Gladiator II

Better with out the trash musical choice, but it does feel a bit like they've ripped elments and scenes directly from the Spartacus tv show
 
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Terminal_Boy said:
This could be as good as Avatar 2 or as good as Concord and/or Dustborn.
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night even beat borderlands box office takings

denzel looks absolutely ridiculous and out of place....
Also he has some weird flamboyant look cos his characters probably bi? so he has to look a bit feminised..

I think back in those days even the gays would have been masculine strong men.....


Pedro Pascal is basically in everything now to the point where he's over saturated and it's just became annoying..,

This movie just screams someone needs money pretty badly, lets cash in on a movie name.

Djimon Hounsou and Peter Mensah are great and fit the time period imo... Denzel though.......
 
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Well, I have to say it was pretty dreadful in terms of the plot and dialogue. I love stories set in the Roman Empire and the action scenes were entertaining enough but that's not enough to save it for me.

I don't understand why they made it basically a remake of the original and tie it into the story of Maximus. They could have done something entirely original.

Denzel Washington was entertaining, if over the top, and I liked Mescal. Some decidedly ropey CGI. I felt a lot of the speeches and moments that were supposed to be emotional just didn't land.

Pedro Pascal was pretty 'meh' in his role, don't know why he's in so many films at the moment.

I'd give it 5/10 overall. Points may have been deducted for the inclusion of Matt Lucas.

On the upside for the film it was pretty busy in the cinema during a Monday afternoon (I had the day off work).

Another stupid thing:

They had Praetorian guards with bows and arrows in the crowd of the Colosseum, pointing them at the crowd to keep them under control. Very obvious downside to this is the second you fire an arrow you are going to get mobbed. This happens later in the film. Would professional soldiers, elite soldiers no less, be this stupid? I don't think so.
 
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Saw this today. For context, one of my major 'film fan' (?) anomalies is that I've always thought the first film was a bit overrated. It's OK, but it's just one of those "I know the outcome"-type affairs. I like 'not knowing where the film is going', but for me Gladiator had no surprises. So low expectations from me on this.

Eh, it's OK.

The main issue is that it's more or less a re-tread of the original. What it lacks in comparison is time spent "getting to know" the lead. He's just sort of... there, speaking aloofly... rather wooden. I never cared for him. Meanwhile, Denzel Washington is fair in support. Connie Nielsen reprises her role from the first film but for whatever reason I found her distracting - to my mind, she had a 'modern glamour' look about her that made her look like she was in fancy-dress. I can't really explain it :p

In respect of what Gladiator 2 does well, the action is good and the accompanying sound design is 'visceral'. Those blows really land... crash, wallop, kappow! There is some of the best 'obviously not real' CGI that I've seen in some time as well, with regards to a 'stylistic choice' with some of the animals. On which note, the film is actually best when it fully embraces 'the silly'. I was just about loosing interest and then one scene came on that is so implausible / absurd that it 'got me back into it', so to say.

I was having a lot of fun towards the end, more in respect of laughing at the film than with it:

As mentioned, Paul Mescal (Lucius) is quite wooden... which became more and more amusing as the film went on.

Eventually he's standing in front of Connie (i.e. his mum), who describes him as "alert"... it made it sound like he was stood there with 'wood' :o

Then I burst out laughing when he finally killed that guy with a wooden sword :D

Oh, yes, the 'silly bit' I was referring to above was the sharks.

If you don't expect much you can enjoyably munch popcorn to it and enjoy some fights. But this sort of film isn't for me.

5.5/10

Wife gave it 7.5/10
 
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Stu999 said:
Well, I have to say it was pretty dreadful in terms of the plot and dialogue. I love stories set in the Roman Empire and the action scenes were entertaining enough but that's not enough to save it for me.

I don't understand why they made it basically a remake of the original and tie it into the story of Maximus. They could have done something entirely original.

Denzel Washington was entertaining, if over the top, and I liked Mescal. Some decidedly ropey CGI. I felt a lot of the speeches and moments that were supposed to be emotional just didn't land.

Pedro Pascal was pretty 'meh' in his role, don't know why he's in so many films at the moment.

I'd give it 5/10 overall. Points may have been deducted for the inclusion of Matt Lucas.

On the upside for the film it was pretty busy in the cinema during a Monday afternoon (I had the day off work).

Another stupid thing:

They had Praetorian guards with bows and arrows in the crowd of the Colosseum, pointing them at the crowd to keep them under control. Very obvious downside to this is the second you fire an arrow you are going to get mobbed. This happens later in the film. Would professional soldiers, elite soldiers no less, be this stupid? I don't think so.
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I turned down an invitation to watch it on release day :o just didn't seem worth the effort based on what I've seen about it :o
 
It was good, but also felt a little "tick box exercise" in some ways and some of the gladiator arena fights doesn't seem as grand? I can't put my finger on it. The original's fight in my memory felt larger, felt heavier, felt it hit harder.

I enjoyed it though, every scene moved the plot forward, there wasn't much if any bloat to it which is nice. No padding, no side plot and characters that went nowhere. Every scene had a purpose.
 
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