- S: Borderline nonsense throughout. The callout for the archers in the opening battle is strange. The fight against the monkeys in the first arena is odd, badly choreographed,
and doesn't fit with any other gladiator fights we have seen in the franchise. The fight against the undefeated champion is foolsih, as there is no
explanation as to why either one doesn't just kill the other; what's with all the showmanship and shield chicanery when every other fight is to a quick death? The secret-door panel is
pointless and serves only to create questions. The sudden character change to the loving son devoted to Rome doesn't make sense and isn't well communicated or transitioned in the story.
Lucius' choice to get Maximus' armor is nonsensical nostalgia porn at best. Lucilla's incredibly long life doesn't make sense, and even her death is exaggerated as she is able to talk with an
arrow through her chest. An army is able to be summoned with a ring alone? This makes no sense especially given the messenger is not well known and Lucius would likely have
no sway on most of the army's loyalties. The cherry on top is the ridiculous ending where two armies end up friends again.
- C: The fight choreography often feels forced to the point that it takes away from the immersiveness of the film. The use of language is terrible;
they don't speak anything other than English even when they are speaking different/native languages and the only time something else shows up is when Lucilla reads from some written tablets even
though the poetry on the walls is written in English. In addition, there is some bad CGI around water, particularly in the opening battle. If the CGI isn't even good, where did all the budget for this film go?
- E: The constant barrage of nostalgia for the first film is a distraction. This on top of the regular disruptions in the immersion due to lacking sensibility makes for a challenging watch. However,
some of the action sequences are tense and interesting.
- N: There are some scenes, particularly near the beginning when Lucius is first enslaved that are so derivative of the first film that if you mixed them up you might not be able to tell the difference.
The large premise is a warrior's wife is killed and then he is enslaved where he becomes a gladiator who fights his way up the tournament chain to the Colosseum where he is forced to fight multiple battles
where he is presumed to die, he undoubtedly wins, takes a shot at the emperors, and summons an army for a coup. How is this film different than the first one?
The fact that he is Maximus' son doesn't fit with the first film, as there is no mention of it then, and doesn't play well with the story. It's almost as if the writer's couldn't decide whether
the main character should accept that Lucilla is his mother or not so they made him do both. The film is an obviously lazy, uninspired, derivative cash-grab.
- T: The film received one bonus point for Denzel's fairly nuanced performance and particularly his death, which was a very tasteful and reasonably acted end.
Terrible. This film is the perfect example of why more of a film's budget should be spent in the writer's room than on the casting couch (pun intended).
The film is not only a near carbon copy of the first film but is also corny, over-dramatized, and non-sensical.
Number of Watches: 1
