Gladiator II | Film Review

 

After a devastating loss, Hanno (Paul Mescal) uses his hidden past to battle the powerful emperors trying to conquer his home.

I watched the first Gladiator film as part of last year's movie bucket list and I liked it. I didn't think it absolutely needed a sequel, but I was interested to see one nonetheless - even moreso after it got an Oscar nomination.

I thought this film was fine, there were things I liked and didn't like almost in equal measure.

I really liked the opening sequence, it was really engaging and took the audience straight back into the world of the first film.

I also really liked the way this film connected to the first one.

The visuals are stunning, particularly all of the scenery and set pieces. 

From the offset, I cared about these new characters less than I cared about the first ones. Maybe because it's a sequel, but in the first film there was a real connection to the characters that this one wasn't able to replicate for me.

It felt a lot longer than it needed to be, probably due to the various battle scenes. I found myself losing interest as we were getting towards the end.

For the most part the acting was good, but there were definitely some acting choices that felt a bit out of place and over the top, compared to the choices other actors made.

There were a lot of interesting battles and fight scenes that were really well done, but they didn't always move the story forward.

Overall, this film wasn't as good as the original, but it's clear that fans of the world and time period will definitely enjoy this.

6/10