My Review of "Gladiator II"

Gladiator II was recently come out 24 years after the original movie. That's insane to me because if you've seen the first movie, it ended off quite perfectly. They didn't need to make a sequel to close up any missing loops at all. Yet this movie thought to come rear its ugly head and come up with something we didn't really care about. Still I was intrigued with what they could come up with. If anything I have to give them points on being creative.

The movie starts off with a mysterious man named Hanno. He's an immigrant to an African city that's going to be taken over by the Romans. His history is shrouded with mystery but as the movie progresses it's quite obvious who he really is. In the beginning, he's found peace and love. When I saw his wife in Africa I immediately knew she was going to die before she even did anything. They announced that she's a warrior as well and I then figured out how she was going to die.

When the Romans come in to take over the city Hanno is taken prisoner and his wife is killed in battle. It pretty much kickstarts the catalyst for his revenge on Rome. You'd think that would be enough for this movie but we have to remember the whole political backstory of the original Gladiator.

We then get put into the politics of Rome. We now have twins playing as the emperors of Rome. There's no explanation of why they're the new emperors but Lucilla the mother of Rome is still there. They never really explain how she's still alive or how she's connected to the twins either. Apparently, she's in love with the general that took over that city that Hanno lived in previously. Hanno hates the general for this by the way.

Secretly Lucilla wants to overthrow the government just as in the first movie. Why it took them 24 years to do this is beyond me. This isn't going to be easy though. There are a number of rats playing around behind the scenes that are hearing about this and plotting for their own power over Rome. There's no real explanation as to how people attain power in Rome. Hence, I don't know how those idiot twins got in there in the first place.

Despite the convoluted story, it still makes sense. They were able to have me understand what was going on. Theoretically, there are sound story ideas and reasoning for everything. The problem is the execution. There are holes in a lot of things that feel inconsistent.

The movie looks great but inconsistent with the CGI. At times the CGI looks fantastic but the way they used this technique for the animals is utterly ridiculous. I thought they should have went the realistic direction but instead they went with the absurd. It took me out of the movie at times. They had monkeys that looked like dogs to make them more vicious looking. In a way it was kind of comedic how ridiculous it was. They had multiple sharks in the arena water. This is totally impossible and over the top. I can go on with some of these visual decisions.

The acting was also odd. The actor who plays as the villain Macrinus has somewhat of an American reading Shakespeare accent, that felt really off. It's similar to the effect of Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie The Man in the Iron Mask. Despite this, he was the one looking to have the most fun with his character in the movie. He knows what this movie is and went over the top with his antics.

They used the original actress who played Lucilla in the first movie. That was a nice touch. The problem was that she was really bad in this movie. Her crying scenes felt like crocodile tears, it was so awkward.

As over the top as the action sequences were, I did like them. This is what you're really here for. Those are really fun sequences and the sound effects especially in the theatres is top notch. You'll hear arrows and birds buzzing around your head from all directions. That was pretty cool.

Overall, this is a popcorn movie that you have to shut off your brain to enjoy. Unfortunately, there are too many holes in the execution of this movie to keep me from being distracted by them. I thought there were great ideas in this movie but they ultimately failed in its delivery. I have to give this movie a 5.5 out of 10. I would not recommend seeing this even if you were a fan of the original.