The Oscar-winning Best Picture of 2000 was Gladiator, which I did think was very good when I saw it a quarter-century ago. Two years ago its director returned to the Roman arena to deliver a sequel, Gladiator II. While its original star, Russell Crowe, is only seen in flashbacks, the sequel connects the original’s story to new characters and a couple of familiar ones in ways very reminiscent of the original. In fact, it’s essentially the same story of a slave trying to win his freedom as a gladiator champion, told with different circumstances for the main character.
Ridley Scott’s film finds a Numidian (?) leader, Lucius (Paul Mescal), captured by the invading Roman navy and brought to Rome as a captive, forced to fight in the public arena. His methods of survival bring him under the control of Macrinus (Denzel Washington), who sees opportunity in the rage of the Numidian captive. Gradually Lucius learns who he really is and what his destiny is to be, and he sets out to fulfill that destiny. Along the way he has to fight Roman soldiers, ferocious baboons and a rhinoceros, the two brothers who rule Rome and, mainly, his own desire for vengeance.
Like its predecessor, Gladiator II sets its very personal, intimate story against an epic background of brutality, recreating an age that we may have read about in history books yet rarely imagined like this. The intense politicking and gamesmanship that takes place is all-too-familiar with our own world but the filmmakers take imaginative flight in the arena, which boasts not just gladiatorial combat but fights against maniacal baboons, a warrior named “The Destroyer” riding atop an armored rhinoceros and, in one absolutely wild sequence, a naval battle held in the Colosseum with hungry sharks prowling about, waiting for unfortunate souls to fall into the water. Beginning with the opening sequence as the Romans attack Numidia, the spectacle is indeed spectacular.
And like its predecessor, Gladiator II has a moral story to convey. It certainly wallows in combat and blood during its gladiatorial and battle sequences, yet many of its characters want nothing more than to make Rome great again, and the only way to do so is to depose the barbaric twins who run the place (and who advocate for mass executions for entertainment). This aspirational movement for peace and prosperity is admirable and provides redemptive paths for the main characters to follow and for the audience to appreciate — and if that mirrors feelings in our own age that’s just a nice bonus. ☆ ☆ 1/2. 16 June 2026.