Gladiator II

"Doesn’t beat the first by a long shot but still a very fun watch. "

"Nicely done! "

"This whole movie at 2 hours and 39 minutes seemed somehow rushed ..the fight scenes were grand and dramatic. The cast of course was stellar but realizing who the gladiator actually was (came to me in the middle of the movie) this could have been written better and the focus be more on him. The water colleseum scene was over top but I really loved it. Come there was sharks! I do believe Denzel Washington was a bit miscast for this. An amazing actor really acting his hutt off but just in the wrong vehicle. Pedro was a bit too. Entertaining film but not as good as the first one."

" Almost as good as the original until it gets a bit goofy towards the end."

"Amazing movie and I loved it almost as much I loved the first one. And as much as I adore the actor, I disagree with critics in that Denzel Washington was behind the success of this movie. He was not. The movie including the incredible acting of the maniacal twin emperors was just superb. My only take was I would have liked a stronger voiced Gladiator and character in this one when compared to Russel Crowe but I guess Lucius was always a protected child so maybe we should expect a soft spoken character. That was the only let down in my mind. "

"I really liked this film! As someone who really disliked the first film, this was a massive improvement for me. A very solid follow up that continues the story of Lucius (the young boy from the first film) who ends up following a similar path to Maximus in terms of becoming a gladiator. Phenomenal costume and production design paired with improved cinematography and VFX (2 aspects I intensely disliked from the first film). Paul Mescal does a decent job as the grown up Lucius, while Denzel Washington is easily the film’s MVP (chews the scenery with glimmers of TRAINING DAY present) followed closely by Connie Nielsen (who serves as the film’s heart) (both of them deserve to be nominated for this IMO). Ridley Scott also deserves praise for his stamina and making a film of such an epic scale at age 86. Worth a watch. Fun fact: If Denzel Washington gets nominated, it’ll be his 10th acting Oscar nomination, tying him with Sir Laurence Olivier as the 2nd most nominated male actor ever and putting him only behind 12-time nominee Jack Nicholson. Would be cool to see him join their ranks."

"Once I was able to suspend my disbelief and throw out any historical accuracy, I was able to love this for its action, gore, and cast. It's your average masculine flick- awesome speeches to rally the troops, a muscular MC with incredible plot armor, politics & royalty, a plot for revolution, lots of bloodshed, and sharks. It's awesome, as long as that's the kind of thing you're into. At first glance, I thought, "hey at least there's some beautiful men and cool fight scenes." (This is correct). Near the end I thought, "yeah, I got what I paid for in sheer carnage and cute men so, I'm good." Enjoy it if you can, but know it's not going to fill the hole that the 2000's iconic gladiator age did, nor will it convince you to love it if you don't already love masculine plotlines"

"Very nice follow up to the first one. I like the first one even more but what a well played plot and character development for a follow up. "

"ravi/lucius endgame"

"First take: Boring next-generation reboot with a powerful last scene. While the two emporers played devious well, Denzel The Great was grossly miscast imo and the chemistry between actors wasn't there."