Gladiator 2 movie review

Lucius

Roman Victory Arch

Gladiator Two Movie Review

Gladiator 2 is two hours and 28 minutes long. It was released in the year 2024. Its cast includes Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, Connie Nielsen, Denzel Washington, and Derek Jacobi.  Pedro Pascal plays Lucius, and Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger play the twin emperors (Geta and Carcalla). Gladiator 2 had a 250-million-dollar budget. It has a 70% rating on Tomatometer. Gladiator Two is the 25th highest-grossing domestic film and the 21st highest-grossing international film, with a total box office revenue of $ 449 million worldwide. (For historical movies.) Gladiator Two is ranked as the 351st highest-ranked movie of all time. (Compared to other movies that I have reviewed, The Wolf of Wall Street is #127, Gladiator is #268.)

Gladiator Two starts with Lucius, long after Maximus is dead. It starts with Lucius living in Northern Africa, the Romans attack the city where he is living, and the Romans eventually enslave him. He is picked out to be a gladiator and fights his way up to be just about to gain his freedom. At this point, he fights and gains his freedom in the coliseum. He then leads an army and campaigns against the Twin Emperors. One of the twin emperors kills the other twin emperor. Afterward, he kills the leading senator and leads his army to become emperor.

              The acting isn’t as good as the original Gladiator. Pedro Pascal does a pretty good job of acting. I didn’t like the twin emperor’s acting; it wasn’t bad at all, but it could have been slightly better. The twin emperors didn’t really sell themselves as being the evil people that they were supposed to be.  Lucius did a pretty solid job pretending to be a gladiator. His skills as a Roman Gladiator were pretty impressive. It was a decent movie. One scene that really stuck out to me was Lucius defending the African city that he was living in, losing, and being enslaved. It was a great scene and further shows the dysfunction and the bad of the Roman Empire. The cinematography of this movie was the main highlight (it was the best part of the movie). The music wasn’t the best part of the movie, but it was pretty decent.

              This movie shows the expansion of the Roman Empire and shows some examples of evil Roman Emperors. It shows the Roman Empire at its worst and the dysfunction the Roman Empire felt if the emperor was bad. IT also shows the conniving and backstabbing that the senators participated in, and also the rampant corruption and bribery that were needed to keep the empire in its place. Senators bribed each other to buy power or influence.