Dir: Ridley Scott | Writer: David Scarpa | Cast: Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, Lior Raz, Derek Jacobi, Connie Nielsen, Denzel Washington | Action drama 148’
Ridley Scott delivers another ambitious and robust epic that combines moments of contemplation and intrigue with monumental set pieces in the Colosseum. The bloody battle scenes complete the swashbuckling spectacle with some unsubtle use of CGI.
Paul Mescal’s Gladiator is more soulful than his swaggering counterpart Russell Crowe who was cocky and convincing in the Oscar-winning original. That said, this sensitivity adds a modern twist to a tale set in Numidia and Ancient Rome. The Caesar brothers are a weird gay couple who simper and saunter around their sumptuous palace, one of them rocking a monkey permanently clasped to his shoulders like a living stole. And these contemporary touches ensure a refreshingly novel feature that remains a reassuringly true follow-up to the 2000 action drama.
Gladiator II opens with a sensational sea-based sequence as a fleet of Roman warships powered by oars and sails storms its way to attack a port city in North Africa defended by Lucius (Mescal). General Marcus Acacius (a muscular Pedro Pascal) is at the helm and in the ensuing battle conquers the city capturing Lucius who loses his wife to a single arrow, motivating him to seek revenge.
Taken prisoner with other soldiers and transported back to Rome (where he was born) he falls into the hands of Macrinus (Washington) and his gladiatorial trainer, the brutish Vigo (Lior Raz). But Lucius is a dab hand at fighting off his assailants in the arena (including some savage CGI baboons) and soon wins over the crowd. Macrinus has backed a real winner.
Meanwhile Lucilla and Acacius are planning a goodwill mission to free the gladiators from cruel slaughter under sibling emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) whose reign of terror knows no bounds, with further campaigns planned in India and Persia. And this is where Derek Jacobi comes in as Gracchus. He joins Lucilla and Acacius in the plot to restore Rome to its former glory when Lucilla’s fondly remembered father, Emperor Marcus Aurelius held sway. But someone is eavesdropping in the wings.
Meanwhile Lucilla realises that Lucius is the child she sent away from Rome for protection. Now she is torn between loyalty to her husband, a war hero of supreme dignity, and love for her child who vows to kill Acasius to avenge his beloved wife in a tragic chain of events that provides the story with its heart-punching denouement.
David Scarpa (who also scripted Napoleon and All the Money in the World) picks up from where David Franzoni started in Gladiator, twenty four years ago, with characters from back in the day and welcome roles for veterans Derek Jacobi and Tim McInnerny (as Thraex) and a camped-up Matt Lucas as master of gladiator ceremonies Cassius.
Denzel Washington is the star turn and brings a welcome dash of sly humour as the exotic-looking Macrinus, a scheming former slave who earned his freedom and is now pimping out a stable of young gladiators while plotting to improve his status even further by aligning himself to the Caesars.
Paul Mescal certainly looks the part with his beefy muscles bulging through the leather straps of his butch rigout. Emerging as the true exiled son of Russel Crowe’s Maximus and Lucilla (the regal Connie Nielsen, once again desperately trying to regain the trust of a man). But his lack of conviction diminishes the peerless performance he throws around in the arena. An actor well known for his intensity Mescal certainly simmers with rage and revenge but emotionally the Irish heartthrob is as vulnerable as a baby. His Lucius certainly delivers the words but seems unconvinced by them in a role that Crowe played with gutsy masculinity. But then again the dialogue offered him is minimal and mostly restricted to clipped statements.
Where he does shine is in contemplative exchanges with Ravi (Alexander Karim), another former slave and gladiator who cashed in his chips but now serves as a doctor and spiritual healer. Mescal is clearly better suited playing soulful metrosexuals of All of Us Strangers and Aftersun. Rakish heroes are not for him. @MeredithTaylor
GLADIATOR II is in UK CINEMAS FROM 15 NOVEMBER 2025