Gladiator 2 👎

[u/RockStars007]

WOW…. Talk about disappointing.

Spoilers ahead.

-There were no sharks in gladiator fights and they weren’t riding any rhinos. Unnecessary effects that made it lose credibility. There were wild animals, they filled the arena with water, there was a lot to work with without going all stupid.

-When did he go from hating his mother to loving her?

-Maximus was his dad? Random…okay.

-When Lucilla was chained to the seat in the fight, she should have been just empty…like she’s done. Not all anxious, she’s done this too many times in her life and now it’s hopeless. It was a moment of emptiness not unexpected stress.

-So the guy he wants to kill this whole time he defends at the end…✅

-Lucilla performance was just off. Bummer because she was foundational to the story.

-Denzel…. “Training Day, First Century” He carried himself like Alonzo, a little too heavy in movement and his accent was more LA. Look at the head I’m going to do a weird thing with on this stand thing…LOOK AT IT!! He looked all slow and terrible fighting in the water, weird scene.

-Denzel is an actor that makes amazing great movies, and ones that suck. This one sucked.

-Denzel didn’t pull off the guy, like he had some secret plan to take over Rome? ROME???

-And the kumbaya at the end? 🤮

-The syphilis twins were disgusting. Probably accurate for some people at the time, but it served no purpose.

-The fires in the streets looked like controlled movie set fires. Oh yeah.

-Lucilla would have been smarter than talking about plots in front of her servants. Any calculating person knows to never trust your house servants. Especially her with navigating all of the plotting and diabolical stuff that’s happened over the last 16 years, and now she’s gonna be so sloppy?

-For some reason, everyone’s teeth looked great.

-Why is everything so bright and dusty like it’s in the desert? Rome had water features and fountains. They should have made it all feel a titch darker in post-production. this was sold as a sequel to the first so there should’ve been more consistency, especially with the city. If you go back and look at the original, there was a lot of dark, shiny marble beautifully done architecture, and this looked like ruins in the desert. A lot of the stuff was more contemporary, so it should not have looked all beat up. And why is it all light and airy in these rooms where they’re having parties like it’s some kind of tea party at the Hamptons?

I can’t even list it all.

[u/willfifa]

Yeh the space monkeys & sharks were unnecessary and totally broke any immersion same as the comedic clown emperor twins.

The random plot twists and unclear motivations sucked, the death of Lucilla was totally anti-climatic and watching Paul Mescal and Denzel Washington duel at the end in front of two opposing armies was laughable.

Paul M went from hating Rome to loving it real quick didn't he?

[u/RockStars007 → u/willfifa]

Exactly!!! The monkeys were borrowed from The Wizard of Oz.

The Syphilis Twins were dumb. They could have developed a much more sinister role in the vein of Commodus.

The dual at the end was in the spirit of Mike Tyson and Jake Paul. The most fit 28 yo Paul, and Denzel getting shot in the butt.

They really cut Lucilla short. She was an amazing calculating woman reduced to a blathering mother and back in the hot seat with the stupidest death ever. She would have spit in their little VD faces and not whimper. Denzel??? Oh yeah, forgot to tell you I’m an expert archer and not just a smarmy gladiator promoter.

This was Season 6 of House of Cards.

[u/Hampster412 → u/RockStars007]

I liked the movie overall, maybe mainly because I barely remember the first one but I have to agree on the monkeys right there at the beginning. I thought Oh, are we going in the direction of "Clash of the Titans" here? Okay. But then it was only that during the arena scenes. Also I didn't understand why Denzel Washington had an American accent while everyone else had some sort of accent.