The 3 Biggest Issues the Gladiator Sequel Had

While I did enjoy Gladiator 2, due to the great acting and the bloody violence, there were 3 things that I feel should have been either removed, or expanded upon for the story. The first film is a perfect masterpiece, that follows the story of a man who is determined to stop the gladiator games from an evil emperor. 

He dies saving the city of Rome, but his son, Lucius, is the next one to return to the city in the sequel, who finds himself in another corrupted version of Rome. He is carted off from his city, to be used as a gladiator for entertainment, the same thing that his own father had experienced. While I did thoroughly enjoy the war scenes, there was one little pet peeve that really got to me. 

It took me out of the story a couple of times, because it felt like it did not belong in a movie like this. 

1. We got CGI animals during a couple of gladiator fights.

These moments were the only scenes in the film that made me forget that I was watching a movie in the theater. I was pretty odd to watch these scenes, because the CGI looked kind of fake when it came to the animals. The rest of the CGI looked pretty damn decent during the war sequences, and only the rhino looked great, but the rest of the animals were a bit off. 

The CGI monkeys and the sharks were so fake looking, and it bothered me. I wouldn't have minded the CGI, but I don't think the people behind the CGI did a good job to hide the fakeness. Or instead of animals, could we have gotten some practical fight scenes? Like could we have seen our main character fight against people instead of animals?

That would have been a much better choice, and it would have been a cool follow up, since his own father did the same when he was placed in the gladiator games. 

I don't know man, but the CGI was pretty tough to watch in a couple of these scenes. 

2. The Emperors deserved more screen time.

I was so surprised with the little screen time the emperors had in the sequel. These two stole every single scene every time they appeared, and in my opinion, they were my favorite part of the movie. It was so interesting to see two twins running the show in Rome now, and I loved how crazy their dynamic was when it came to their sibling bond. 

Caracalla was born with a disease in his brain, and Geta was the one who was more intelligent than his brother. I'm curious how Geta handled his brother's breakdowns, but we only got a couple of scenes with them, as Geta struggles to control him. I also liked that Geta seemed to care about this own brother, and it made his death even more depressing when Caracalla was tricked by a friend of theirs to kill Geta. 

Their characters were my favorite in the film, and I was so enraptured by their performances. They were so full of themselves, and it was heavily implied that Geta saw himself as a God. 

How I wish we got more moments with these two!

3. I thought Geta and the main character were going to form a sort of rivalry.

There was a scene between Geta and Lucius that I enjoyed so much. After Lucius is forced to put on a show for the emperors, murdering a man to save his own life, Geta goes over to Lucius, congratulating him. He expresses actual interest with wanting to know his name, but Lucius refuses to acknowledge him. Lucius proceeds to tell Geta a poem instead, that carries an eerie threat behind it. 

With the way that Geta was looking at him, and addressing Lucius after, I really thought they were going to do the same storyline with the rivalry between the emperor and the gladiator. Their chemistry was pretty great in this scene, and I got so excited, wondering how Lucius was going to kill Geta. I was kind of disappointed that his twin was the one to finish him off, because I think if Geta had been written much more sinister, I think Lucius would have been forced to put him down. 

The emperors were portrayed as idiots who didn't know how to run Rome, but I do wish we got a more intelligent Geta, because I think the hatred between the two of them could have worked so well for the film. I did hear a lot of rumors with multiple Geta scenes being cut from the film, and it sounded like Geta was supposed to be scarier than the version we got in the film. 

This is by far my biggest disappointment, but hey, at least we got that cool scene with Lucius threatening Geta. And I did like how shaken up Geta was after this threat, especially when he first sees Lucius during his first actual fight in the games. That threat definitely got under his skin!

Man, I really hope that we one day get that 4 hour extended cut of Gladiator 2. Yes, the sequel was originally this long…and damn, I hope it does get released, because I really wanted more scenes of the emperors!

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Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn