‘Gladiator II’ reviews: Critics finally weigh in on the Ridley Scott sequel

After 24 years, “Gladiator II” is finally here. Ridley Scott’s sequel to his Best Picture-winning historical epic opens Nov. 22 with Paul Mescal in the lead role and Denzel Washington supporting. Critic reviews are now being published. The gathering consensus is that it’s…pretty good. The reviews are generally positive, praising Washington’s performance and its entertainment value above all else. But many critics in reviews both positive and negative report not feeling much emotional connection to the story, and no one seems to think it’s as good as the original. 

“It’s a Saturday-night epic of tony escapism. But is it great? A movie to love the way that some of us love ‘Gladiator’? No and no,” Variety’s Owen Gleiberman writes. “It’s ultimately a mere shadow of that movie. But it’s just diverting enough to justify its existence.” 

“A lot of ‘Gladiator II’ is familiar to the point of redundancy,” TheWrap’s William Bibbiani writes. “David Scarpa’s screenplay — with a co-story credit by Peter Craig — draws so many parallels between the new film and the old one that it seems to forget that dramatic parallels have to mean something, or else they’re just two straight lines. One looks just like the other, they go in the same direction and they get to the same place. This isn’t what we do in life echoing in eternity. It’s just repetitive.” Bibbiani does admit that the battles are “spectacular,” though. 

“Scott, the old pro, knows how to give these scenes a vicious vitality that overcomes any thoughts about how the Romans supposedly got live sharks in the [flooded Colosseum],” Vulture’s Alison Wilmore writes. “But the thrill of the action sequences just underscores the hollowness of the rest of the enterprise.” Herman does not like Mescal’s performance, calling him “terrible at giving the rousing speeches that were so iconic in ‘Gladiator,’” with a problematic “instinct…to underplay these moments rather than bellow theatrically.”

Not every critic found it hollow, however. In a very positive review, Inverse’s Siddhant Adlakha writes that “Gladiator II” is a timely film made even more timely by the events of the past week about how seemingly defeated evil has a way of coming back. “The tyrannical villain Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), Lucius’ maternal uncle, may have been defeated on-screen in Gladiator, but it hardly feels that way in real life. And so, the series can’t move on,” he writes, calling it a “darker, more vicious film for a darker, more vicious time.” Adlakha enjoyed Mescal’s performance, calling him “fiery.” 

One of the handful of rave reviews comes from the BBC’s Caryn James. “How can you not love a film that has swords, sandals, sharks in the flooded Roman Colosseum, Denzel Washington in flowing robes and Paul Mescal biting a baboon? There’s much more than that, both serious and camp, in Ridley Scott’s exhilarating and fun sequel to Gladiator,” she writes. “Full of spectacle and spectacular performances, ‘Gladiator II’ is by far the best popcorn film of the year.” 

But a pan from IndieWire’s Vikram Murthi articulates the emptiness many noted at the heart of the film: “Gladiator II,” like many contemporary Hollywood productions, doesn’t disappoint in any kind of novel or interesting way,” he writes. “If anything, it’s a testament to the tedium of basic competence, and an all-too-familiar story of a celebrated director returning to a big success and failing to recapture what made it a sensation in the first place.” 

As of publication time, “Gladiator II” is sitting at 83% “Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes. Will its positive-but-not-glowing critical reception hurt its Oscar chances? That remains to be seen, but remember that critics weren’t blown away by the original “Gladiator,” either, which has a 79% “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes from a pre-review grade inflation era, and we know how that turned out.