Il gladiatore II

If ever a film did not need a follow up, it's Gladiator, some films are just not meant to have sequels, Gladiator is definitely one of those.

Not bad, but not good either, the main question I have, is why, why was this made, is the creative magic at Hollywood now dead, can we soon expect Titanic 3, or Halloween Junior High, film making just doesn't feel free flowing or exciting right now.

I quite liked Denzel Washington's over the top performance, it was quite fun, Sir Derek Jacobi was great for the time he was on screen.

There are two big flaw however, one it's trying to hard to compete with its superior predecessor, everything done here, was done better in the original and secondly, Paul Mescal just wasn't right for the role, he just didn't have the presence of gravitas, Crowe was totally superior in every which way.

The sharks, what can you say about those sharks, proof that this felt like a made up story, the original felt like a tale from history, this felt like it was conjured up during a drunken Saturday night.

It's worth seeing, just don't expect too much. I went on a Saturday night in Cardiff, and there were six of us in the screen, Wicked was packed.

5/10.

I approached this movie truly trying to give it a fair change on its own by not holding and comparing it too much to its original, But this movie just pulls of a force awakens and has 80% just recycled nostalgia bait its impossible to not compare them.

It recycles quotes,plot, narratives, even very same camera shots.

And yeah,alas, the first did absolutely everything, every single aspect better to much better and most definitely story/drama character wise.

Even though tis definitely not the worst movie ever,far from.

But this movie kind of symbolize the state of current Hollywood and how much it has declined over the last few decades.

The fact so many people praising it confirms a bitter reality. Story and plot just don't matter or at least much less then it used to, people are pleased and satisfied as long they see pretty pictures and are not bored!

This movie definitely looks glorious and expensive and had a big grandeur(although some CGI looked comically fake), but it fails to have a coherent driven plot.

In the first movie every scene absolutely mattered, even during battles, characters spoke by their actions and where very consistent in how the character was portrayed,who where gratefully fleshed out

This script ( from the same writer as that abominable napoleon movie) things feel random and forced.

Also Battles feeling quite meh, nothing feels deserved or earned..

pity, as acting was well though ,all where good to great acting performances wich makes it even more of a pity the story was so weak.

The biggest problem with this movie is that it's essentially a soft reboot. If you've seen the first one, you'll quickly realize that you're watching something you've already seen. And once something becomes a repetition of something great, it's almost impossible to recapture that same level of greatness. Mescal, Washington, and the rest of the cast do their best, but this movie relies heavily on nostalgia. For the most part, it repeats the structure of the original story and follows all the clichés typical of sword-and-sandal films: the plot, the betrayal, the arena fights-you name it. The irony is that people who haven't seen the first one will probably enjoy this movie far more than those who remember the original.

How to describe this? It's like a shallow, diluted, Netflix version of Gladiator. I didn't go into this expecting it to be the original, or even have the same style of the original. I'd already heard it was more visual entertainment than an epic story. Even taking that into consideration I still felt very disappointed. It felt like a tele novella at certain points, with cringy dialogue and weak cinematography. It felt rushed throughout, skipping from scene to scene, death to death. The speeches fell flat. There were cheesy one liners. There were no moments of stillness, of emotion and feeling. You weren't attached to any of the characters, none of them had any gravitas. I can't say if it's due to the acting or poor writing. What more is there to say. It just felt like a money grab.

Everyone has seen Denzel Washington praising fellow actors Pedro Pascal and Paul Mescal for their acting - but the reality is there is nothing special - they are actors that acted - their performance did not elevate the film to the glory of the original.

Storyline wise the film is a joke - the plot twists are illogical and only work because the characters are forced to change - the first half of the film concentrates on a man's desire for vengence which is overturned by a single line of dialogue.

Hollywood is failing - it clearly looks to have been influenced by accountants and MBA muppets that somehow believe the more twists a film contains the more $$ it attracts.

Side note: if Rome was so great - why was it always falling apart.