I don’t know about y’all, but Gladiator ll is straight fire. I really enjoyed this. It was obviously going to be hard to replicate a film like the first one, which is a no brainer that it had such a high bar. I really enjoyed this sequel still. I see why people are rather hating on the film because it does repeat a lot of story beats from the first film and you could make the comparison that this is just the first film but worse. The film looks insane and I think it would be a disservice to not experience it in theaters. Gladiator ll has a stacked cast, while some do better and are giving more than others, no one is necessarily bad. A big question was how would Paul Mescal live up to Russell Crowe with his performance, and the answer is doesn’t. He’s still well enough but not on the mastery level like Russell Crowe did with Maximus. I think that’s a good way to put this whole movie, “well enough but not on the same mastery level”. One thing I think this doesn’t hit as well as the first is the emotional beats. The first film was a tragic and devastating story, and this sequel was only a shell of those old beats.

This film is very interesting because obviously it’s unnecessary. It’s an unnecessary legacy sequel to a best picture movie. But what makes it interesting is that Ridley returned for this movie. He returned for this legacy sequel which most original directors don’t, but he did and what he did was almost make a rehash of the first movie. And this one just has that big blockbuster feel unlike the first one. To me it’s very interesting the fact he returned and the direction they went. I think we could have got something great with Ridley returning, but what we got was something still one of the best legacy sequels, but still one that doesn’t touch its predecessor.