Try not to get your toga in a twist – but early reactions to Ridley Scott’s long-awaited Gladiator II have hit the internet. And the consensus is that the sequel to Scott’s Oscar-slaying 2000 sword-and-sandal epic merits two thumbs up. There is even chatter of possible Academy Awards contention – with Denzel Washington singled out for his role as Macrinus, a sort of Gladiatorial Simon Cowell figure and mentor to the movie’s blade-swinging anti-hero Lucius (Normal People’s Paul Mescal).
The positive response to early screenings will come as a relief to those who hold the original Gladiator in high regard. In the intervening 24 years, director Scott has blotted his copybook multiple times, retroactively bleaching all the fun from his sci-fi classic Alien with a duo of dire prequels (Prometheus and Alien: Covenant). He’s also proved hit and miss at the historical epic milieu at which he excelled with Gladiator – with both the charmless The Last Duel and the awful Napoleon suggesting a misfiring mojo.
With Gladiator, he appears to have belatedly rediscovered his talent for grand storytelling. That’s judging by the social media responses that have been published (the embargo for full-blown reviews doesn’t lift until next Monday, 11 November).
“He’s still got it – absolutely buzzing,” tweeted FilmSpeak’s Griffin Schiller. “An epic Shakespearean tale of hope, futility and power within a crumbling system,” he added – which sounds more like a Manchester United biopic than a Roman epic, but there you go.
Other reviewers were just as effusive. “‘Welcome back to the f–king movies.’ That sums up Gladiator II,” says Clayton Davis of Variety, while Simon Thompson of The Playlist felt that it “dovetailed stylishly with the original”. Luke Hearfield, meanwhile, tipped his hat to Scott’s direction: “This swords & sandals epic is easily his best film in ages and will be your dad’s fav film of 2024.”
The first Gladiator tracked the fall and rise of Russell Crowe’s General Maximus as he was relegated to the status of gladiator after the wicked Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) deposed his father, the Emperor, in a coup. The action ends with Maximus defeating Commodus in single combat before succumbing to his wounds.
Scott’s sequel takes up the tale 20 years later, with Mescal playing Maximus’s son Lucius. In what can only be described as a bad run of luck, he follows in his father’s footsteps when he is enslaved and forced to fight as a gladiator – all for the amusement of Joseph Quinn’s Emperor Geta. The film also stars Pedro Pascal as Marcus Acacius, a former general forced to become a gladiator after refusing to send his men to fight an unwinnable war. Meanwhile, Connie Nielsen plays Lucius’s mother, while Derek Jacobi reprises his role from the first film as the upstanding Senator Gracchus.
Mescal comes into Gladiator as one of Hollywood’s most acclaimed young actors, and – judging by early reactions – some see a potential future Oscar winner in his epic performance (which would make him that rare former Kildare gaelic footballer to lay his hands on some silverware).
“Joseph Quinn is such a freak in Gladiator II and Paul Mescal is so feral as a natural born leader not to mention Pedro Pascal showing off his versatility for the big screen,” said Offscreen Central’s Jillian Chilingerian. “Ridley Scott made a movie for the girls.”
The awards momentum, though, appears to be gathering behind Washington as Lucius’s grizzled guru Marcinus. “Denzel Washington EATS every line and costume without ever overplaying,” says Erik Anderson of AwardsWatch.
Any negatives? One thread that has emerged in social media reviews is that the film is all gore and glee and lacks the seam of sadness running through Gladiator and Crowe’s portrayal of a good man undone by an unbendable moral code.
“I enjoyed it thoroughly, most probably you will too,” tweeted Gizmodo’s Germain Lussier. “But it’s just slightly lacking emotionally. Everything is very easy and surface.”
“Gladiator lacks the focus and emotional punch of the original,” agrees Will Mavity of Next Big Picture. “Mescal isn’t quite as captivating a lead here as Crowe was in the original, but it’s overflowing with memorable action, and it’s got Denzel stealing the movie in soon to be one of his most iconic performances.”
Still, even with such quibbles, it seems that Gladiator II could mark a comeback for 86-year-old Scott – his very own Ridley-naissance – and that it might even go so far as to erase all memories of the horrific Napoleon, which featured a career-worst performance from a listless Joaquin Phoenix (who refused to even take a stab at a French accent).
There is a lot riding on it, but judging by the early feedback, Gladiator II may well turn out to be the brawny barnstormer for which cinema has been crying out.
Gladiator II is in cinemas 15 November. Read Robbie Collin’s full verdict next Monday, 2pm, 11 November
