It is this Wednesday, November 13 that the sequel to Gladiator is released in theaters. We were able to see it before its release, here is our opinion.
Twenty-four years later, the Colosseum reopens its doors to cinemas. This Wednesday, November 13, French spectators can finally discover Gladiator 2the highly anticipated sequel to the acclaimed feature film by Ridley Scott. Here, it is not the story of the deceased Maximus (Russell Crowe) that is told, but that of his son, Lucius. Twenty years after the death of Marcus Aurelius’ successor in the arena, the child of Lucilia who fled Rome is forced to return to the heart of the city plagued by corruption and political conspiracies, in order to buy his freedom by as a gladiator.
In this sequel, which takes place around twenty years after the first episode, it is the adventures of Lucius, son of Lucilia and Maximus (as confirmed by Ridley Scott), which will be told by the British filmmaker, who returns for the opportunity behind the camera. Gladiator 2 was one of the most anticipated blockbusters of the year. Firstly thanks to its casting, which brings together stars from the small screen (actors seen in The Last of Us, Normal People Or Stranger Things) to Hollywood bigwigs like Denzel Washington, but also bring to life the characters played in the first film by Connie Nielsen (Lucilla) and Djimon Hounsou (Juba).
Our opinion on Gladiator 2
Making a sequel to a five-time Oscar-winning peplum, both a critical and popular success ($450 million in revenue), less than 30 years after its release: the bet was daring from the start, and only Ridley Scott could have want to rub shoulders with it. With Gladiator 2, However, the British filmmaker succeeds in creating a resolutely epic, spectacular and very entertaining film.
But in the middle of the numerous combat scenes which keep the spectator in suspense, Gladiator 2 above all reveals itself to be an intriguing political film, which becomes much more complex when it moves away from the arena to concentrate on the portrait of Rome corrupted by emperors sick of power and the political machinations which rage within the court . In the role of the manipulator Macrinus, the charismatic Denzel Washington flies over the film and steals the show from a protagonist unfortunately erased from his own story.
But this sequel constantly seems to be crushed by the weight of the original film, and that’s one of its biggest flaws. Gladiator seeps through every pore of the feature film: let that be the theme Now we are free by Hans Zimmer who returns regularly throughout the film until its final scene, as well as the question of the overwhelming legacy of Maximus, Marcus Aurelius and Lucilla, from which neither the hero, nor the spectator, seems to be able to get rid of. A tribute, certainly, which sounds above all like an admission of weakness as it is so omnipresent.
Gladiator 2 is certainly impressive and worth the detour for its epic breath and its action scenes (despite sometimes questionable special effects and indigestible overkill), but it never manages to achieve the emotion that transported the spectators of the first episode. The comparison is not only inevitable, but above all unfavorable to the sequel, which never really rises to the height of the cult peplum.
Synopsis – This sequel to the film Gladiator follows the story of Lucius, son of Lucilla and nephew of Commodus. Admiring Maximus’ journey, he decides to follow in his footsteps.