Gladiator II

Given that the action pieces include the flooding of the Colosseum in order to recreate a naval battle, complete with shark-infested waters, it would be unfair to describe Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II as no muss, no fuss. The veteran director does, however, play his swords and sandals sequel with a straight bat; he takes the subject seriously and the film is all the better for it - not to mention superior to >its predecessor.

Set 16 years after the Crowe took it to the Maximus as a wronged man bent on vengeance, Paul Mescal picks up the sword as a the hero, whose real name of Lucius - along with his heritage - is gradually revealed, although it’s not a big surprise, especially if you’ve read any of the pre-publicity.

He encounters the Romans as they sack his city in Numidia and, at the command of General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), kill his wife Arishat (Yuval Gonen). In fact, Acacius is tiring of war and his making his own plans for insurrection against venal twin emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger), with his wife Lucilla (Connie Nielsen, returning to the cast from the original), who is the daughter of the former emperor.

Scooped up and branded, Lucius, in the traditional fashion, is transported to Rome, where his rage catches the eye of power-playing slave trader Macrinus (Denzel Washington), who sees an opportunity to turn things to his advantage.

David Scarpa’s screenplay wisely keeps the political machinations on a slow simmer, so that they are easily followed and don’t get in the way of the nicely worked set-pieces Scott has in store. While the characterisation is generally broad and shallow, with virtually all of the ruling class both affected and drunk on excess, Washington’s Machiavellian Macrinus stands out to the point where you almost wish the film was centred on him. The twin emperors, while fun in a bread and circuses kind of way, don’t have sufficient screentime to fully cement their villainous nature.

Mescal brings a decent amount of brawn to proceedings, however, even if the inevitable CGI in the arena is hit and miss. A load of rabid baboons don’t feel particularly realistic, though a rhino gets better service. Sadly, almost 50 years after Jaws, Hollywood still hasn’t really got the hang of fake sharks. Regarding those, Hollywood composers also seem unable to break free from nods to John Williams’ famous score when they appear and Harry Gregson-Williams is no exception. The scoring, in general, leans into cliche, including pan-pipe Celtic for ‘emotional’ moments.

Leaving the technical tricks aside, Scott has a few of his own, and brings plenty of cut and thrust to the hand-to-hand combat. He also makes impressive use of his extras, making sure John Mathieson’s camera hunkers in towards them, so that they fill the frame and make the armies and crowds feel large without too much additional wizardry required. The production design is vivid and, unlike the recent Those About To Die, not overly polished, so that it’s possible to believe they didn’t all just step out of a wardrobe trailer. Mathieson also makes nice use of flickering flames in the night scenes, although the use of a heavy blue filter in the exterior shots is unfortunately reminiscent of the look that films used to have when they used that sort of thing to turn day shoots into night.

While those looking for complex intrigue may be disappointed by the simplicity of the scheming, when it comes to spectacle, Scott is still hard to beat.