After his home is conquered by the tyrannical emperors who now lead Rome, Lucius is forced to enter the Colosseum and must look to his past to find strength to return the glory of Rome to its people.

Ridley Scott’s eagerly anticipated ‘Gladiator’ sequel has finally arrived, with Paul Mescal stepping into Russell Crowe’s sizeable Oscar winning shoes in the central role. The story picks up around 16 years after the events of the first movie, beginning with a Roman siege on a North African territory (Numidia, present day Algeria) where Maximus son Lucius is now living with his wife under the alias ‘Hanno’. Suffice to say something will happen that gives Lucius reason to seek vengeance in Rome, following much of the same trajectory as his father did in the first movie. There are a lot of issues with this movie if you wanted to pick holes or complain, and I shall do that, but I’ll preface by saying I did really, really enjoy it and thought it was incredibly entertaining – it just isn’t in the same league as the first movie which for me at least, is a classic.

The story in many respects feels like a retread of the first movie, with Lucius given effectively the same motivation for his quest for vengeance as Maximus had. That’s one of the issues with ‘Gladiator II’, of course it was always going to be compared to the first movie anyway given how successful and revered it is, but when nearly every element feels like it’s a retread it is only going to be to this movie’s detriment. Denzel Washington is the best of the new additions as a machiavellian and ambitious gladiator owner, and seeing him chew the scenery is great fun. As for Paul Mescal, he’s fine in the central role and has clearly bulked up to look the part, but let’s be honest, he’s no Russell Crowe (at that time anyway) and he lacks the raw masculinity that exuded out of Crowe’s Maximus.

It should also be said that this is very silly, from the childish twin emperors to sharks in the colosseum (inviting an obvious jumping the shark reference!), but if you’re here for that kind of escapism (and I was), there’s lots to enjoy. This is never going to leave the cultural footprint that the first ‘Gladiator’ movie did, but as far as sequels go, it does entertain even as it does so by mostly playing it safe and sticking to the same formula that led to success 25 years or so ago. That said, I wouldn’t have minded seeing them make the version Nick Cave scripted, as that sounded a bit mental!

Rating: 4/5

Directed By: Ridley Scott

Starring: Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Connie Nielsen, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, Lior Raz, Derek Jacobi, Peter Mensah, Matt Lucas, Alexander Karim, Tim McInnerny and Rory McCann

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt9218128/