The production design is exemplary, as is the CGI used to create Hanno’s animal foes. They’re strong points. Gladiator II is not going to win the Academy Award like its predecessor did. It probably won’t even be nominated for Best Picture. The movie sequel-izes an Oscar winner, choosing to emphasize the factors that made it a box office hit rather than those that made it an awards player. A wise choice, as far as I’m concerned.

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