‘Gladiator 2’ review: back to Rome for Paul Mescal’s Colosseum-sized sequel

NME

Reboots and sequels pop up constantly these days, but this year Hollywood’s been digging deeper into its archive than ever before. Not one of 2024’s top 10 highest-grossing films is based on an original idea – and most of those franchises stretch back into the last century. You have to scan down to 12th position before you hit on something new – Blake Lively’s scandal-plagued romcom It Ends With Us – and even that was a book.

One of the last remaining untapped IP is Ridley Scott’s Gladiator. The legendary director has taken nearly two and a half decades to bring his classic vengeance tale starring Russell Crowe back to the big screen – and in that time, the late Maximus Decimus Meridius’ “dream that was Rome” has turned into a nightmare. There’s deadly famine, disease and never-ending wars. Most of the bad stuff is down to ruling teen brothers Geta and Caracalla, who have stepped into slimy, self-satisfied Emperor Commodus’ leather sandals – displaying a similarly insatiable appetite for military conquest. Across the Mediterranean Sea in the African kingdom of Numidia, rightful heir to the throne Lucius (Paul Mescal) has grown up in hiding but now prepares for battle against an incoming Italian armada. It’s not a spoiler to say this battle doesn’t go well for the Numidians – and enslaved (though still incognito) Lucius must slash his way to revenge through hordes of ferocious challengers in The Colosseum.

Sound familiar? That’s because Scott’s long-awaited follow-up mimics its predecessor almost stab for stab. Lucius, like Maximus, was cast out from the elite during political turmoil. Early on, he suffers a tragic loss. Even Lucius’ key personality traits – reluctant fighter, intensely moral, hellbent on retribution – could have come straight from Maximus’ obituary. And then there’s the strangely reverential flashbacks (stylishly animated) to scenes from the first film. These are supposed to remind us what happened when and why we should be invested in whom – but everything is explained again in depth by the new characters moments later anyway, so what’s the point? It smacks of other blockbuster ‘requels’ (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Jurassic World). Give the fans enough nostalgia to keep them happy and the rest of us a little fresh action so we aren’t bored. Every so often, Gladiator 2 gets the balance wrong.

It also gets a lot right. The sets are stunning. There’s a fantastic score by Scott regular Harry Gregson-Williams (House Of Gucci, The Martian). And, most important of all for a Gladiator movie, the combat sequences feel immersive and gripping. Within minutes, we’re dropped into the swirling maelstrom of a naval attack. Waves crash on the stone ramparts, defending soldiers are impaled by flying spears and catapults fling giant flaming rocks that blow apart the approaching wooden ships like a cannonball through cocktail sticks. It’s brutal, gory and as good as anything in the original. Equally explosive are the arena contests which have evolved to include rabid baboons, a supersized rhino and bloodthirsty CGI sharks that patrol the depths of a submerged stadium. Academics are already angry about the historical inaccuracies (no Great Whites in The Eternal City, apparently) but when it’s this fun, who cares?

Another of Gladiator 2‘s strengths is its cast. Mescal, with his strong jawline and smouldering intensity, looks every bit Crowe’s successor. Denzel Washington’s deliciously campy slave master Macrinus has aspirations for political power, providing a potent supporting character arc. And Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things) and Fred Hechinger (The White Lotus) do well to make their spoiled brat despots sufficiently hateable. Connie Nielsen’s returning heiress Lucilla – Lucius’ estranged mother who is now married to Pedro Pascal’s mutinous general Marcus Acacius – struggles through some duff dialogue and, for some reason, Matt Lucas cameos as the games’ theatrical announcer but even those distractions aren’t enough to spoil a stellar lineup.

If you loved Gladiator, it’s odds-on you’ll enjoy this too. It’s got all of the same exciting bits – swordfighting, rousing speeches, nasty poshos getting what they deserve. The problem is that’s all it gives you. You want to feel like you’re watching Maximus lift off his helmet and deliver that iconic monologue for the first time again. You want the thrill of a core memory being unlocked. You want to know you’ll be quoting Mescal’s lines to your mates in the pub for the next 10 years. Gladiator 2, piously respectful as it is, can only offer a faded memory of that experience. There was a dream that was Rome, and this is kind of it.

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