Grandiosity be damned. Ridley Scott makes a sturdy movie. When Gladiator II is in the heat of the action, it’s big screen opium for the masses. Inhale the devil’s breath, and let go of preconceptions like “this legacy sequel needs to mean something” and “it would be nice if it had a story.”
It’s nice to want things. But it’s even nicer to have them. We have Gladiator and we have Gladiator II. Between 2000 and 2024 we have not developed a better sort of big tent action cinema than some sweaty, bloody gladiators sparring off in a coliseum.
Gladiator II, then does what any sequel would do: fills the arena with water and adds sharks. Dads everywhere may rejoice, as the ease of entry comes at no emotional or intellectual cost.
Instead, we get the same movie but Paul Mescal is Lucius, son of Maximus and Lucilla. He is not Russel Crowe. Mescal is sufficient, though, and sufficiency is the point. He has enough dramatic anchoring that if the film required him to act, he would, but it doesn’t, like a card up its sleeve that stays there.
It works because Mescal is counterbalanced by Pedro Pascal, leader of the Roman army who put an arrow through the heart of Lucius’ wife. Lucius is taken in a cart from that same battle to the gladiatorial arena where he performs in combat under the request of Denzel Washington’s Macrinus, a former slave who now wants to overthrow the empire.
That’s all you need. That’s a movie. Put Denzel Washington in a role that provides stakes and you have it right there. Don’t mess with a good thing. Dads only want one thing and it’s this.
When Gladiator II strays from the action, the thinness of story is revealed, as it simply does the job in front of it: retracing Gladiator and selling us what we like again. There’s no shame in buying.
Ridley Scott is superb in this mode, conveying this lean combat fantasy and keeping it moving. Gladiator II is good, not because it does anything new, but because it is reliable and doesn’t reinvent the wheel. There are not enough movies at the cinema anymore where the audience just gets to have a good time. Entertainment is the point.