my name is danis merus criticus loyal fan of the true captain of the Enterprise John Luke Bard owner of a dozen plaid shirts defender of Tony Colette and I will give you my thoughts on Gladiator 2 in this video or the next actually no in this video why would I do it in the next video that's just stupid it doesn't make any sense this video is brought to you by public wck go to public rec.com and use the code Dan for a special offer and stay tuned after the video for more info hello everybody and
welcome to my review for Gladiator 2 which I feel like I'm one of the last people to see but you know what you see the movies when you can this is my last video from my temporary lodgings here one of the reasons I went out of town for a couple days was to see this movie along with Wicked which came out here on the channel yesterday my review of that film Gladiator 2 is directed as the first one was by Ridley Scott with a screenplay from David Scarpa who also wrote last year's Napoleon original writer
David franzon has seemingly stepped away from screenwriting since 2004 but remains on board as a producer for this movie Paul mcll Stars s Hano a former Roman citizen who lives in North Africa with his wife but is taken back to Rome as prisoner after his home is attacked by Roman general Marcus acacius played by Pedro Pascal Hano is dropped into gladiatorial combat under the eye of maconis played by Denzel Washington for the entertainment of Rome's sibling Emperors played by by Joseph Quinn and Fred heckinger but as Hano Rises up the gladiatorial ranks and civil unrest
grows in Rome he catches the attention of lucel played Again by Connie neelen returning from the original gladiator who sees in this new Gladiator much of the same Fury and passion that drove her former love Maximus years earlier there are lots of other twists and turns in the plot some of which have been revealed in the trailer some of which have not and I'm not going to go into those but I think it's safe to say that Gladiator 2 is very invested in the fact that it's a equal to the first Gladiator there are lines
and sayings from the film that are spoken Out Loud by multiple characters some of them are even carved into walls and really what this movie deals with is the idea of Marcus aurelius's dream of Rome it's an unrealized dream in this movie and in fact Rome is teetering on collapse I was infamously in high school and in the Years afterward the guy who thought that the first Gladiator movie was good but not great I didn't really see the same things in it that made it the favorite film or one of the favorite movies of so
many of my friends and eventually catapulted it to an Academy Award win for best picture but the first Gladiator is undeniably a cool movie with some great scenes and performances and I would say that much of that applies to Gladiator 2 as well the biggest downgrade between the two movies here I think is the story I don't think it's as strong a story as the first movies and it feels somewhat scattered as if maybe some of it was cut for time this is a movie that runs about about 2 hours and 20 minutes but there
are some gaps that make me think that there was more shot than we're actually seeing the two Emperors in the movie for example feel like find and replace substitutions for comist although neither actor can match as much as they try walking Phoenix's work in the first film and I do think that the tiebacks to the first movie are just a little too much I'd actually argue that this movie might have worked better or at least could have worked better if it had focused a little bit less on the tiebacks to Maximus and the tie act
to the first film and a little bit more on the current state of Rome but as it's developed under the shadow of Maximus so a Less Direct role in the film than we actually do see what really does hold Gladiator together though is the action scenes which are uniformly excellent I'd say even better than the original due to the upgrades and technology that we've seen in the last 25 years Ridley Scott can still stage the hell out of an epic battle or fight scene and he does so here in gladiatorial combats on land and water
and in an opening Siege sequence that mirrors and I think Rivals Gladiators opening battle we can argue about the quality of Ridley Scotts films and I have argued in the negative case a few times here on the channel especially in recent years but I don't think you can argue about the fact that he is a great film maker he knows the language of Cinema and he knows how to make a great looking movie even if what's inside the movie isn't always as good on the acting front Paul mesco was an interesting choice for the lead
role I've loved his work in smaller films like afteron and all of us strangers but this is quite a jump here he's mainly asked to play stoic and angry in a lot of story beats that are reminiscent of Russell crows in the original movie and I don't think that he's bad in the film at all but I also think that he has more range as an actor I've seen more range from him as an actor and I think it's largely a function of the fact that the screenplay doesn't really demand of him as an actor
as much as we've seen in other movies I know he's capable of more and I wish that the movie would have given him a chance to do just a little bit more Denzel Washington gets the Wen Phoenix role in this one meaning the supporting character who's allowed to do pretty much whatever he wants I'm a big Denzel fan and it's fun to see him taken off the leash really allowed to explore the space as they said in SNL's cowbell sketch I'm not entirely sure that all of his acting choices in the movie work but they
really are entertaining to watch I mean Denzel is is doing some stuff in this movie that you can tell he just said you know what I'm just going to let it fly of the rest of the cast I also enjoyed Pedro Pascal's Marcus acacius I could actually see a version of the movie with him in the lead that could hit a lot of the same themes and also work I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen with this character and was often surprised by the choices that the movie made much like Paul Mescal Pascal
is able to do stoic very well but I think he's given a little bit more on the page to round out his performance Connie neelson is good in the movie but mainly limited to being a tieback to the the first film I'm really not sure that either Gladiator film did a lot for her on a character level but I will say that I think she's good in both movies now as with Napoleon which by the way I think Gladiator 2 is a much better movie than Napoleon where this movie really excels is in its technical
achievements original cinematographer John mat returns for his first collaboration with Ridley Scott since 2010 Robin Hood original production designer and frequent Scott collaborator Arthur Max also returns to bring Rome back to life and as I mentioned I think the special effects are much more impressive this time around making the film feel even more real even if the animal effects are still a little cartoony the only big missing piece for me was Han Zimmer Han Zimmer decided not to return to do the music for the movie because he felt like he would be replicating his work
or competing with the original score that he wrote for Gladiator Harry Green Williams stepped in and wrote some good music but it's missing I think a lot of the Epic that we saw from the first Gladiator movie and it's kind of surprising to hear that Han Zimmer decided not to return because it was a sequel and he didn't want to sort of redo his work because he's done so many sequels in the past he did Dune part two earlier this year I wish that he had maybe not burnt out on sequels as much maybe you
know done one less Pirates of the Caribbean movie or had decided to draw this Line in the Sand a little bit later because I think this movie would have been a little bit better with that Han Zim music backing it up overall I think if you're going to Gladiator 2 looking for some great fight scenes solid acting and a true big screen epic I don't think you're going to be disappointed but if you're looking for a continuation of the story that can match the original I think you might be a little underwhelmed it's a great
showcase for Ridley Scott's talents as a filmmaker it features some really great action sequences some strong performances and some good individual scenes but in a general sense I'd say that Gladiator 2 is good not great which if you're a fan of the first Gladiator film that might actually be good news for you because that's exactly how I felt about the first Gladiator so maybe if I feel the same thinking that it's good you might feel the same thinking that it's great overall though on my personal rating scale I am giving Gladiator to a rating of
it's good I think that it's a good time investment for you to see in a theater it wasn't shot for IMAX but I saw it in an IMAX theater and it was great to see on the big screen with the sound and everything else if you're looking for that epic feel over the Thanksgiving break or in the next few weeks I don't think you can do much better than Gladiator 2 but what do you think are you going to be heading out to see Gladiator 2 are you going to do the whole glicked combo thing
like barbin Heimer let me know down in the comments below and before we go I want to thank the sponsor for this video this video is brought to you by public wreck the holidays mean holiday parties and people expect you to look your best but why should you feel like you have to stuff yourself in uncomfortable khakis just to mingle with co-workers or friends of friends who you barely know well you don't have to anymore public re is here with their dealmaker pants which give you the comfort of sweatpants with the look and fit of
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