Gladiator II

It simply amazes me that the original film, "Gladiator" was released 24 years ago! Where has the time gone? Although this film's predecessor was an amazingly well crafted movie, "Gladiator II" was every bit as well crafted. I believe waiting for almost a decade only served this film, and the fact that both films were directed by Ridley Scott didn't hurt.

16 years after witnessing the death of Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), Lucius (Paul Mescal) must enter the Colosseum after the powerful emperors of Rome, Emperor Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Emperor Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) conquer his home. With rage in his heart and the future of the empire at stake, he looks to the past to find the strength and honor needed to return the glory of Rome to its people. 

Others to round out the cast are Connie Nielsen as Lucilla, Denzel Washington as Macrinus, Derek Jacobi as Gracchus, Lior Raz as Viggo, Alexander Karim as Ravi, Matt Lucas as Master of Ceremonies, Rory McCann as Tegula, Peter Mensah as Jubartha, Yuval Gonen as Arishat and Tim McInnerny asThraex. 

As with "Gladiator", this film was also brilliantly directed with amazing grit and intensity by the incomparable Ridley Scott ("The Duelists" '77, "Alien" '79, "Blade Runner" '82, "Thelma & Louise" '91, "White Squall" '96, "Gladiator" 2000, "Black Hawk Down" '01, "Matchstick Men" '03, "American Gangster" '07, "Prometheus" '12, "The Martian" '15, "All the Money in the World" '17, "House of Gucci" '21, "Napoleon" '23) plus other films, TV, a TV movie, videos and shorts. Certainly as time goes by Scott just gets more and more talented as he is obviously in a field of endeavor that he was born to do. His sequencing was presented in an almost effortless way. His cohesiveness and clarity in how he maneuvers his actors is second to none. He, like Spielberg and Nolan, has commanded a trustworthiness from his audience. It was equally well penned by writer David Scarpa (""The Last Castle" '01, "The Day the Earth Stood Still" '08, "All the Money in the World" '17, "Napoleon" '23) plus TV, based on a story by Peter Craig and David Scarpa which is based on characters created by David Franzpni. This writer was able to delineate the characters in this film with such finesse and clarity that I believe, along with the directing, it helped create a more chilling screenplay. And actually, the only issue I had with this script was that there were a couple of places of slowness in the story, but considering this was basically a two and a half hour running time that moved right along, this was a small infraction. The visual effects by ILM (Industrial, Light & Magic) and Framestore were amazing as they were incredibly effective. The sound effects editing by Matthew Collinge and Paul Massey were simply amazing and I noticed that almost immediately. 

It you liked the original "Gladiator", you'll love this. Between Ridley Scott's directing and Paul Mescal and Pedro Pescal's acting, this movie was amazing. FYI: this is rated 'R' for a reason--the gratuitous violence is evident as is is here so all can see. Hey, the Roman Empire days were ruthless and very violent. Enjoy!

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                                   Rated: R                                       148mins.