connie nielsen

Fans of excessive violence and banal stereotypes will welcome director Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II, set sixteen years after Gladiator, also directed by Scott. First, good news. Technically, every element shines from John Mathieson’s impressive cinematography reportedly often involving eight to twelve cameras filming simultaneously. Compositions, lighting, art direction, and editing contribute a professional gloss to events, obvious CGI excepted. In addition, the ensemble cast, to a person, commit fully to their two-dimensional characters, all familiar caricatures, lacking any complexity. They each telegraph their function immediately and often.

Like an ancient road, Gladiator II, a sequel arriving twenty-four years after the Oscar-winning Gladiator, covers some familiar ground. Director Ridley Scott’s historical epic ramps up swords-and-sandals violence, delivering a visual spectacle of decapitation, dismemberment, and free-for-alls that include battles at sea.
Yet the story doesn’t have the same resonance as the original, where the honorable Roman general Maximus (Russell Crowe), betrayed and enslaved, fought for his freedom and to depose a corrupt emperor through combat in the Coliseum.

After Gladiator (2000) won an Oscar as Best Picture, Ridley Scott waited more than 20 years to return to Rome’s ancient Colosseum to film Gladiator II. While the first Gladiator focused on Roman General Maximus (Russell Crowe), this follow-up introduces Lucius who, as a sensitive 12 year-old in Numidia, was forced to leave his aristocratic family, go into hiding and ‘forget’ his identity. it’s a redemptive comeback for 86 year-old Ridley Scott after duds like Napoleon, House of Gucci, and The Last Duel. And it should nab a Best Supporting Actor nomination for scene-stealing Denzel Washington.

It’s been 24 years since director Ridley Scott awed movie goers with Gladiator, his Oscar-winning Roman Colosseum sword fest soap opera. But It hasn’t been that long in screenplay years. Gladiator II is set 16 years after Lucius witnessed the death of Maximus. Bigger, louder and bloodier, Gladiator II is the epic battle for supremacy. It’s two hours and 20 minutes of posturing and pillaging leading to catastrophic carnage. Heads roll. Literally!