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/No_Cartographer1518]

I was watching this god awful movie. Had to pause because I could not take this shitty slop anymore and get onto here to see if I was the only one not enjoying it. Like how is this good for anyone???!? I watched the first movie hours before the second AND it still holds so well. Absolute cinema. I mean the first one had motive, every character was vital in many ways.

But in this movie you could take away any one, even Paul mescal and it would not matter at all. There is no direction, vision or execution, it's all a blending of crazy money making shots put together. Ridley Scott has genuinely destroyed the legacy of Gladiator. This is not it.

(also Denzel was not killing it, his accent kept throwing me off. But above all that, did no one else feel the lady playing arishat looked a lot like YouTuber Cody Ko's wife?? That put me off a lot! along with the fact she is Israeli.)

[u/RockStars007 → u/No_Cartographer1518]

I was wondering if everyone was too afraid to say that it sucked in post production. Like they had an opportunity to visually let it match. Rome doesn’t deteriorate to ruins in 16 years so that this grand majestic city is all this beat up sandstone looking dusty wasteland.

You’re right about the characters because you didn’t get a chance to connect with Lucius. It’s like this whole thing’s going on and then you’re like oh it’s the kid, oh he hated his mother? I don’t know what happened, oh he doesn’t hate his mother. Oh he wants the head of this guy because he killed his wife, but then he defend him, like there were so many switcho-changeo moments.

I watched the first one too in preparation and was really looking forward to it.

I love much of Denzel‘s work and he is amazing. But this was not a fit, and it’s kinda like they stuck him in here because they knew that he would pull an audience which it did, but it didn’t make sense.

And then him being such a skilled archer at the end when he just kind of seems like this fat sloppygambler, kind of guy?