Gladiator II (2024)

Plot of Gladiator II: Remember the boy Lucius in Gladiator, son of Lucilla and maybe Maximus, who escaped from Rome years ago. Well, he’s a famer in Numidia with his wife. When the Romans attack by sea they put their armour on and defend their fortress, but the Romans win, killing Arishat, his wife and taking him prisoner. Over time he becomes a gladiator in the school owned by Macrinus, a scheming ex-slave, who tells Lucius, now known as Hanno, that he will deliver the Roman general whose forces killed his wife, to him if he sticks with the plan. Rome is ruled by a couple of mad twins, Geta and Carcalla who are vulnerable to those plotting to replace them. Lucilla makes repeated attempts to get together with Lucius but is rejected, until he becomes part of the plot to change Rome, but will it be successful?

Content: No sex or nudity, or any noticeable drinking or drug taking, although there may have been a bit. The Romans attack the Numidian fortress in ships equipped with siege towers and win. Once in gladiator camp Hanno goes through the training and then has a number of battles both in the arena and out of it, one against the gladiator who arrives in the arena on a rhinoceros, and later as the captain of a ship on a water filled arena which also contains sharks. When he gets the chance to fight and kill the general, Acacias he does not kill him, but the guards do. The emperors are suitably mad, Carcalla making his pet monkey a consul, but they are outwitted by Macrinus.

A View: This film is up against its prequel, which is one of my all time favourites and as many people have by now pointed out Paul Mescal does not have the stature or charisma of Russell Crowe. Not his fault of course, he was fine in Ordinary People. Ridley Scott tends to invent things to suit the plot, in this case Roman galleys with towers on the bow, enabling them to get into the fortress. Not to mention the  ballistas. Then there are the sharks in the arena, although I believe they actually did have crocodiles in some aqua events. And more broadly the whole plot line of a player becoming a national hero, which might have started with Rollerball, has been pretty well done to death. So, honestly, wait until you can watch it on your home screen.

Fun Fact:  The producers were keen to cast Paul Mescal after seeing the reactions of the ladies in the audience when he took his shirt off on stage, during “A Streetcar Names Desire”.