An average movie

More than 20 years ago, I actually saw ‘Gladiator’ with my buddies in the movie theater. Sure, I thought it wasn’t a decent watch but, to be honest, not really much more than that, and I have to admit that I didn’t expect it at the time to become so huge. After all these years, it might have seemed to be a no-brainer to come up with a sequel but, to be honest, especially after watching the damned thing, I wouldn’t be surprised if it would eventually turn out to be a flop after all. I mean, Ridley Scott is a really solid director so the damned thing was well made, no doubt about it, but, seriously, what was the point of this sequel? I mean, the plot was just so similar to its predecessor that it made the whole thing was rather pointless. I felt especially bad for Paul Mescal. It was in fact the first movie I saw starring the up-and-coming actor and I can confirm that the guy definitely has some solid acting chops. Still, with his first blockbuster, I’m afraid he was a lit bit unlucky here and I guess he will focus even more on indie productions in the future. To be honest, he was not helped by the fact that his character was just so similar to Maximus and, to be fair, even though Mescal is quite charismatic, he is not (yet) a Russell Crowe in his prime. In fact, from the whole cast involved, the only one who managed to be interesting was Denzel Washington who basically stole the show every time he was on the screen. Anyway, to conclude, even if I actually had a hard time to care about the damned thing, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch though and it is worth a look but probably only if you really like genre.

6/10