Gladiator II

There’s no limit to how much time can pass, no limit to the standalone nature of an original film and no limit to the success both critically and commercially in terms of whether something will get a legacy sequel.

Indeed, some of the more successful have been from those deemed most unlikely: Top Gun, Trainspotting, Mad Max and Blade Runner to name some of the frontrunners of the trend.

It’s a nailing of the ‘tone’ that is key, modernising something whilst still retaining the ‘feel’ of the original. Gladiator II is excellent in this regard.

The original is one of the best films of the noughties because it feels like it set a lot of the precedent for that time and its standing as a serious, almost old-fashioned historical epic was wildly influential

Its sequel is dropping into a vastly different cinematic landscape, but its adherence to this tone and all its trappings is to its benefit and, whilst it won’t have the same influence as the first, it feels suitably epic, audience pleasing and grand.

It is rather a copy/paste job like Star Wars: The Force Awakens before it but, like that film, by recycling the plot, adding some references and touches of the first, and revelling in its setting and battles it presents as proper, old-skool blockbuster.

The set piece scenes are truly epic and brutal, the recreation of ancient Rome is again mesmerising and its fairly rapid plot cycles (there’s clearly a longer cut out there somewhere) means you’re propelled through the two and a half hour runtime.

The slight plot skips and lack of colouring in the details prevents this from scaling the highest of heights but Paul Mescal offers enough to grab onto the main character in a very good Russell Crowe approximation (making the character personable despite a relative lack of personality offered in the script).

We get a few different types of supporting character with the MVP being Denzel Washington’s gladiator owner Macrinus who chews scenery for fun and elevates the film closer to what the supposed, Nick Cave-written ‘Maximus in the afterlife’ tale could maybe have been.

The film we've actually got is still worthy of celebration though. It doesn’t quite match up to its forebear but is a very worthy successor, playing the right notes, stirring the same emotions and revelling in the same sandbox.

We are entertained.

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