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This week at The Tryon Theatre is “Gladiator II,” a sequel to the acclaimed 2000 film “Gladiator,” which explored the world of ancient Rome, namely the gladiatorial combat of the Colosseum. 

While many classic films have depicted this same environment, “Gladiator” was able to capitalize on new camera techniques and special effects that rendered the madness and brutality of the arena in revolutionary clarity and detail like never before. Audiences responded with widespread praise, celebrating the film’s gripping narrative, entertaining performances, and thrilling action. The sequel capitalizes on the same appeals, allowing for even grander and more chaotic depictions of the Colosseum’s larger-than-life entertainment. 

The original film and this sequel were directed by Ridley Scott, a filmmaker with an apt talent for depicting majesty and scale, qualities abounding in the opulence of the Roman Empire. With a significant twenty-four-year gap between the first film and “Gladiator II,” Scott set the sequel similarly distanced. The “universe” of his first film has naturally aged two decades. This new setting creates a natural cushion in understanding the narrative, and this film is a direct sequel to its predecessor. 

Multiple central characters, including the lead, are directly related to the characters and events of the first film. The new film does a decent job of establishing its new cast for any uninitiated viewers, but familiarity with “Gladiator” will certainly enhance the narrative tension and satisfaction of “Gladiator II.”

The first film found its protagonist in a general turned slave, Maximus, played by Russell Crowe. Paul Mescal is at the center of this new cast, a talented young actor with the sad intensity one would expect in a character meant to be the child of Crowe’s noble Maximus. Mescal does a fine job with his emotional scenes and his frequent action scenes. But, it is in one of the film’s antagonists that we find the most entertaining performance: Denzel Washington’s stable master, Macrinus, who oversees the training and performance of the gladiators. 

Washington’s natural cinematic gravitas is well lent to this figure of authority over men, while his more rarely applied talent for camp finds tremendous footing in Macrinus’s theatrical and emotional portrayal. 

The first “Gladiator” film earned significant praise from audiences for the emotional satisfaction of the narrative, but the appeal of attending was based solely on the spectacle, the promise of Colosseum-esque entertainment, as we voyeuristically explore that ancient world. Much like the first, “Gladiator II” delivers on that promise in spades, with pulse-pounding action absorbing you from the first scene and unrelenting until the end. A competent and engaging story is contained within, but it is in the thrills that the price of admission is earned. We hope you will join us for all the fun soon!