Gladiator II: The good, the bad and the phenomenal

The wait is finally over! After months of clever and memorable advertising, character-specific ads, trailers, teasers, interviews, endless amounts of marketing, and anticipation, Gladiator II has arrived in theaters.

My husband and I purchased our tickets well in advance, including the Cinemark Colosseum popcorn bucket (which I cannot express enough how cool this thing is), and enjoyed the film last night at AMC Theaters. We chose an earlier showing as to miss the predictably large crowds, but still had a pretty full theater.

The sequel to Gladiator from 2000 had a lot to live up to and expectations to meet. Today I'll be diving into the film, where yes, there will be some spoilers.

What worked or didn't work? How were the performances?

Keep in mind this is my opinion alone. With all that said, this is your final warning, spoilers abound beyond this point!

The Good

-Marcus Acacius: Did we expect anything less from THE General of Rome? Pedro Pascal's role, as short-lived as it was, continues to prove why he's been dominating Hollywood.

Setting aside his popularity, the man can emote without saying a word. I had high hopes that Marcus would prove to be a man of honor and strength, and he was and more.

The moment he's on screen you are focused on his every move. Bonus points for the fact that the man, after all his time away at war, after all he had done, did not want games in his honor but only sought the refuge of his wife.

-Lucius: As Maximus' son, Paul Mescal had big shoes to fill and quite frankly he didn't disappoint. He was strategic, brave, and a natural leader.

The loss of his wife at the hands of an already complex man becomes the driving force of his revenge. You can both feel and see his pain and anguish over her loss every time he has dreams of her crossing the River Styx.

This was the first time I've ever seen Mescal act and I was entertained throughout the entirety of the film. His story may be similar to that of his father's, but it manages to add fresh blood into an ongoing story.

His tale is a reminder of how anything is truly possible and by the end of the film, audiences are left confident that he will bring about the change in Rome that Marcus Aurelius always dreamed of.

-The fight scenes/battles: This was what grabbed my attention the moment I saw the trailer. Gladiators were entertainers, fighting both man and beast and this time no expense was spared.

The monkey fight was but a taste of what was to follow. Every time a fight took place the entire theater fell into a deep silence.

Everyone was bracing in their seats and ready to see how Lucius would overcome each challenge. The fight scenes themselves vastly improved from the original Gladiator.

Sometimes it felt as though we were like the audiences who watched these fights all those thousands of years ago.

-The story: Is this the same story with different and recurring characters? No, honestly it is not. Yes it is a revenge story with so much more depth than even I anticipated.

While Lucius wants revenge for his dead wife, the man responsible Marcus is married to his mother Lucilla and the two are plotting to get rid of the Emperor brothers, who are at odds with each other. As that is happening Macrinus, wants to rule the empire but has to appease both the emperors and have Lucius do his bidding.

Everyone is testing fate, compelled to commit certain actions while others simply take a chance. We are seeing how sometimes we are victims to our own fates.

The story dives into the real politics of the time, something the original Gladiator dabbled with but never really succeeded in doing to this grand extent.

The Bad

Before we begin, calling any of the following "bad" is a bit unfair. Nothing was bad in the entire film. Problematic, yes. Ineffective, yes again.

-The pacing: The story, as well written and thought out as it was, had some severe pacing issues. I wanted to see more of Lucius with his wife before the battle.

It would have been nice to learn more about Marcus and Lucilla's marriage, heck even how long they were married, and how they both happened to decide to work together to overthrow the Emperor brothers. The fight scene between Lucius and Marcus should have lasted longer.

Films have a time limit, but these are just a handful of things that should have had more time devoted to them.

-Two movies in one: For some reason that I will try to explain, the film felt like two different movies combined. The turning point was Marcus' death.

The first half felt like a great beginning to an epic tale. We have the introduction of characters, the setting is established, and we are about to follow the hero on his path for revenge.

Alongside him, we meet other characters that will come into play, the big ones being: Emperors Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, General Marcus Acacius, and Lucilla. But after Lucius and Marcus' fight, which ends in Marcus' dying, the film suddenly shifts.

Now Rome has decidedly rioted against the Emperors, now Marcinus easily manipulates Caracalla leading to Geta's murder, then Marcinus' rise to power is insanely fast, etc. The events of the first half of the film put Macrinus' plan into motion at the expense of one brother killing the other and Marcus' death.

But the overall tone shift is far from subtle.

-May Calamawy was underutilized: When I learned that May Calamawy was going to be in the film, I got very excited. She's grown to become one of my favorite actresses.

But when I randomly checked IMDb a few days before seeing the film, suddenly her name was nowhere to be seen in the cast list. Then the Instagram posts arrived where, lo and behold, she's hanging out with Pedro Pascal, Paul Mescal, and others on the set.

My interest deepened when I then discovered she would be uncredited. Fast forward to the film and I found her, she's standing next to Denzel Washington, near the Emperors with no line, no name, no nothing...

Why? I thought for sure her character would have at least two speaking lines, maybe even aid Macrinus in his overall grand plan but nope. One scene and she's gone.

-Macrinus was a mixed bag: Denzel Washington is a profound and legendary actor. However, his portrayal of Macrinus had me at odds throughout the entire film.

When he was being serious, his entire performance was chilling. When he was being hammy, it was really over-the-top hammy, and personally that didn't work for me.

-We don't explore Rome: Much like Gladiator, we hardly see anything of Rome. We see where the hero begins his journey, the places he fights on his way to Rome, and then Rome AKA: the Colosseum.

While we do see the palace and some of the villas that the nobles of Rome live in, we never see much of the city itself, outside of aerial shots and a few seconds where characters talk. We don't see the bathhouses or markets.

We don't see how that society as a whole functioned. We are told the Emperors are corrupt, leaving Rome a former shell of what it once was but where is the evidence of it?

I am aware the story is about gladiators, but you could still have squeezed in time for the rest.

The Phenomenal

-The unpredictability: When I watched the trailers and teasers, I had a pretty good idea of where the story was going. But that was only half the story.

After Marcus' death, I really had no idea where the story was going next. And that is impressive.

I had an idea that key moments still needed to happen but overall, it was a surprise to see how influential and important Marcus was in the film.

-The minor details: Aside from the obvious callbacks to Gladiator, such as the way Lucius handles the sand and wheat with his hands, there was one in particular that I loved and noticed immediately. Whenever we see Lucilla in her home we often hear or see birds.

Colorful birds, flying about, uncaged. In Gladiator there are times when we can hear birds that are assumably in cages. I believe this was an intentional metaphor for Lucilla herself, who often felt caged due to her brother.

But now, finally, after all of these years, she feels free and happy in her marriage with Marcus.

-Joseph Quinn as Emperor Caracalla: Much like in Gladiator, the villain stole the show. Joaquin Phoenix's Emperor Commodus had so many layers to him that you couldn't help but constantly flip between pitying and despising him.

Quinn's Emperor Caracalla followed a similar path. He was the lesser of the evil brothers, doomed to be his brother's keeper, even though it led to his death.

Between the pressure of having to rule an entire Empire and make most of the decisions due to his brother's deteriorating mental stability couldn't have been easy. Caracalla came off as a man stuck doing two jobs, as the rule was split between him and Geta, which may have added to his frustrations and cruelty.

-Marcus and Lucilla: The only spoiler I had heard before watching the film (and I dodged spoilers like it was my job), was how Pascal's Marcus was the ideal husband. And I will say they were not wrong.

In a world where the overused plot of spouse #1 is involved in a life-or-death situation/plot therefore spouse #2 will not support and eventually betrays them because love is dead, Marcus and Lucilla's relationship was refreshing and inspiring. Surprisingly they were a power couple.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that they both were working together for a common goal. Although that goal is achieved, which unfortunately they do not live to see, their love story was heartwarming and sweet.

Final Thoughts

The big question everyone keeps asking is if this movie needed to be made. As a Gladiator sequel, I would say no, HOWEVER, when was the last time Hollywood released a film that focused on ancient history?

The beauty of the film is that even if you have not seen the original, you can still enjoy it as an individual story of Rome during the highest peaks of its history. The film does not take away any attention or greatness from the original.

It's an epic story, filled with heroes, villains, anti-heroes, and victims. Rome has a great beauty and darkness to it as for some it is heaven on Earth and for others it is a fate worse than death.

Was it worth all the hype? For me, yes it was.

But it was fairly obvious that audiences would fall into groups: those who hated it because they loved the original and those who loved it without having seen the original or disliking the original. What everyone isn't doing is looking at this film as a indiviual story.

Watch it with an open mind and you'll appreciate every detail, every emotion, every word, every moment.

What were your thoughts about Gladiator II? Share them in the comments below!