MovieChat Forums > Gladiator II (2024) Discussion > it's OK on its own but when compared to ...

it's OK on its own but when compared to the first, it falls flat

posted 21 days ago by snuggans (49)
1 reply | jump to latest

the graphics, wardrobe, sets, all great, i can even appreciate that they tried to outdo the colosseum battles of the first movie by going naval and having even more exotic animals. they also tried to increase the wow factor with the initial military battle as compared to the first movie's battle against the Germanic tribes.

but lets face it, who is going to outdo Joaquin Phoenix's Commodus? he did an amazing job at getting you to hate his character. or feel Maximus's pain? don't get me wrong, Denzel Washington carried this movie but it just wasn't enough. im a fan of Pedro Pascal but the writing of his character felt awkward and very tertiary. Paul Mescal was just OK, he probably could've improved with better writing and directing

it feels like way more attention to detail went into every Gladiator 1 scene, every camera shot, every line of dialogue, each music track chosen, the overall writing. some scenes in Gladiator 2 were either flat or felt a bit rushed, sometimes i wonder if it would have been better if it tried to be its own story rather than a sequel where they keep trying to ride on the first movie's coattails, i started getting a bit worried when the intro credits kept using shots from the first movie

[–] howgamer (3971) 20 days ago

Yeah I agree, just OK pretty much sums it up for me. I thought the battles were pretty cool, but it lacks the performances, characters, music and story of the first one. It was mostly entertaining, but it's hard to not compare it the original which was such a fantastic film that it makes this movie seem much worse than it probably is. I would rate it a 6/10.