Gladiator II ★★★½

IS Gladiator II worth the long wait?

As usual, it depends on your expectations.

If you expect big-screen entertainment that is unlikely to measure-up to the original film, you won’t be disappointed.

The original’s director, English big-budget specialist Ridley Scott, again delivers an entertaining spectacle highlighted by thrilling action sequences, this time featuring rabid baboons, an enormous rhinoceros and a flooded, shark-filled Colosseum.

The sequel also improves on some of the original film’s computer-generated imagery, particularly for the massive crowd scenes, as you would expect 24 years on.

Russell Crowe’s Maximus and Joachin Phoenix’s Commodus are of course nowhere to be seen, replaced by Paul Mescal as Maximus’ adult son Lucius and a pair of loopy twin emperors.

The sequel does suffer from not having the intense tension between the main characters in the original film. But it still features another terrific performance, just not the one you might expect.

In just a couple of films, Aftersun and All of Us Strangers, the Irish-born Mescal has already demonstrated enormous talent. This is his first major role in a big studio film and he delivers a good, if not commanding, performance.

As the unhinged Emperors Geta and Caracalla, Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger respectively have a lot of fun, but Pedro Pascal surprisingly doesn’t register in an under-written role.

No, the real star of Gladiator II is Denzel Washington as slave trader Macrinus who starts the film as seemingly just another opportunist and schemer, but is slowly revealed to be a key player in the high-stakes political drama, using Lucius as the means to gain his own ultimate goal.

Washington rarely plays the villain but when he does you know it’s going to be a portrayal filled with shades of grey rather than light and darkness. The film would have been better if he had an even larger role.

Apart from Macrinus’ character arc, the script for the sequel is a little disappointing, being in many respects a repeat of the original’s story of a slave forced to become a gladiator whose quest for vengeance turns him into a leader. In this case, the leader of the uprising is Pascal’s character who really flits in and out of the proceedings.

Where Gladiator II it at its strongest is of course the action sequences, beginning with an extended siege and continuing to some thrilling and bloody gladiatorial battles.

Scott claims a third film is in early development. Let’s hope it doesn’t take another 24 years to reach our screens.

Watched at the cinema.