Gladiator II

It was.....'ok'........and I felt if I had not watched it in IMAX it would have been less than 'ok'

Without spoilers.....my main complaints

1)Rehash of the same storyline......
2)they tried to up the ante with a few scenes.....the water naval battle being an example (not sure that would be possible)......but it still felt less than what was offered in the first one.
3)Little emotional investment for any of the characters.


However my main complaint was with the lead role Paul Mescal......I thought he was absolute garbage. Sure topping Russell Crowe's Oscar winning performance would be too high of an expectation, but from my perspective he had zero charisma, no way was he the right choice to be the engine of the movie.....he was that bad I even googled him mid way throughout the film.

Who is this guy? Turns out he has a decent portfolio, had a few nominations etc......I couldn't process this because he was simply emotionally un-investable.

The confirmation for me though was that my wife loved it........this is usually a massive red flag, and she didn't let me down on this one.

5/10......and that's generous
 
7.5/10

What a nothing burger. A very good looking nothing burger.
Absolutely ok and forgettable film
Denzel was bland.
Everyone was bland and wooden tbh.
Cringe in places, fine but definitely a sequel of pointlessness
 
Efour said:
7.5/10

What a nothing burger. A very good looking nothing burger.
Absolutely ok and forgettable film
Denzel was bland.
Everyone was bland and wooden tbh.
Cringe in places, fine but definitely a sequel of pointlessness
Click to expand...

'nothing burger'
'forgettable'
'bland'
'wooden'
'cringe'
'pointlessness'

7.5/10 :p

How bad does a film need to be to hit the sub 5/10 below average range? :p
 
Saw Gladiator 2 tonight. 5/10. Pretty forgettable but entertaining enough. Looked good (I like the DP John Mathieson) but without sounding too harsh.. I wonder if Paul Mescal is going to hurt his career over this. He was really wooden. Barely any feeling at all. Super disappointing:confused:
 
It's done $221m now that it's opened in the US, not too bad:

www.boxofficemojo.com

Gladiator II

www.boxofficemojo.com www.boxofficemojo.com

However, the production budget was supposedly $210m (Ridley Scott denies it's $300m) so needs to make a fair bit more. Will it reach that before word of mouth gets around? It dropped off quite a bit in its second weekend in the UK.

collider.com

‘Gladiator II’ Shows Strength and Honor in Blockbuster Global Box Office Debut

Gladiator II has already recovered its reported budget at the box office. See how much the Ridley Scott-directed sequel made in its debut weekend.
collider.com collider.com
 
I went last night, without seeing any reviews, spoilers or even vaguely knowing which direction the story was going to go in relation to the first.
It was dreadful. Lead actor was terrible, plot easy to guess, Pascal miscast again, fight scenes were ok other than the ship battle, ending felt rushed and disappointing. Whole thing was silly and not in a good way.
 
Seems that many of us found the main actor distractingly stoic (being generous) / wooden (being critical). It’s pretty rare that I’m bothered by this mid-film, but it just seemed as if he (the character) didn’t give a ****.

He isn’t really given any ‘human’ dialogue though… we learn nothing about him as a person.

Pedro / Denzel were alright, IMO.
 
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Was away, finally got a chance to catch up with this movie yesterday night. Quite frankly overall disappointing. I knew going into it knowing there was some negativity but wanted to give it a chance and see for myself. Didn't read or knew anything about the movie other than it was a sequel to the original.

I didn't mind the main character as it was always going to be a tall order to follow in Russell Crowes footsteps. I felt he did the best he could and for me it was the writing more than anything else. A lot of wasted opportunities and meaningless deaths.

As of late Ridley Scott has been making some less than usual standard movies. Unfortunately this was the following the trend. Denzel was good and liked some of the supporting actors. However felt Denzel was kinda wasted and the emperors themselves were 2 bit hollow bad guys. The first act was ok but it slowly descended into quite a mess, particularly in the final act.

Without spoiling it too much it definitely felt underwhelming. I enjoyed it but should have been more. It lacked good ideas or a really compelling story else imo why bother making a sequel to a masterpiece like the original. 5- 6/10 was a fair result.
 
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It was ok, not great acting performances and a pretty loose storyline didn't help and certainly don't have any inclination to rewatch it

5/10
 
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