Gadiator II (2024)

Nearly a quarter of a century later, Scott returned to the Roman Empire to continue the story from Gladiator. Nearly 25 years have passed in the story as well. Things are not the same as they were, and the hope that the previous story ended on has not delivered.

Our world is not the same either. In the intervening years we have seem major, major world events and changes. Terror attacks, whole wars have been waged, new wars are upon us, pandemic, and that “Reality Television” entertainment that I compared to the gladiatorial distraction of Rome has produced an actual president. Populism, nationalism, and oligarchy are the name of the game in politics.

However, despite all the currents in culture that the Roman story could comment on, it feels like opportunities were wasted. The dual Emperors in ths story are grossly underdeveloped. The characters in this new story that serve as obvious stand-ins or avatars of characters in the previous films are underutilized. Denzel Washington’s Macrinus is the only developed and interesting new angle in this story, and even he is more of a joke, comic-grotesque of the real world figures he is mirroring.

Surprisingly, 25 years later the effects and CGI in this film are less convincing than the previous one.

Overall, this was an entertaining spectacle, a circus designed to distract and wow. I doubt it will be anywhere nearly as relevant 25 years from now as Gladiator still is today.