Gladiator II follows Lucias, as he enters the Colosseum and looks to the past to find the strength and honor needed to return the glory of Rome to its people.

Gladiator II starts off very similarly to the 2000 installment, but it slowly begins to carve its own way.  The flick adds twists and turns to keep things fresh, while also making this truly feel like one long saga. This is a true sequel, and that’s very difficult to do over 20 years later.

A large part of Gladiator II‘s success lies in the performances. While I’ve seen some criticisms towards his performance, I found Paul Mescal to be phenomenal as Lucias. He delivers a powerful and energetic performance that carries this film forward alongside Denzel Washington and Pedro Pascal. Russell Crowe delivered a once-in-a-lifetime performance as Maximus in the original, and while Mescal doesn’t reach that level, he still heavily succeeds.

Coinciding with the acting, it’s the characters themselves that make this flick stand out. They’re all multi-layered, and it makes you question who is in the right or wrong constantly. There is also true character development throughout the movie, despite it feeling rushed at times.

The combat sequences in Gladiator II are exhilariting, and are done more frequently and in a larger scale than the original. This ultimately leads to the film’s biggest problem, however, as it lacks emotional resonance. The movie glosses over the emotional moments on more than one occasion, which makes it less impactful by the time it comes to a close.

Overall, Gladiator II is exactly what I wanted and more. It’s a worthy successor to the original, that makes the “Gladiator” world feel more fleshed out. Ridley Scott has still got it.

Rating: 4 out of 5