AFTER A TOUR of dazzling international premieres, including a stop at Dublin’s Lighthouse Cinema, Gladiator II is out in Irish cinemas tomorrow.
The sequal to the 2000 action movie, directed by Ridley Scott, stars our very own Paul Mescal.
He is new protagonist Lucius Verus, the estranged son of noblewoman Lucilla (Connie Nielsen, reprising her role from the first film) and nephew of the odious emperor Commodus, played in the first film by Joaquin Phoenix.
Lucius has spent 20 years living away from Rome and Gladiator II explains the reasons why he is forced to return, thirsty for vengeance.
The first film of the franchise was an instant hit and became the second-highest grossing film worldwide in 2000.
Our Roman Empire is whether the sequel will match that energy.
The Guardian says that, while the flim gives a strong sense of déjà vu even 24 years after the first installment, Mescal is “formidable”.
“This is a sequel that isn’t afraid to get its hands dirty – it delivers the keynote scenes and moments for the fanbase (which is all of us) and the all-important gladiator setpieces have the right hallucinatory quality.
“Ridley Scott is one of cinema’s modern marvels with his extraordinary run of high-energy pictures in the last few years delivered at a terrific storytelling gallop.
“As for Gladiator II, he’s galloping back over old ground, galloping in a circle perhaps. But there is something awe-inspiring in seeing Mescal’s triumphal march into the A-list.”
The Financial Times gave the film four stars, labelling it “a blockbuster fuelled by an insistence on bigger, sillier, movie-r”.
The dramatics are an attempt to make the movie memorable, writes Danny Leigh.
“I’d be amazed if the sequel is remembered by Christmas, let alone in 24 years. But the ideas are more pulpy and loopy, and the film more fun for it.”
He notes Mescal’s departure from his more sensitive roles in Normal People and All of Us Strangers.
“Still, his presence is less puffed-up than Crowe’s,” who won an Oscar for his lead role in the first instalment.
The Journal‘s review also zones in on Mescal – Ireland’s hottest export, theatrically, of course.
Having been trained at The Lir Academy in Dublin, Mescal is comfortable with theatrics.
But Aoife Barry says Gladiator II is a “case of spectacle rather than emotion”.
“While its predecessor had a slow-burn opening, Scott has chosen to move things along a lot faster in Gladiator II.
“Like the first film, the script can be a bit basic at times, and this is where Mescal’s character suffers the most. Yet some characters, like Washington’s Macrinus, are given plenty to play with, and make the absolute most of it.”
Action movie lovers will be thrilled with more stunts, more blood, and “even worse baddies” than before.
The Irish Independent says it would be “foolish” to expect too much from this film, and that it’s “neither a masterpiece nor a disaster”.
“It is instead a big, old-fashioned sword-and-sandal extravaganza, the kind of film where heroes make loud, impassioned speeches to an audience of thousands, and where villains chew every ounce of scenery in the frame.
“Along the way, there are nasty fistfights, vicious beheadings and flesh-eating baboons. Somehow, our man Mescal survives a bruising encounter with an angry rhinoceros. Are we not entertained?
“We are, but the storytelling is wobbly, and the set-up is annoyingly familiar.”
The BBC has called it “the best popcorn film of the year”.
“How can you not love a film that has swords, sandals, sharks in the flooded Roman Colosseum, Denzel Washington in flowing robes and Paul Mescal biting a baboon?”
Caryn James writes that, entertainment aside, the film also has some serious parallels to the modern day poltical landscape.
“Under its crowd-pleasing surface, though, the film’s theme of political power, of who wields it and how, is strong and purposeful, even if Scott cagily weaves it into the colourful show.”
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