This review contains mild spoilers for Gladiator 2.

Ridley Scott returns to ancient Rome to continue the legend of the Colosseum, but does it live up to the hype? After years of “development hell” and many possible scripts (even one by Nick Cave), the sequel is finally here. But what works? What does not? Was I entertained? 

If you’ve seen the first Gladiator, you’ll be unsurprised by the plot of the sequel. The plot re-treads (or downright copies, depending on how mean you want to get) much of the same story beats as the first movie. A soldier with a wife is sold into slavery, he fights in a small Colosseum before being bought and forced to fight in the famous Roman Colosseum. He has a grudge against a highly regarded Roman, but a coup also occurs in the background. There are many great Colosseum fights, and our main character defeats the villain. Of course, putting it that way detracts from much of the pros Gladiator 2 has going for it. For one, the plot may retread the same ground, but it changes many aspects too and includes many more touching character moments ( and some great twists.) Gladiator 2 also has many more interesting characters than the original. Sure, the original has great characters in Maximus, Commodus, Juda, and Proximo, but the sequel contains many more that help richen the world, and make it feel lived in.  

Secondly, I want to touch on the performances. All the actors are amazing. Denzel Washington may be the standout here, he is completely hamming it up and chewing the hell out of the scenery, and it’s a great time, but I want to give a special shoutout to Alexander Karim as “Ravi.” He completely absorbed me into his character and his performance may be the best in the movie. Pedro Pascal and Connie Nielson are also great, while Paul Mescal lags. Mescal is a very talented actor, as proven by his Academy Award Nomination for Aftersun. But he lacks the much-needed charisma that Russel Crowe had in the original. Plus, his character “Halla” is described as being very rageful, yet Mescal seems to forget this throughout most of the film, except of course, when he is yelling. Other amazing performances in the cast include Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger as the sadistically insane co-emperors. Oh, and the monkey. He deserves an Oscar.

But what about the fights? It IS a gladiator film after all. Well, the fights are spectacular! And on a much grander scale than the original movie. The opening is one highlight of the film. It starts as a tense sea battle, and then transforms into a full-scale invasion, and outclasses the original’s opening. The gladiatorial fights also follow the trend of being on a grander scale. While the original had more low-key fights, with the occasional tiger, the sequel puts it on steroids. The FIRST gladiator fight is against savage baboons, which Paul Mescal bites the arm off of. Wowza. Plus, a giant Rhino fight, and a historically inaccurate (but epic) “Sea Colosseum” fight, complete with moving boats and SHARKS? How did they get sharks into the Colosseum? It’s 200 AD for god’s sake! All in all. The fights are pretty good for a gladiator movie.

Now, this problem needs its paragraph. It is also the biggest spoiler for the review. Why was Paul Mescal’s role not kept secret? I, for one, was very confused by this. Whenever I would look up information about Gladiator 2, it always included information about how Paul Mescal played LUCIUS. The son of Lucilla from the first movie. I thought that in the film, this would be knowledge told to us immediately, while the characters in the movie keep it a secret. No. It is meant to be a surprise to us that the character known as “Halla” is the very important heir to the Roman throne “Lucius Verus Aurelius.” This is told to you when you GOOGLE the movie but is kept a secret until halfway through the film. Why??? Could Ridley Scott not keep it a secret??? It truly baffles me.

Okay so. What have we learned? Well, the acting is mostly all-around amazing, and the fights are spectacularly large-scale, but the plot is a massive retread with some changes and improvements. So, take that how you will. But does it work as a sequel? Was I “not entertained?” Well, I believe this movie may be the perfect sequel. It retreads a lot of the same material as the original but improves enough and carries the plot forward enough that it works. And, I WAS entertained by everything. The epic fights, the engaging politics, and of course, the amazing Pedro Pascal.