- Gladiator II will hit theaters in the US on November 22
- But critics have given their first thoughts to the movie
- The film is led by a stellar cast, which includes Paul Mescal, Pedro Pescal and Denzel Washington
It’s one of the most anticipated movies of the year.
And now the first reviews for Gladiator II are here.
The blockbuster is the sequel to the 2000 movie Gladiator, starring Russell Crowe.
Directed once more by Ridley Scott, the film takes place over two decades after the events of Gladiator. Paul Mescal plays Lucius, the son of Lucilla (Connie Nielson) and Crowe’s Maximus, who lives with his wife in Numidia.
Roman soldiers – led by General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) – invade, killing his wife and forcing Lucius into slavery. Inspired by Maximus, Lucius resolves to fight as a gladiator under the teaching of Macrinus (Denzel Washington), a former slave who plots to overthrow the young emperors Caracalla and Geta (Fred Hechinger and Joseph Quinn).
While the movie doesn’t hit theaters in the US until November 22, critics have already shared their thoughts on the film.
Pubity.com takes a look at what they thought of Gladiator II…
The Guardian – 4/5 – ‘Mescal’s triumphal march into the A-list’
“At 28, Paul Mescal is younger than Crowe’s 36 when he took the lead in G1, but he is massively bulked up with a new sonorous Britspeak growl: charismatic and likable in the ways Mescal always is.
“This is a sequel that isn’t afraid to get its hands dirty – it delivers the keynote scenes and moments for the fanbase (which is all of us) and the all-important gladiator setpieces have the right hallucinatory quality, as a sea-battle is re-enacted in the flooded arena or a vast rhino gets its scaly backside kicked. When Lucius has to fight vicious baboons in one scene, it almost looks like sci-fi. Gladiator v alien?
“There is something awe-inspiring in seeing Mescal’s triumphal march into the A-list.”
Empire – 4/5 – ‘A fun romp’
“It is in many ways as compelling and expertly staged as the first Gladiator, but this one feels less concerned with its own epic-ness and a tad more proudly baroque. There’s a fearlessness to its big swings that has to be applauded. It’s Ridley Scott Unleashed, and we’re here for it.
“What could have been a ponderous, predictable sequel to a much-loved Oscar-winner instead turns out to be a fun romp. However Gladiator II fares this awards season, it’s a hell of a ride.”
The New Statesman – ‘A triumph’
“There’s no Crowe, but in every other way it follows the template remarkably closely. Short report: it’s a triumph, therefore. Loyalists rejoice: it is chock-full of fighting once again.
“‘You will have to shoot me in the head to stop me now. I will never retire,’ Sir Ridley Scott promised 20 years ago. Better, I think, to give him now the Oscar he has, absurdly, never won as a director; if not for Gladiator II, then for a lifetime’s achievement.”
Variety – ‘As good a movie as we could have expected’
“It may not be high praise, but Gladiator II is probably about as good a movie as we could have expected it to be. Written by David Scarpa (Napoleon) and directed by Scott (who, at 86, hasn’t lost his touch for the peacock pageantry of teeming masses thirsting for blood), the movie is a solid piece of neoclassical popcorn – a serviceable epic of brutal warfare, Colosseum duels featuring lavish decapitations and beasts both animal and human, along with the middlebrow ‘decadence’ of palace intrigue.
“The way Macrinus rises up, driven by Washington’s formidable flair, lends the movie some structural surprise. What’s less surprising – downright sequel dutiful, in fact – is Lucius’s late-stage embrace of Maximus’s moxie and his literal suit of armor.
“The way Mescal plays him, with an anger that never quite simmers to a boil, we now can’t help but see him as a millennial knockoff of Crowe’s glowering royal punk. At Gladiator II, are we not entertained? We are. But that’s not necessarily the same as enthralled.”
Vulture – ‘Mescal is terrible at giving the rousing speeches’
“Mescal’s career to date has been heavily delineated by women and he has excelled at playing elusive objects of longing. But he’s terrible at giving the rousing speeches that were so iconic in Gladiator and that Gladiator II, which has a clunkier script written by David Scarpa, attempts to re-create.
“His instinct is to underplay these moments rather than bellow theatrically, which is a problem, especially when saddled with somewhat confusing slogans like, ‘Where we are, death is not!’”
The Hollywood Reporter – ‘There’s a déjà vu quality to the new film’
“Few contemporary directors are tackling movies of the scale and muscularity that Ridley Scott, brings to Gladiator II. In terms of brutal spectacle, elaborate period reconstruction and vigorous set pieces requiring complex choreography, the sequel delivers what fans of its Oscar-winning 2000 predecessor will crave — battles, swordplay, bloodshed, Ancient Roman intrigue.
“That said, there’s a déjà vu quality to much of the new film, a slavishness that goes beyond the caged men forced to fight for their survival, and seeps into the very bones of a drama overly beholden to the original.
“As he demonstrated in the far more uneven Napoleon, Scott is in his element filming massive crowds and blood-soaked battles, the grandiosity accentuated by Harry Gregson-Williams’ high-drama score.
“Gladiator II might not have a protagonist with the scorching glower of Crowe’s Maximus, but it has plenty of the eye-popping spectacle and operatic violence audiences will want.”
BBC – 4/5 – ‘The best popcorn film of the year’
“How can you not love a film that has swords, sandals, sharks in the flooded Roman Colosseum, Denzel Washington in flowing robes and Paul Mescal biting a baboon? There’s much more than that, both serious and camp, in Ridley Scott’s exhilarating and fun sequel to Gladiator, which won the Oscar for best picture nearly a quarter of a century ago.
“Full of spectacle and spectacular performances, Gladiator II is by far the best popcorn film of the year.”
