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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\u201cGladiator II\u201d has some awfully big sandals to fill, both commercially and creatively. Its predecessor, 2000\u2019s \u201cGladiator,\u201d made $187 million at the domestic box office. The new film has thus far made an estimated $132 million after three weekends of release. With a lot of money up for grabs in the upcoming holiday season, another $55 million isn\u2019t out of the question. Maybe I could even stretch to see it making the $68 million it needs to hit the $200 million mark. Yes, inflation means that it\u2019s less impressive to make these numbers now than it did nearly a quarter-century ago, but these are attainable goals. What I do not see as attainable is the sequel ever becoming as well-regarded as the original. That film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, so already the new one has to live up to an impossibly high (dare I say \u201cgold\u201d?) standard. But even with realistic standards, this movie is still a disappointment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second film takes place a few decades after the first, with the once-great Roman Empire ready to collapse under the blissfully-ignorant rule of twin emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger). They\u2019re still greedy enough to want to expand the empire, so they send out top general Acacius (Pedro Pascal) to conquer a kingdom in Africa. Acacius doesn\u2019t believe in the imperialist cause, but he\u2019s sworn allegiance to his home, so he sacks the kingdom, which includes killing the wife of top soldier Hanno (Paul Mescal), who swears revenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hanno is taken prisoner and sold into slavery, where he\u2019s served up as a potential gladiator without much consideration. But he impresses in his tryout against a troop of baboons, and is purchased by Macrinus (Denzel Washington), a former slave who sees managing gladiators as a way to curry favor with the emperors, feeding into political ambitions and possibly even a power grab. He makes a deal with Hanno that if his \u201cpersonal instrument of destruction\u201d can become a superstar in the Colosseum, he\u2019ll eventually give him a chance at revenge against Acacius.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hanno is conflicted between wanting revenge and not wanting to be used as a political pawn for a slimeball like Macrinus. He\u2019s not conflicted about wanting to stay alive, however, so he plays along in putting together a string of victories. Also, Acacius\u2019s wife Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), the daughter of former emperor Aurelius, notices that Hanno bears a striking resemblance to her long-lost son Luscious. And Luscious\u2019s father\u2026 is not Acacius.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The story and action aren\u2019t very engaging in \u201cGladiator II,\u201d with choppy editing and plodding pacing. But the real weakness of the movie is the acting. Pascal and Nielsen are fine, and the emperors get to do some fun scenery-chewing, but whoever thought that bland pretty-boy Paul Mescal could be an inspirational protagonist on par with the iconic Russell Crowe made a severe miscalculation. Also, and I\u2019m not saying that the rest of the cast is exactly making me feel immersed in Roman culture, but there\u2019s something so unmistakably American about Denzel Washington. Maybe it\u2019s his voice, maybe it\u2019s his mannerisms, maybe it that he shares a last name with the nation\u2019s capital, but he belongs at Caesar\u2019s Palace much more than he belongs at\u2026 these Caesars\u2019\u2026 palace. He\u2019s too Vegas-y is what I\u2019m saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGladiator II\u201d has my permission to be a modest financial hit as long as it stays in the shadow of superior recent releases \u201cMoana 2\u201d and \u201cWicked,\u201d the latter of which has much scarier CGI primates. But it hasn\u2019t won me over as a movie worth recommending, and I definitely don\u2019t consider it an awards contender. Am I not entertained? Taking into account the wording of that question, I can say that yes, I am not entertained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grade: C-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGladiator II\u201d is rated R for strong bloody violence. Its running time is 148 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Bob Garver \u201cGladiator II\u201d has some awfully big sandals to fill, both commercially and creatively. Its predecessor, 2000\u2019s \u201cGladiator,\u201d made $187 million at the domestic box office. The… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":60259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60258"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60258"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60261,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60258\/revisions\/60261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}