I’m old enough to remember watching Gladiator in a packed cinema in May 2000.  It was the first summer blockbuster of the season and while much was expected at the box-office, few could have predicted its critical success.  Almost a year after its release, it won 5 Academy Awards including best picture (I’d tipped Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and a career-defining best actor statuette for Russell Crowe.  It stands up on a rewatch and the iconic film score of Hans Zimmer has been played countless times across the globe.

Was a sequel required?  Probably not… and yet here we are.  Gladiator II takes place 16 years after its predecessor and, with Maximus Decimus Meridius (Crowe) having met his demise, the responsibility for liberating Rome from its corrupt emperors has fallen on the shoulders of his son, Lucius (Mescal).  The film opens with Lucius’s wife killed (an arrow to the heart) while defending their hometown of Numidia from conquering Roman soldiers led by Marcus Acacius (Pascal).  He is subsequently captured and sold to a wealthy “Master of Gladiators” (Washington) to be exploited in epic fights.

Lucius knows the best gladiators can earn their freedom by winning the public’s affections and so he channels his “rage”, puts in the hard work, and survives a series of life-threatening battles (although I wasn’t convinced by the CGI monkeys).  A newfound friend asks why he’s so greedy for pain in this life, given how much is waiting in the next one, but Lucius is undeterred and seeks bloody vengeance against those who have wronged him.

The film leans too heavily into nostalgia, and I lost track of all the references to earlier quotes and plot points from the original Gladiator.  It’s as if writers David Scarpa (All the Money in the World) and Peter Craig (Top Gun: Maverick) have taken a risk-free approach when it comes to themes and tone.  I’d have preferred a more adventurous (said metaphorically) outing but that’s just a personal preference.

Almost everything else deserves praise.  It’s hard to believe an 86-year-old, Sir Ridley Scott, has the energy to churn out a film this good.  Paul Mescal (Aftersun) is terrific as the reluctant hero, and I loved the contrast of his intense passion inside the area versus the softly spoken tiredness outside of it.  It’s also Denzel Washington’s (Training Day) best performance in years as he steps into the shoes of a cunning manipulator playing one side against the other in pursuit of his own agenda.

The production values are credible, the music of Harry Gregson-Williams is stirring (it uses a few riffs from Zimmer’s score), the sound effects are thunderous, and the action sequences will get the heart pumping.  It was never going to live up to the achievement of the first movie, but I’m impressed by what Gladiator II has to offer.