Of course after seeing Gladiator again I was excited for the sequel, and the initial reviews seemed promising. I did try to see anything like RT scores before this film, however an ad on Thanksgiving displayed the score which honestly did surprise me. As of writing this the film has a 71, and I think that's a bit too high. The story takes place after the events of the first film, and the new leaders of Rome are unstable twins who are displeasing the people. Lucius (implied to be Maximus's son in the first film) is captured by the Romans as they conquer new terrority and he is sent to be a gladiator for Macrinus (Denzel Washington). As Lucius seeks revenge on the general who captured his people and killed his wife, he makes discoveries about his father and mother, which lead to a new change and revolution in Rome. I will say, this movie was a bit disappointing. A lot of things were done well, such as the choreography of the fight sequences, some cool camera shots, and an okay story that was paced really well. The entertainment factor of this film played a large role into the 3 star rating, as I was entertained all the way through despite the flaws. The biggest problem with the movie was the story itself, and how everything felt extremely distant and low-stakes compared to the first one. Most fight scenes, while done well, felt repetitive and the sense of danger was pretty low for each one (minus the fight with the animals). I also think the story itself has little emotional ties when watching it which made some deaths less impactful, although I will say a lot of those scenes were filmed well (won't go into detail due to spoilers). The acting was also okay, but Denzel Washington's character was easily the best one of the entire film, and if he wasn't playing Macrinus then the movie would be much worse for sure. Joseph Quinn did well playing one of the twins but the other one was way to dramatized and his dialogue got corny towards the end, however I think Denzel Washington got more screen time than the leaders so it balanced out. I did like the dialogue throughout the film, even if it lacked emotion at times, and the ending of the film was also pretty good. I will say overall the movie isn't anything special, but it is extremely entertaining and you will enjoy it (with less expectations of course).
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