Film Review
Tripwire Reviews Gladiator II
Nothing To Crowe About
Tripwire’s senior editor Andrew Colman reviews Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II out in cinemas now…
Gladiator II
Director: Ridley Scott
Stars Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Connie Nielsen, Pedro Pascal
Ridley Scott’s latest epic is a reminder that when it comes to sword and sandal potboilers, it doesn’t matter how hard one labours for historical accuracy – in the end, there will always be a reductive, camp and populist tone to the work. By their very nature, gladiator flicks portray Rome as Sodom and Gomorrah, with little in the way of depth – in other words, regardless of their production values, there’s still a Steve Reeves movie lurking beneath all the elaborate window dressing.
Set 16 years after the death of Maximus, as depicted in the original Gladiator movie, his son Lucius Verus (Paul Mescal) is settled in Numidia, North Africa. Despite his valiant efforts, he is captured by the invading Roman army, led by none other than Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), a general who was mentored by Maximus himself. Lucius ends up in Rome and is forced into becoming a gladiator, where he comes to the attention of Senator Macrinus (Denzel Washington) a former slave who plans to depose the thoroughly decadent and decidedly infantile emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger). Macrinus sees Lucius as useful in his machinations. Meanwhile Lucius’s mother Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) conspires with Acacius to overthrow the emperors, but fails, eventually leading to the denouement.
Scott’s sequel has attracted favourable notices from critics, who have praised his direction and the action scenes, while Washington has been deemed Oscar-worthy by some, despite his character’s pantomime loathsomeness. However, there’s been a certain tacit admission that regardless of any positives, this is an episodic, by the numbers movie, replete with clichés, underdeveloped, unrelatable characters, bland performances and a script that rarely provides spark, let alone context or insight. Even the key scenes in the arena compound between Lucius and his fellow gladiators fail to elicit much drama. What is telling is that many reviewers have generally accepted the movie on its own terms, and even allowed it leeway simply because it’s a sequel – the original film at least had certain pretensions, and notably had Russell Crowe’s authentically hardened, calibrated turn as the protagonist that brought focus and accessibility.
In this overcranked, garish extravaganza, spectacle replaces the cinematic, with the story being one cataclysmic and gut-wrenchingly violent showdown after another. It is somewhat reminiscent of a sixth-form primer, with the two warped emperors coming across as New Romantic men-children who had just wandered out of The Blitz club in 1981. Scott’s take on the arena is all skewed sturm und drang histrionics, such as the crazed, steel-jawed CGI baboons who greet Lucius on his first escapade in the arena. And it gets truly bizarre in places, with Scott no doubt being given free rein on the tiller, such as the naval battle in the Colosseum, or when a gladiator enters the arena standing atop a charging rhinoceros. Credit indeed to Scott for these memorably surreal moments, but this is the window dressing I mentioned earlier, the smoke and mirrors distraction from what is a cookie-cutter blockbuster with a predictable ending. Worst of all, each baroque set-piece has the tiresome effect of slowing down the narrative, the story itself taking seemingly forever to get going and reach a resolution.
If anything is surprising or different about this movie, it is (beyond the level of gratuitous gore and dismemberment) Denzel Washington’s effort as the appallingly nasty Macrinus, who unlike more nuanced villains is not afraid to get his hands dirty, such as cutting certain characters’ heads off and then carrying said head around the senate while declaiming his plans for Rome. Was that Scott’s attempt to channel Pasolini? Kidding aside, Washington’s craggy antagonist is a sophisticated bit of work, but an odd if not jarring choice for an actor who rarely if ever plays such characters – maybe that was the point for Scott, to give a veteran leading man like him such a role. A character actor might’ve been more suitable, but Washington’s casting works, for what it’s worth. He also gets the lion’s share of the best lines.
An oddball project for Scott despite the inherent laziness (the plot is just too similar to the original), coming as it does off the back of last year’s equally flawed if beautifully framed misfire, Napoleon. Not even barely a patch on the first outing, one could argue (as the critics have hinted) that if you’re prepared to switch your brain off and just enjoy this folly, you’re in for a treat. Judging by Scott’s career one shouldn’t expect too much more, given that he’s a filmmaker rather than an auteur – but again, that’s basically me saying expect little and you won’t be disappointed.
Gladiator II is in UK and US cinemas now.
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