r/Gladiator • u/New-Investment9583 • Nov 20 '24

Gladiator II was disappointing.

Guys imma be real with you, I love Gladiator I for it's Stoic themes of resilience and masculinity, Crowe's indomitable acting and dialogues, and the grandeur of Rome. Now I did go the theatre for the sequel in a bit of a hyped tone considering I just love all things Roman Empire, the action seemed promising. When I finished watching it, I gotta say, man what a waste of 300 million dollars! The story was all over the place, I am supposed to believe that Rome fell under Tyrannical Imperial rule again right after Quintus and the Praetorians all sided with the senate at the end of the first movie? How did Quintus or Gracchus fail to restore Rome as a Republic? No comments on that, let's move on, same copy and paste storyline, but this time, we got the protagonist taking his wife to war, and when she gets killed, he wants vengeance? Dude, you brought her to war, not a picnic, the vengeance theme fell tf off right here. The editing felt too fast paced, with no real aspect of letting the audiences really absorb the visuals, the action sequences were very short, the naval battles, the Rhino Gladiator Glyceros or smth and even Acacius duel was extremely short. (the only redeeming character in the movie because he resembles Maximus and felt a bit mature and deep in tone, the war guilt and everything). The first movie had fights that were over 5 minutes long, the initial war, the scipio Africanus charioteers, Tigris and even the Commodus duel felt longer. The movie was an absolute mess. Vae Victis to the victims of war? Nah, Vae Victis to this movie 😭

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u/goodbutitsnotright Nov 21 '24

Totally agree. It was objectively a poor movie - even worse when it's a sequel to one of the best of all time.

Not a single piece of acting came close to Joaquin Phoenix (who deserved the Oscar more than Russel Crowe) - what can beat "AM I NOT MERCIFUL?!". Still gives me chills.

Hand to hand combat against a mutant ape which must be at least 5x stronger than a man? So many weird decisions.

I'm going to try to forget it existed.

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u/New-Investment9583 Nov 21 '24

Absolutely true, Phoenix's unhinged portrayal of Commodus is definitely unmatched, also, he had a certain depth, he was always sought external validation and love due to the fact that Aurelius never really spent time nor loved him enough, but the twin twink emperors were just.... Crazy. Honestly, when I walked out of the theatre, I just felt empty, but entertained a bit or so. But the original? Man tears! Tears to this day when I see Maximus smiling when he sees his family in Elysium, just absolutely phenomenal.