Arriving nearly two and a half decades after Gladiator (2000) became a surprise box-office hit, resurrecting the long-dormant sword-and-sandal epic and taking home a bunch of Oscars, returning director Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II treads similar ground, centering on a fantastical hero of impeccable morals and impressive pectorals who defies the corruption of ancient Rome through his gladiatorial bona fides. Since Russell Crowe’s Maximums died a hero/martyr’s death at the end of Gladiator, there was no (reasonable) way to bring him back, so instead we get Lucius (Paul Mescal), who follows the same tortured hero’s journey by losing his family and being transformed into a revolutionary fighter in the Roman Colesseum.

When we first meet Lucius, he is living in the northern African kingdom of Numidia with his wife, a fellow warrior names Arishat (Yuval Gonen). When Numidia is invaded by the Roman army led by General Acacius (Pedro Pascal), Lucius puts up the good fight, but is defeated, loses Arishat, and is sent back to Rome as a slave. Forced to fight in gladiatorial battles in the outskirts of Rome, he catches the eye of Macrinus (Denzel Washington), a Moor who trains gladiators and has designs on Roman power, which at this point is concentrated in the twin emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger), who are more Caligula than Marcus Aurelius. As it turns out, Acacius, who would seem to be the villain, is getting weary of war and wants to spend time with his wife, Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), who you may remember from the first film as the sister of Joaquin Phoenix’s twisted Emperor Commodus. Just as she resisted her brother’s sick power plays in the first film, she displays similar resistance while also revealing long-held secrets that tie the two films together with more than just the Roman numeral II.

David Scarpa, who previously wrote Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World (2018) and Napoleon (2023) and was working from a story co-concocted by Peter Craig (Bad Boys for Life, The Batman), knows not to mess with the formula too much. If there is a meaningful twist to the screenplay, it is that the exact nature of the corruption Lucius is battling is kept murky for much of the film, offering various possibilities. Of course, the overall depth of the story is minimal, and it trades on the same righteous melodrama and family dynamics that fueled Gladiator. Paul Mescal brings plenty of intensity to the role of Lucius, but he ultimately pales in comparison to Russell Crowe’s towering performance in the original. Denzel Washington, the other hand, was a slyly brilliant casting coup, as his long history of playing both upright figures and vicious villains makes his Macrinus a constant enigma.

Of course, those looking for a second helping of Gladiator are likely yearning for more of the blood-and-iron violence the original supplied in spades, and Scott does not disappoint. There are plenty of Colosseum conflicts—in fact, you could argue the film is structured around them, like action producer Joel Silver’s whammo scenes—some of which are better than others. Interestingly, the more straightforward battles work the best, whereas when Scott tries to push the envelope, it starts feeling silly. One sequence involves a warrior riding a rhinoceros, which apparently Scott wanted to include in the original, but lacked the funding. The most absurd sequence, though, involves flooding the Colosseum to re-enact a famous naval battle. That in and of itself is fine and even has historical veracity, but then they have to raise the stakes by filling the flooded arena with man-eating sharks.

Sharks? Really?

One might find oneself (as I did) wondering how on earth the ancient Romans were able to capture and transport a dozen hungry sharks from the ocean and drop them into the flooded Colosseum, which naturally detracts from the action. I can say, at the very least, that the digital special effects used to create ancient Rome have vastly improved over the past 25 years, although the sense of realism is aided primarily by a substantial reliance on actual sets and buildings. Even if the film doesn’t always hit home emotionally the way it was clearly intended, it does provide a rich sense of atmosphere and presence in evoking an ancient world.

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