Ridley Scott is undoubtedly one of the greatest living filmmakers of our time. The man is responsible for bona fide cinematic classics such as Alien, Blade Runner, and Thelma & Louise. In recent years, he has continued to impress with a diverse range of works, including The Martian, Alien: Covenant, and the criminally underrated The Last Duel. Despite the iconic status of so much of his work, Scott appears entirely uninterested in dwelling on the notion of legacy when it comes to his filmmaking. Much like a prolific author, Scott approaches his craft as a job centered on storytelling, and he fulfills it with remarkable dedication, producing multiple films in the time it takes many of his peers to make just one.
I bring this up because, heading into Gladiator II, I was incredibly curious about how Scott’s direction would interact with his work on the original Gladiator. Historically, when Scott revisits his prior works, he often displays an overarching indifference toward replicating the original, instead choosing to craft something entirely new. Consider the stark contrast between Prometheus and Alien: Covenant compared to his original Alien. While this year’s Alien: Romulus saw director Fede Álvarez remaining slavishly devoted to the aesthetic of Scott’s 1979 classic—sometimes to a fault—Scott himself has never been preoccupied with honoring legacy. This indifference is precisely what made Prometheus and Covenant feel so fresh and imaginative, charting bold new territory rather than retreading old ground.
Gladiator II emerges as a deeply conflicted work. On one hand, Scott’s direction is anything but overly reverent, infused with the same spontaneous charisma and energy that has characterized much of his recent work. On the other hand, the screenplay by David Scarpa and Peter Craig leans heavily on the original film, functioning as a legacy sequel that revisits much of the same thematic and narrative terrain. This dynamic creates a sense of dissonance, as the film seems torn between forging a fresh path and paying homage to its predecessor, often stumbling awkwardly in its attempt to reconcile these competing impulses.
I so badly wish I could say that none of this mattered—because if Scott and his visual team had delivered the same level of adrenaline-pumping, jaw-dropping cinema-of-attraction fervor as they’ve done in the past, the story would have faded into the background. Unfortunately, to my own bewilderment, Gladiator II stumbles in its action sequences and struggles to regain its footing. While there are occasional bursts of excitement where the action feels genuinely impactful, these moments are overshadowed by extended stretches of screen time where the set pieces feel surprisingly unremarkable.
The film opens with a battle sequence that should feel gargantuan and monumental but fails at every turn. From the cinematography, where DP John Mathieson and Scott often employ soft-focus long lenses with the camera kept at a distance, to the editing, where Claire Simpson and Sam Restivo opt for disjointed jump cuts that fail to escalate tension, maintain clarity, or create the space for emotional resonance, the sequence consistently falls flat. The underwhelming digital effects, which look shockingly unfinished, only add to the disappointment, making for an exceedingly lackluster start.
This lack of execution further highlights the script’s banality, as it fails to establish Paul Mescal’s protagonist in any meaningful way. Rather than delving into his character, the film resorts to fridging his wife, delaying any substantial character development in favor of introducing a series of ill-conceived mysteries about his familial legacy. Ultimately, this weak opening undermines the film’s potential and sets the stage for a muddled narrative to follow.
It’s a genuine shame because Mescal is delivering solid work here, but his character never truly gets the time to develop or shine in a meaningful way. Even later in the film, when more of his character’s history is revealed and moments seem ripe for interpersonal drama—moments that could have interacted powerfully with the film’s broader themes—they fall flat. Gladiator II is filled with twists and turns clearly designed to shock audiences, but the most surprising thing about the film to me was how much potential it leaves unexplored.
There’s so much to be done with the metatext of a story like this—about individuals forced to kill one another for the entertainment and pacification of the masses. The first film explored this idea with some insightful commentary, and this sequel seemed primed to delve even deeper into it. Yet, it ultimately doesn’t. Instead, it skirts around these thematic possibilities, leaving them untapped and unaddressed. The film’s failure to engage meaningfully with these ideas feels like a missed opportunity to add depth to an otherwise predictable narrative.
In fact, I would argue that the only element of the film that meaningfully engages with the larger metaphor so blatantly at hand is Denzel Washington’s performance. While I think everyone does a more than admirable job with what they’re given here (I especially appreciated the brutal physical presences of both Mescal and Pedro Pascal in their respective roles), Washington is truly in a class of his own, and watching him strut his stuff within the context of Scott’s direction is a gift from above. His performance is simultaneously deeply charismatic and compelling while also gradually revealing greater depths and nuance over the course of the film. It’s a fantastic, grade-A performance that elevates every single element of the script it comes into contact with. In fact, I would argue that one of the few silver linings in the legacy sequel trappings of the script is the way in which the format is weaponized to deceive audiences into a false sense of security surrounding Washington’s role in the film, which Scott and Washington then gleefully exploit to remarkable effect in the third act.
The third act of the film is truly where things come alive, as the film moves beyond the structure of the first Gladiator and delivers something that feels like a natural progression of where that film left off, both narratively and thematically. But even once you’re there, one can’t help but feel a bit frustrated at the winding, meandering, and often repetitive route that was taken to get there. Once all the cards are on the table and each character’s motivation is made clear, it makes for a deeply enthralling conflict that ties into the larger themes of the film in meaningful ways. But so much of the film’s first two acts are spent deliberately obfuscating these facts for a cheap mystery-box approach (which becomes more woefully trite with each passing year, especially in these legacy sequels) that it feels like by the time the board is truly set for meaningful conflict, it’s time to wrap everything up and tease Gladiator III. Perhaps I’m speaking out of turn here, but I personally don’t really care if the protagonist of a movie is the son of a character I’ve seen before in a different film; I care about seeing that protagonist face present-tense conflicts and overcome them in meaningful, affecting ways. And sadly, Gladiator II offers precious little of that.
As I said, when Scott’s filmmaking craft comes alive in the action setpieces, it can feel utterly glorious. An early fight sequence in which Mescal’s character fights before the Twin Emperors for the first time is cohesive, coherent, and impactful in ways no prior fight sequence had been up to that point, and I was vibrating in my seat with excitement. Similarly, the first shot of a late-in-the-second-act Pedro Pascal-centric setpiece is a sustained one in which Pascal’s character takes on multiple combatants simultaneously, and it’s fluid and effective in its movement. But so much of the action just feels like it fails to come together, with the editing cutting on hits, failing to preserve legibility with a lot of the shakier camera work, and even (confoundingly) breaking the 180-degree line several times during fight sequences in a way that confuses the screen direction in detrimental ways. The first Gladiator was a tactile and ferocious series of setpieces, and even more than that, I would argue that The Last Duel’s titular duel is one of the most impactful and tremendously affecting action sequences I’ve seen in a theater in the past decade, with each individual beat of it being sewn together with such aching and exacting precision. While a few moments in Gladiator II tease the mastery of those films, it never fully sustains it.
RGM GRADE
(C+)
Overall, Gladiator II is far from a bad film, but it was a disappointing and deflating one. The cast is routinely solid, with Denzel Washington’s performance specifically being tremendous, and when the action comes alive in spurts, it’s fleetingly staggering. But far too much of the film is preoccupied with legacy sequel trappings that feel particularly ill-suited for a Ridley Scott joint. Having said all of that, Scott has been talking about doing a Godfather Part II-indebted third film that splits the difference between the new and old cast across generations, and I regret to admit that, yes, I would be the first in line for Gladiator-goes-Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.
