A new box office hit emerged in late November 2024. “Gladiator II,” the sequel to the original Gladiator released in 2000, is a new, but recognizable movie for everyone worldwide.
Based in 211 AD, “Gladiator II” is a movie about a young man, Lucius, played by Paul Mescal. Lucius has to battle adversity and hardships throughout his life. During the movie, the final straw being his wife, played by Yuval Gonen, who was killed in a battle against the Roman Empire. Due to this, Lucius decides to venture to Rome, hoping to find the Emperors and get revenge for what had happened to his wife.
During his attempts to kill the emperors of Rome, who are brothers, Lucius is captured. Unbeknownst to him, he would have to become a Gladiator and fight for the Romans’ entertainment. During this, Lucius finds his long lost mother who tells him that he is related to past emperors, making him an heir to the Roman throne.
In the middle of the movie as Lucius was battling in the Roman Coliseum, I couldn’t help but wonder how they made all of this happen back in 211 AD. I wondered if they actually wrangled wild animals like lions, tigers and rhinos for their Gladiators to fight. It makes you think, are these movies true or do they have a Hollywood twist to them?
After finding this out, Lucius decides to fight in the biggest Gladiator battles. During these battles, Lucius loses many of his recruited men. Lucius also loses his mother by execution. Seeing the death of his mother firsthand, Lucius decides to end everything once and for all. Closer to the end, Lucius sends a warning signal to Acacius’ troops that were still loyal to him, so they jumped into action. This leads to a battle between the armies led by Rome’s Macrinus, played by Denzel Washington and Lucius. Lucius comes out on top by taking off Macrinus’ arm. After the battle, Lucius makes both armies surrender to each other and become one.
This movie was not only a thriller, but gory and animated as well. It was well played off of the first Gladiator, even though it was 24 years later.
Another great thing about this movie is the cast. You could see a lot of recognizable faces in Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, and Joseph Quinn. It was very cool to realize how their characters acted and played against each other in the movie.
This movie scored 6.9/10 on IMBD and 72% on Rotten Tomatoes, but personally thought the movie deserved a better rating. This movie was a great watch, that kept the audience on the edge of their seat for most of the movie.
