GLADIATOR SEQUEL | RIDLEY SCOTT / PARAMOUNT

[jye4ever]

Haven't posted on this forum in a long time but ended up here by chance and saw this thread on Gladiator II, which my wife and I saw last night.

We both really disliked it. The lack of historical accuracy, and the extreme creative liberties they took, didn't even bother me. What did bother me was the gratuitous violence and uninteresting action scenes, the really passé depiction of Rome as a place of extreme violence and corruption and misery, and the really un-compelling story. Frankly, it was boring and, by the end, outright exhausting. The film's best moments were when it connected to the first film, which is a pretty damning indictment of this film's inability to stand on its own. That, and they leaned so hard into those references that after a while they ceased to be meaningful.

I don't want to post spoilers, but there were also certain decisions the filmmakers made that made me wonder, "why even bother with that character in the first place?"

As someone else said a few comments above, this film will soon be forgotten--and rightfully so. It's a very poor imitation of the first film, which had a simple but captivating story, memorable characters, and really tight and exciting action sequences.

I agree about the filth, violence and just all around misery it totally made me feel like I was in the NYC subway.

 

[davejames]

Ridley also continues to do a really bad job chopping his 4 hour epics into a 2 1/2 hour movie, as you can tell from the editing that a LOT was cut out of this movie.

And yeah I know the original movie took a lot of liberties with historical accuracy, but this movie never feels connected to the real world at all, and just feels like a complete fantasy at times. Especially when you're watching multiple sharks swimming around in a flooded coliseum. Lol

 

[jye4ever]

I kept waiting for the JAWS theme to kick in then a T-Rex to join the battle.

 

[ZE_501]

"What we do In life echoes in eternity"

What we do at the box office echoes in accounting.

 

[CessnaDriver]

I may see it someday, but not yet...not yet.