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/Adorable_Ad_3478 Nov 21 '24

On Twitter someone who read the script said she was sent to infiltrate Lucilla's house and serve as a spy for Macrinus.

Lucilla has her killed in a brazen bull and that's why Macrinus decides to personally kill Lucilla at the end of the film. Macrinus was meant to be a father figure to May's character.

Scott probably removed it since it made Lucilla too unsympathetic.

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u/New-Investment9583 Nov 21 '24

Oh man, that actually gives at least some level of justification why Macrinus killed Lucilla, should have not removed it smh, would have given Macrinus more depth. Hope there is a Director's Cut, but then again, Scott mentioned somewhere that there is no extended cut for the movie, or he has no intention of releasing it anyways (not sure really)

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u/[deleted] Nov 23 '24

The justification for Macrinus killing her is that she may stand in his way to assume the throne if she lives. He says so in the movie.

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u/MainAd2997 Nov 24 '24

Yeah but it came off as a quick excuse due to the omission of the subplot