cine_matic’s review published on Letterboxd:
[Ridley Scott Ranked]
As the year is winding down, I just wanted to take this time to acknowledge something. I’ve never properly done it before and I refuse to log Paint Drying because it’ll fuck up my review/movie counts. But yeah, I just reached 1400 followers. I remember a little over a year ago I barely had a couple hundred tops. To those who actually take the time to interact with me, like and read my reviews and drop comments, I truly appreciate you. Y’all know who you are already. You guys are the best. Okay, now back to your regularly scheduled program.
I went into Gladiator II with low expectations and you know what? I had a pretty fun time watching it. It is far from perfect and no, it’s not as good as Gladiator. Needed to get that point out of the way from jump. One thing the sequel for sure does better are the action sequences. While they are a bit more ridiculous and out there, they’re very entertaining and not to mention edited WAY better than any of the fight scenes in the first film. Not as many cuts and no more bad slo-mo. I had some issues with pacing and would occasionally feel the movie start to drag. Paul Mescal’s performance as Lucius was alright. He was at his most intense during the fight scenes, but outside of those I was never wowed by him. How come any time Lucius and Ravi had scenes together, they were on the verge of making out? The eye contact and weird low key flirting was something fierce. Lucius had a couple of chances for motivational speeches and he squandered them if I’m being honest. Denzel was fantastic as Macrinus and I expected nothing less from him. It was nice to see Connie Nielsen and Derek Jacobi reprise their roles from the first film. The way they slowly revealed how Lucilla factored into the plot was pretty good. Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger absolutely killed it as the diabolical twins. I hated them, but couldn’t wait to hear what was going to come out of their mouths or what they were going to do next. Pedro Pascal was a bit underutilized. Seeing him walk out into the arena during one specific scene was hilarious because all I could see was Mando’s badass walk. This movie didn’t have the same emotional depth and heft as the first installment. My biggest gripe with Gladiator II is how rushed the final act was. Major deaths are popping up left and right and are seemingly glossed over. And what the hell was that ending? Talk about anticlimactic. I guess the closure is being saved for the beginning of Gladiator III. Overall, the action and fight scenes were thrilling and yes, entertaining! I just wished the stakes were higher and that I was more invested in the characters and story.
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