2nd son does have a easy work around imo. Simplest explanation: he always had strong feelings for his future wife back home but they didn’t actually start officially dating or married her until after Lucius was conceived. Ex) Brief one time thing with Lucilla, vary shortly after that he was allowed to go home by the Emperor or someone higher ranked than he was back then. Soon after getting home he hooks up with his future wife this time she becomes she’s pregnant then he finally makes their relationship official and got married then he leaves to go back on to work before the son is born or right after. In Gladiator 1, Maximus says his son is “nearly 8” Lucilla says her son is also “nearly 8” but “nearly” may not necessarily mean the same thing to both people. “nearly” to Maximus could mean less than a month, to Lucilla it could mean 3 months. So a 2-3 month age difference between the two boys ages is possible. *Highly unlikely* but It’s also possible when they say “nearly” one or both of them could’ve meant that in the most vague way possible. Neither Max/Lucille or just Max or Lucilla actually has a kid with a birthday coming up within a month or a few months. When they say “nearly 8” they meant that in the overly objective sense that age 7 is nearly 8 years old. One of their kids 7th birthday could literally have been only 2 months prior by that logic. Which adds even more months to their possible age gap. 😂 Narratively this works better for his character, he’s not a cheater Lucius’s creation didn’t happen during the time he was formally dating, engaged or married to his wife. (And no he was not trying to intentionally get anyone pregnant just casual sex that happened to turn out that way)
It's one sin among many, but the revenge plot suffers a lot by having the wife be a soldier. In the original, his wife and son are innocents, killed because of political intrigue he didn't ask for, and they weren't even aware of. They were casualties of the crossfire, killed in a cruel and torturous way simply to get at him. When the wife is a soldier, who dies in combat via arrow (pretty much random chance) it takes away the injustice of it all. It's not hard to see that the husband might want vengeance, but Pedro's character never ordered anyone to kill his wife specifically, just to take the city. It's like swearing vengeance on Patton because some private shot your wife who was shooting at him. It's so inpersonal that it seems irrational.
Thanks for this, haven't seen the film and never will because on even on a surface level I'm turned off by it but with each tidbit I find out, it repulses me.
Would have worked if were akin to something like a soldier doing something beyond the bounds of combat, like brutally torturing her or such, but if it's simply the happenstance of getting hit by a random arrow in combat, it feels less justifiable.
I think that added to the complexity though. You seem like you have it in your mind that it's just a copy paste revenge story.....the idea seems to be that Pedro WASN'T the bad guy. Making the wife's death less injust clarifies this, and makes the forgiveness at the end make sense
Gladiator 1: A new hope Gladiator 2: The empire strikes back Gladiator 3: The return of Maximus Gladiator 4: The Barbarian Menace Gladiator 5: Attack of the Barbarians Gladiator 6: The revenge of Rome Gladiator 7: The arena awakens Gladiator 8: The last emperor Gladiator 9: The rise of maximus
Gladiator 2 is "The Arena Awakens" in your analogy...with a potential Gladiator 3 being "The Last Emperor" and Gladiator 4 being "The rise of Maximus" but I like your thinking 🙂
Hollywood now is more like.... Gladiator 1: A new hope Gladiator 2: A new hope Gladiator 3: A new hope Gladiator 4: A new hope Gladiator 5: A new hope Gladiator 6: A new hope Gladiator 7: A new hope Gladiator 8: A new hope Gladiator 9: A new hope. Now with 100% more trans
I also recommend the director's cut of Gladiator. It's essentially scenes that should have been in the movie but were too big for their budget and the production's timeline. It's phenomenal! :D
And utterly unneeded. Nothing wrong with picking up the mantle of a hero who is not direct blood relation to you, especially since he was a friend of your mother and father
@@defeqel6537 Plus, there was no indication they were father and son in the first movie. An Maximus was nearly about to kill Commodus if this kid didn't show up at the wrong time, indicating Maximus see's this kid as a bit of a burden.
It undercuts Maximus arc as a character. He takes an adopted role as a father to defend a mother and child from a mad man for the sake of his family he was unable to save. Not to mention retconning Lucius father as gay as a convenient means to usher Maximus as the father… c’mon man
choice of actors were truly shocking. that was no way anything close to what maximus' son should have been, looked or even spoken like.. he could not master the power of silence and pausing like maximus did..
The First movie had Maximus in a romantic relationship with Lucilla, but he was not an adulterer. Him and Lucilla even spoke about the boy's real father who, was known and respected by Maximus! The relationship between Maximus and Lucilla had nuance and depth but you can't have a man being decent and virtuous any more...
I won't defend this film, but I think it's possible that Maximus hooks up with this woman before finding his wife. His Spanish son looks a year or two younger, and there's no contraception in this age...
Pedro Pascal really deserves an Oscar for his portrayal of Pedro Pascal. I couldn't believe it was him onsceeen! I was truly convinced that I was watching Pedro Pascal.
@@NexusKinI like those better than Pedro. Especially Ryan, Mark and Jason. They also haven't been in as many things as Pedro, with the exception of The Rock.
They expect us to believe that Maximus, who was utterly devoted to his wife and child, had a bastard son? This is an example of Hollywood writers with zero world experience writing characters because it sounds cool (to them) with no thought to the character itself and what they would do.
IMO the writers just decided to ignore everything established in the first film--that Lucilla & Maximus were sweethearts when they were younger but hadn't seen each other in years, married other partners, had sons of their own, etc--just so they could push their dumb sequel premise through. Talk about destroying both a character's legacy and your own.
N they expect us to believe that an Emperor would be black aswel. Lol. Emperor or not, had he come out bkack. They would make him a slave n kill his mum sayin she was a witch or a demon or some other excuse.
The only sequel would've cared to see from Gladiator is a story about the only surviving Gladiator we cared about, Juba - Djimon Hounsou's character - making his way through Roman North Africa and into the lands of the Numidians in an effort to find his family. It's literally the only possible sequel actually set up by the original story with the original characters. Rome was going to go off on a completely different story that didn't directly involve the gladiators, kind of invalidating the name, so that leaves us with Juba fulfilling his promise to Maximus. And frankly, Djimon is an incredible actor, and Juba is a good, likeable character who we've already followed for part of the first movie. It would have been a perfect fit.
@@festo512 What a weird take. Are you saying the movie made money because of Pedro Pascal? You could have still had Denzel Washington in it, playing a part that might actually make sense historically.
Maximus earned the loyalty and respect of the gladiators by leading them to victory in a fight they were supposed to lose, while lucius never did something of the sort, they just went "oh you good fighter me follow you"
Not only that Maximus, has proven himself before that to have an understanding of Military tactics. As he was a well known general in the Legions, especially after everyone finally knows who he is, and that his legion is willing too march on Rome to depose Commodus. An he has the support of the people, and certain members of the senate. The guys got it all, Lucius ain't got nothing by comparison.
To be fair, Gladiator 1 was a masterpiece that was close to impossible to surpass, even by Ridley Scott himself. Had Ridley made Gladiator 2 somewhat unique, the fans would've still at least given it some merit or props for trying. But, of course, he didn't.
Really ? Can you point me to any movie that has naval battles in the coliseum or many of the other extremely unique scenes from this movie ? Or are you just hating on this film for the sake of being a contrarian ?
Or, that Ridley was coasting off of the talents of others. Alien was mainly Dan O’Bannon and HR Giger. I’d argue that there was other people that helped Ridley focus and deliver something of actual merit, that those individuals may have passed on or have been driven out of the industry for not sharing the agreed upon points of view, or harboured the ‘wrong type’ of opinions…
@@brockdavid a big part of directing is being able to wrangle together a bunch of talented people and get what you need out of them, like getting everyone from Crowe to Phoenix to Zimmer to execute for Gladiator. O'Bannon, Giger, ensemble cast for Alien, Harrison Ford acting better than in any other movie for Blade Runner. Scott probably no longer has that in him. Where he could beat a Russel Crowe into doing 20 takes before he might now have 2 in him. Look at how well Crowe and Phoenix were directed in Gladiator and compare it to what he got out of a comparable caliber actor in Denzel or out of Phoenix in Napoleon
I can think of 9 RS films I've seen. I enjoyed 5 of them, 4 were bad. (One of the ones I enjoyed was, I think, also not a good movie, but I had fun with it anyway.) That's not a terrible percentage for a film director. Not up there with Spielberg, but then not down there with Shyamalan either.
I think he's just entered the pompous old man stage of his career where he can essentially ride his own coattails with these crappy big budget historical spectacles that pale in comparison to his earlier work. Personally Kingdom of Heaven was the first red flag for me.
Your comparison of Cincinnatus with Ridley Scott is what we Koreans would call an example par excellence of “the beginning meeting the end” (수미상관). Thank you for another masterful review.
After watching Gladiator 2, we realized after Lucilla's admission to Lucius that Maximus cheated on his wife to sire him with her - that Maximus's famous dialogue in the original should've rather been: “My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, and loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius (while banging his daughter). Deadbeat father to a murdered son, cheating husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next” So much for Maximus's "strength and honor" from the first film. The story writers for Gladiator 2 completely sullied Maximus's character by making him an adulterer to sire Lucius with Lucilla. So he has no strength and honor to cheat on wife with Lucilla. Denzel Washington meanwhile replayed Alonzo Harris from Training Day as Macrinus in ancient Rome. So in summary, Gladiator +Training Day + CGI = Gladiator 2 The story in Gladiator 2 is crap and just an overCGIed rehash of the original.
It's so dumb because they had no way to fill the arena with seawater which sharks would need. Only freshwater and how the fuck did they get the sharks even to the arena without dying. I hate when they put in absolutely nonsensical stuff just because it looks cool. They did have actual recreations of sea battles in the coliseum, isn't that already badass enough? This sounds like they are trying way to hard. There is so much cool shit in history that we don't actually need to invent more. For a movie like 300 that's fine because the whole point is to be over the top but that doesn't work for a sequel to Gladiator.
I don't know why they made them twins in this movie. The real emperors were brothers and it caused resentment from the older brother that he had to share his birthright with his younger brother.
Cheap imitations, it’s their attempt to bring us back, make us like them again. “Look, you remember this right? You liked this! Here’s more it’s just as good we promise, please like us again!” Hollywood can’t die fast enough.
It's actually: "Remember that? Remember how it was always about this? No no no, it was not about that, it was always about this. Don't you remember this?"
My major problem with this movie is that Maximus was the actual general of the Roman army and was well respected, and people wanted to follow him. In this movie, the main character was a random soldier in an army from North Africa that nobody knew and suddenly he’s rallying the troops and they’re all following him like everyone did maximus in the first movie, but there’s no reason why they should be following him. What did he do? He choked out a monkey?
Idk man, he’s already destroyed so much of it with this ridiculously stupid alien sequels and/or prequels. I don’t know what they are, but they’re low effort garbage
Unfortunately, this is expected when you have people who keep "creating" into their elderly years. People generally don't produce their best work in their 80s. I think back to one of my favorite authors, Arthur C Clark. Most of his later books are very meh. Although right near the end, he had a really good trilogy of books. But I highly suspect that 90% of the writing was done by his much younger co-writer, with Clark mostly just there to provide ideas so the books still felt "Clarkesque."
Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator were just flukes that were made good by the visionary efforts of the other people working on the movies. Ridley's job was just to tell everyone where to stand so that the shot would look good. He has built his reputation by taking credit for other people's hard work.
I honestly hate that they made Lucius the son of Maximus. I liked that they implied with time tables that he wasnt his. It made the love Maximus had for Marcus Aurillius and Rome more powerful. It also made Connie's character more complex and less pathetic
There are some truths about diddywood: Star Wars has no sequels, Star Trek has no STD, there is no Doctor after Peter Capaldi and there is only Gladiator.
I’d argue the wife dying in battle is not a superficial change, as it pretty dramatically undermines the revenge motive. Unless, I suppose, there was a kind of ‘David and Uriah’ moment where maximus and his wife are left out to die on purpose.
As they say a lot, now, we "gave him his flowers". ("He" = Ridley) Unfortunately, those flowers turned out to be coca blossoms, lotuses and opium poppies.
Every time he's one screen delivering his lines you're expecting it to veer into a tirade about Jake giving him his money and it never happens. Even that is disappointing.
That’s the best way to go about recognizing and acknowledging great art and films. Only watch Gladiator because us purists don’t want anything to do with that unnecessary sequel under any circumstances.
Thank you for this video. The Crow, Ghostbusters, now Gladiator and more...the list of crappy reboots keeps getting longer. Just watch the original, kids.
Yup, like most sequels. This one even did the famous second sin of coming out 20 after when the it’s target audience aged out and the new generation doesn’t even know what it’s about. It’s almost like it was manufactured perfectly to fail
I remember going to the theartre for the first Gladiator with my dad I was only 10 and was so impressed with that whole world-building, the cold coloured battlefield, the lively exotic market, the desperate man who peed himself in that dungeon before the first fight, the almost breeze you'd feel in the crop scene, the gentle tap after Juba laid down those figurines. I remember getting a 3-vcd box set and would put it on every now and then and I feel that pain Commodos had and always cried along with him every time. And I remember I was so upset (as a kid) that Tom Hanks won that year's Oscar instead of Maximus, I know he deserves it more but still. I gladly went to Romulus and enjoyed the first 15 min of that before it became a video game clip but this, this time I don't think I have the heart to go at all. It's different from Indiana Jones I love that franchise but that's a franchise for fun, this I feel like should not be remade at all.
Ridley Scott seems intent on destroying his legacy before he reaches the wheat field. I can't think of a movie less in need of sequel than Gladiator. If you want to do more movies set in the era of the Roman Empire, feel free, but there's no reason to connect them to Gladiator, apart from wanting the association with a beloved movie.
Gladiator 2 is the uncoordinated little brother that reminds everyone every five minutes that his older brother was the star quarterback who won the state championship years ago.
In 1960 Stanley Kubrick and Kirk Douglass gave us Spartacus, the best cinematic sword and sandal experience. The gladiator school, the single combat in its small arena, the revolt of the gladiators, and the spectacular battle scenes with the legions, and a compelling love story. These have never been matched. The Glavatar films of Ridley Scott, like his other films, are cold, dark and, well, alien horror films. The Duelists, an earlier film of his, may be his best work, imo; certainly it has the most compelling characters and an engaging, if simple, story.
5:17 In the trailer, the Rhino fight looked promising... then I saw a guy getting flung by a direct hit, and I just KNOW he gets up and fights on.... took all the fun out of it right away...
Hold up - Lucius is confirmed as Maximus' son? Wow, that is... I cannot even think of adequate word what it is... I mean, that ruins my imagination of Maximus, who I always deemed too just to have any affair that would end up in having a bastard child, given how much he loves his wife and son. He does not seem to be from Roman nobility, as his residence seemed to be rather earned for service (Roman soldiers received ownership of land after serving their time and they could enlist for further service, if I am not mistaken), so there was probably no way he would have gone with Lucilla further than just courteous behaviour followed by bitter realisation that this type of relationship cannot work in the reality they are in. Appearance of Lucius in the movie and Maximus' reaction to it always seemed to me as sad reminder of passing time and that, even though Maximus could have earned the title to have Lucilla as his mistress in the worst case scenario (I mean, guy would have become and emperor, so he would have been as close to dcoming a living diety as possible), he learned that she moved on. He, at least for a while, fell in love, for her it was just a fleeting romance with someone below her status, even a whim, maybe. But no, let's make that as Hollywood-esque as possible...
i didnt sense anything romantic between the two. there was no chemistry. so the fact that they are now making him Lucius' father makes no sense. I cannot imagine Maximus defiling his wife and and childs memory like that.
In the first film it's hinted that they were lovers/sweethearts when they were younger and they even subtly refer to it themselves but it was made clear that they hadn't seen each other in years and in the interim had married and had sons of their own. (She even asks if she's changed so very much since he knew her and he replies that she laughed more--delicate touches like that.) Such a dumb and downright bizarre brick to throw through the plot window and for what? A bloated cash grab nobody will remember in a few months?
movie would’ve been way more interesting if caracalla and geta were the sons of lucilla that she’s lost control over and lucius and macrinus are leading the revolt against them only for macrinus to take control for himself. something like that would’ve provided a link between all the conflicts and not made the characters feel so disconnected.
I honestly don’t get why they’re still going on about the “dream that was Rome”. In the first one they kept talking about making Rome a republic again. But at that point such a thing was neither practical nor desired. There were too many invested in the imperial system e.g. the army. Because the emperors are who paid them. And towards the end the republic was in constant turmoil due to competing politicians constantly waging civil wars against eachother. Having one guy in charge more or less kept the peace. In the second one this “dream” seems vaguely about “peace, freedom, justice and security and stuff” for Rome. But everyone seems to be concerned about putting someone better in charge of the system that they confusingly seem to want to simultaneously restore and destroy in some fashion. So what is the dream? Republic or more Emperors?
Well, once Ridley saw that Disney could completely undo the end of Return of the Jedi to make a truly shitty rehash of A New Hope, he determined that he, too, could undo the end of one of his own masterpieces in order to make a shitty rehash of his own work. Is it more or less reprehensible to do this to your own work rather than work you've bought from someone else? I leave you all to determine this for yourselves. For my own part, I'll just paraphrase another great character from a great movie who also sacrificed himself... "Gladiator has no sequel. Gladiator needs no sequel."
As an elderly man close to Ridleys Scott age I want to tell all the young people a secret. When you get older you do get wiser and deeper up until the age of around 75 years of age or so. But the truth is, after that as you really get old and you hit advanced old age the wisdom wanes and the impulses take over again and one one turns more and more into a child. When you super old (after 90) your slowly morph into something more like an infant. Sorry , that is close truth about the way it is.
@@mayhemmacy1566 Don't worry May , you made it through childhood, traumatic as that was, and you will make it through advanced old age. Why? Because you have no other choice. Just like when you were a child you had no other choice except to be a child with all these asshole young adults around you zinging through life. So it will be in advance old age. You become passive in advanced old age , just like an infant is passive.
Ah, so this is where you drop the episodes as opposed to the feature lengths? Good to know! I could swear the last time I dropped in there was nothing but cactus and cattle skulls, with one lonely tumbleweed off in the distance …
The twin emperors are so lightly skin. It seems to suggest that the Targaryen bloodline would be so proud. They did clearly showed Commodus ' s tendencies in 1
@@bentonrp Just as an aside, saying "dark-skinned" does not necessarily make someone "black" in the contemporary sense. TONS of dark-skinned people (cultures) who aren't "black".
@@matthewcarroll2533 Yeah, that's true. What I meant to say is that we at least know they had features common in darker skinned people. Especially Caracalla. Septimius, to some lesser extent.
Hearing this is like The Force Awakens all over again. Nevermore I say. Also: Pedro Pascal's character,...Perdo Pascal. Good one. ^^ Also also: We're now at the point were we got Gladiator 2. I never thought there will ever be a Titanic 2, now I'm waiting for the teaser...
She's tied to a pillar in the centre of the Colosseum...wait, where did I see that one before??? Ohhh, yes! Deborah Kerr got tied to a stake in the arena, too, in the centre of the arena in "Quo Vadis" (1951) - just that it made sense. As did Sir Peter Ustinov as the crazy Emperor. And I can't help, but the only gladiator film I really need is Kirk Douglas' "Spartacus" - legendary through and through and unmatched to this day.
I hope Quo Vadis (1951) gets the restoration it deserves. Great entertainment in itself, but also an excellent museum piece, if you’re collecting arena film classics. Ditto Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954) and Barabbas (1961), both with terrific arena action. But Kubrick and Douglass made something special with Spartacus (1960) that is simply superior to the derivative Scott movies, in all categories of production and without CGI effects. Spartacus and Wyler’s Ben Hur (1959) are still the best of the best.
@@BarlowPalminteri I couldn't agree more. Especially if it comes to "Ben Hur" and "Spartacus". Had the pleasure to watch "Ben Hur" on the big screen as a teen in the mid-1980s. What a treat! Same as the incredible "Lawrence of Arabia". The films of the 1950s and 1960s are simply unmatched and unrivalled. They had the actors, the writers and the directors to create great things. As for "Spartacus": Kirk Douglas' performance was so intense and he was surrounded by such great co-stars (Ustinov, Simmons, Curtis, Olivier). Scott's version of a gladiator movie is no match for it. Maybe it could tie Kirk Douglas' sandals...maybe...
@@PetraNaefcke I have a little Ben Hur story for you. My aunt took me to see the film in its first run at the Warner Theatre in Pittsburgh when I was 11. (1959). I was so struck by it that as soon as I got home I wrote a letter to William Wyler asking if there were some way I could acquire a Roman helmet. Some time later that year I got a personal letter from Wyler’s office with regrets that costume items were not obtainable, signed by the director himself. The letter has disappeared over the years but the buzz from it has lasted to this day.
@@BarlowPalminteri Wow! That's cool! My dad was a total fan of "Ben Hur" too. He loved everything about it, starting with the visuals, the incredible score by Miklos Rosza, the chariot race, and so on. And I inherited his passion. As for "Quo Vadis": Did you know that actor Leo Genn worked as a lawyer before becoming an actor? He visited KZ Bergen Belsen after its liberation and was also one of the co-prosecutors in the Belsen Trials. So, Gaius Petronius was the perfect role for him. When I learned about his background, I admired him even more.
@ Thanks for that, no I didn’t know. Quo Vadis is, I think, my very first movie. I must have been only 3, and I can only guess my mom and dad took me to the theatre because they had no babysitter and didn’t know its content might traumatize me. But here’s my take away: all through my childhood, I was haunted by a vision of a burly man putting a knife to his chest and a woman pushing it in. It took me many years to connect the vision to the film Quo Vadis, but as I grew up my sensibilities were keen for high drama, ancient armor and trappings, crested helmets and lions. My dad read my first Dell golden age Tarzan comic book to me, and we bonded over a thrilling cover painting of Tarzan, armed with a big knife, straddling a lion. Good stuff for the analyst’s couch, no?
The moment I saw Denzel in a lead role, I had no desire to see it. He is an awesome actor and does great work but him being in an ancient Rome setting told me everything I needed to know about the movie without even seeing it.
Fun fact: Black Berbers are all over North Africa. Even Metatron admitted there's a 20 percent chance Macrinus was dark skinned. Denzel was the best part of Gladiator 2, I've seen it twice now.
I liked Denzel's reimagining of his character from Training Day with a toga on 😂 It was very disjointing to see modern American gangster character playing around as Roman usurper.
"Don't wait for it to come on to a streamer, because we're at a critical junction. We have been for a little while with theatrical films. If cinema is a thing for you, get out and see both films.” -Paul Mescal This is the exact problem with Hollywood and the people who populate it. They think the entire point of the industry is people love the industry and want to sustain it. That type of mentality is why they forgot a long time ago to actually make good products to see.
Gladiator has no sequel, Gladiator needs no sequel.
Just like Joker has no sequel, and Joker needs no sequel.
Just like Bladerunner
Theres no sequels in Ba Sing Se, here we a safe, here we are free
There's only one Gladiator! There's only ever gonna be one Gladiator!
Just like Jaws has no sequels, Jaws needs no sequels
*"Father to a murdered son. Husband to a murdered wife. And, now, the man of a murdered legacy."*
2nd son does have a easy work around imo.
Simplest explanation: he always had strong feelings for his future wife back home but they didn’t actually start officially dating or married her until after Lucius was conceived. Ex) Brief one time thing with Lucilla, vary shortly after that he was allowed to go home by the Emperor or someone higher ranked than he was back then. Soon after getting home he hooks up with his future wife this time she becomes she’s pregnant then he finally makes their relationship official and got married then he leaves to go back on to work before the son is born or right after.
In Gladiator 1, Maximus says his son is “nearly 8” Lucilla says her son is also “nearly 8” but “nearly” may not necessarily mean the same thing to both people. “nearly” to Maximus could mean less than a month, to Lucilla it could mean 3 months. So a 2-3 month age difference between the two boys ages is possible.
*Highly unlikely* but It’s also possible when they say “nearly” one or both of them could’ve meant that in the most vague way possible. Neither Max/Lucille or just Max or Lucilla actually has a kid with a birthday coming up within a month or a few months. When they say “nearly 8” they meant that in the overly objective sense that age 7 is nearly 8 years old. One of their kids 7th birthday could literally have been only 2 months prior by that logic. Which adds even more months to their possible age gap. 😂
Narratively this works better for his character, he’s not a cheater Lucius’s creation didn’t happen during the time he was formally dating, engaged or married to his wife. (And no he was not trying to intentionally get anyone pregnant just casual sex that happened to turn out that way)
F 🥲
It was good
@@redt8311
Stop. Just stop.
@@redt8311 your theory still sucks, because it acceptes the sicuel of the Gladiator
It's one sin among many, but the revenge plot suffers a lot by having the wife be a soldier. In the original, his wife and son are innocents, killed because of political intrigue he didn't ask for, and they weren't even aware of. They were casualties of the crossfire, killed in a cruel and torturous way simply to get at him.
When the wife is a soldier, who dies in combat via arrow (pretty much random chance) it takes away the injustice of it all. It's not hard to see that the husband might want vengeance, but Pedro's character never ordered anyone to kill his wife specifically, just to take the city. It's like swearing vengeance on Patton because some private shot your wife who was shooting at him. It's so inpersonal that it seems irrational.
Could even women be allowed into army at that stage of Rome’s history? It this is another esg-aligned slop?
Thanks for this, haven't seen the film and never will because on even on a surface level I'm turned off by it but with each tidbit I find out, it repulses me.
Would have worked if were akin to something like a soldier doing something beyond the bounds of combat, like brutally torturing her or such, but if it's simply the happenstance of getting hit by a random arrow in combat, it feels less justifiable.
When Pedro graces your village., it is the most important day of you life. For Pedro, it was Tuesday
I think that added to the complexity though. You seem like you have it in your mind that it's just a copy paste revenge story.....the idea seems to be that Pedro WASN'T the bad guy. Making the wife's death less injust clarifies this, and makes the forgiveness at the end make sense
“Even a Disney remake has more artistic merit”
Now THAT is an insult if I ever heard one!
No its not true.. thats impossible!
@@hyperreal Search your feelings, you know it to be true!
Woke wins again. 🫵😂
@@rolandliana Feel the Hate, let it flow through you.🕸
no way, too far
Gladiator 2: Gladiate Harder
... sounds like a porno
Gladiator 2: Etruscan Boogaloo!
Gladiator 2: Gladiatorer
@@alexlee4154 Gladiator 2: Gladiatorific
Gladiator 2: Live Free or Glad Hard
Gladiator 1: A new hope
Gladiator 2: The empire strikes back
Gladiator 3: The return of Maximus
Gladiator 4: The Barbarian Menace
Gladiator 5: Attack of the Barbarians
Gladiator 6: The revenge of Rome
Gladiator 7: The arena awakens
Gladiator 8: The last emperor
Gladiator 9: The rise of maximus
"Somehow, Commodus returned."
@@Ett.Gammalt.Bergtrollwell met sir
And if they followed actual Roman history, every one of them would be same story as the first film told over and over again.
Gladiator 2 is "The Arena Awakens" in your analogy...with a potential Gladiator 3 being "The Last Emperor" and Gladiator 4 being "The rise of Maximus" but I like your thinking 🙂
Hollywood now is more like....
Gladiator 1: A new hope
Gladiator 2: A new hope
Gladiator 3: A new hope
Gladiator 4: A new hope
Gladiator 5: A new hope
Gladiator 6: A new hope
Gladiator 7: A new hope
Gladiator 8: A new hope
Gladiator 9: A new hope. Now with 100% more trans
In honor of Gladiator 2, I instead watched Gladiator... it was glorious.
I also recommend the director's cut of Gladiator. It's essentially scenes that should have been in the movie but were too big for their budget and the production's timeline. It's phenomenal! :D
@@bentonrpWait wait wait! There is an extended cut?!
@@golfer416 It's the best Extended Edition I've seen out of any film! 😊 And that includes all Director's Cuts, Non-Theatrical Cuts, etc.
@@bentonrp were you not entertained?!?
does this mean that maximus was unfaithful to his beloved wife all along? wtf. see my reaction live, its up now
“What’s in the Colosseum, a…shark or something??”
- Nicholas Cageus
In Italian is "Nicola Gabbia".
But the same Nicholas Cage have Italian origins.
His surname is "Coppola".
@@danielefabbro822
You’re probably right, still gotta hit you with the NEEEERRRRRRRDUH
@@Werewolf.with.Internet.Access "probably"? 😎
I am Italian. 🇮🇹👍
Lmao
The fact that Scott remade the same film inadvertently proves that there is no further story to tell
Exactly.
was not needed, but much wanted
Ridley Scott is a hack fraud.
Or he's gone senile. Literally lost it years ago if we're honest
Lucius being Maximus' son is just utter nonsense. Contrived at best, character destroying at worst.
And utterly unneeded. Nothing wrong with picking up the mantle of a hero who is not direct blood relation to you, especially since he was a friend of your mother and father
@@defeqel6537 Plus, there was no indication they were father and son in the first movie. An Maximus was nearly about to kill Commodus if this kid didn't show up at the wrong time, indicating Maximus see's this kid as a bit of a burden.
I don’t think so. The woman lied about who the father was. Simple
It’s literally part of the plot of the first film lol. Are you dumb ?
It undercuts Maximus arc as a character. He takes an adopted role as a father to defend a mother and child from a mad man for the sake of his family he was unable to save.
Not to mention retconning Lucius father as gay as a convenient means to usher Maximus as the father…
c’mon man
Gladiator 2: Twice the characters, half the quality and zero originality.
Half?
choice of actors were truly shocking. that was no way anything close to what maximus' son should have been, looked or even spoken like.. he could not master the power of silence and pausing like maximus did..
The First movie had Maximus in a romantic relationship with Lucilla, but he was not an adulterer. Him and Lucilla even spoke about the boy's real father who, was known and respected by Maximus! The relationship between Maximus and Lucilla had nuance and depth but you can't have a man being decent and virtuous any more...
It's all just "men bad".
IIRC they even mention how their sons are the same age
This was my first thought hearing "Lucius is actually Maximus' son". Well put. It bothers me deeply!
I won't defend this film, but I think it's possible that Maximus hooks up with this woman before finding his wife. His Spanish son looks a year or two younger, and there's no contraception in this age...
@@JackChurchill101 his Spanish son is also shown a year or two before Lucious
We who are about to cringe salute you.
❤
"Are you not embarrassed?"
We who are about to ask, "Why..?" ...
AC/DC kicks the door down!
🎵“FOR THOSE ABOUT TO CRINGE, WE SALUTE YOU!”🎵
does this mean that maximus was unfaithful to his beloved wife all along? wtf. see my reaction live, its up now
Pedro Pascal really deserves an Oscar for his portrayal of Pedro Pascal. I couldn't believe it was him onsceeen! I was truly convinced that I was watching Pedro Pascal.
That is the way
Just like others like The Rock, Ryan Reynolds, Jason Statham, Vin Diesel, and Mark Wahlberg.
@@NexusKinI like those better than Pedro. Especially Ryan, Mark and Jason. They also haven't been in as many things as Pedro, with the exception of The Rock.
Nobody plays Pedro Pascal like Pedro Pascal .. what a true talent 😅
I can’t wait to see Pedro Pascal play Pedro Pascal The smartest man alive in Fantastic 4.
Gladiator 2: now there are 2 of them!
"They fly now?"
"They fly now..."
Audience [sigh]
Haha so simple but so funny, cheers
This is getting out of hand.
@@backalleycqc4790 Fuck! You beat me to it.
@@Dionysus_333 yes.. he beat me to it...
Colosseum now hosts fights against winged dinosaurs. They fly now...
They heard it had to be called Gladiator 2, so they had two gladiators and two emperors.
Can’t wait for him to make Gladiator 3. Need the Roman Emperor triplets!
🤣🤣
They should have called it GLADIATOR X 2 then for that early 2000's edginess .
What's the X mean?
Who cares
It's badass 😑
There were at one time even three emperors controlling rome and there was also 4 black emperors from Africa. Learn history
@@JohnQC-n3ii think the joke gets over you
They expect us to believe that Maximus, who was utterly devoted to his wife and child, had a bastard son? This is an example of Hollywood writers with zero world experience writing characters because it sounds cool (to them) with no thought to the character itself and what they would do.
IMO the writers just decided to ignore everything established in the first film--that Lucilla & Maximus were sweethearts when they were younger but hadn't seen each other in years, married other partners, had sons of their own, etc--just so they could push their dumb sequel premise through. Talk about destroying both a character's legacy and your own.
N they expect us to believe that an Emperor would be black aswel. Lol. Emperor or not, had he come out bkack. They would make him a slave n kill his mum sayin she was a witch or a demon or some other excuse.
I think she was before and the first movie hinted at that
The only sequel would've cared to see from Gladiator is a story about the only surviving Gladiator we cared about, Juba - Djimon Hounsou's character - making his way through Roman North Africa and into the lands of the Numidians in an effort to find his family.
It's literally the only possible sequel actually set up by the original story with the original characters. Rome was going to go off on a completely different story that didn't directly involve the gladiators, kind of invalidating the name, so that leaves us with Juba fulfilling his promise to Maximus.
And frankly, Djimon is an incredible actor, and Juba is a good, likeable character who we've already followed for part of the first movie. It would have been a perfect fit.
Djimon doesn't sell tickets. That movie would fail.
@@festo512 Whooo?!
@@festo512 What a weird take. Are you saying the movie made money because of Pedro Pascal? You could have still had Denzel Washington in it, playing a part that might actually make sense historically.
@@moon-moth1 Blood Diamond had that same plot but bombed in theaters.
Maximus earned the loyalty and respect of the gladiators by leading them to victory in a fight they were supposed to lose, while lucius never did something of the sort, they just went "oh you good fighter me follow you"
Not only that Maximus, has proven himself before that to have an understanding of Military tactics. As he was a well known general in the Legions, especially after everyone finally knows who he is, and that his legion is willing too march on Rome to depose Commodus. An he has the support of the people, and certain members of the senate. The guys got it all, Lucius ain't got nothing by comparison.
Maximus inspire through charisma and leadership, Lucius just there
I fell asleep and thought I missed the part where he rose to leadership. So it just wasn't there....
Never has "fuck off" been used so effectively in a caring, concerned manner.
"You need to dream better, Senator!"
To be fair, Gladiator 1 was a masterpiece that was close to impossible to surpass, even by Ridley Scott himself.
Had Ridley made Gladiator 2 somewhat unique, the fans would've still at least given it some merit or props for trying.
But, of course, he didn't.
does this mean that maximus was unfaithful to his beloved wife all along? wtf. see my reaction live, its up now, hope to hear your thoughts
Really ? Can you point me to any movie that has naval battles in the coliseum or many of the other extremely unique scenes from this movie ? Or are you just hating on this film for the sake of being a contrarian ?
@@JamesSmithTexas He's referring to plot, character, and theme, not shallow spectacle.
I was going to watch it because it looked like they had created a CGI Burt Reynolds but then it turned out to be Pedro.
God damn it. Now I can’t unsee it AND it’s too late to steal it for the main script.
@ Hahaha
You could have told me it was CGI Tom Skeritt or Tom Selleck, and I couldn’t tell you the difference between them and Burt Reynolds. ;D
Between this and Napoleon I'm convinced that Ridley Scott has been replaced by a pod person.
Or, that Ridley was coasting off of the talents of others. Alien was mainly Dan O’Bannon and HR Giger. I’d argue that there was other people that helped Ridley focus and deliver something of actual merit, that those individuals may have passed on or have been driven out of the industry for not sharing the agreed upon points of view, or harboured the ‘wrong type’ of opinions…
@brockdavid good point.
@@brockdavid a big part of directing is being able to wrangle together a bunch of talented people and get what you need out of them, like getting everyone from Crowe to Phoenix to Zimmer to execute for Gladiator. O'Bannon, Giger, ensemble cast for Alien, Harrison Ford acting better than in any other movie for Blade Runner. Scott probably no longer has that in him. Where he could beat a Russel Crowe into doing 20 takes before he might now have 2 in him. Look at how well Crowe and Phoenix were directed in Gladiator and compare it to what he got out of a comparable caliber actor in Denzel or out of Phoenix in Napoleon
I can think of 9 RS films I've seen. I enjoyed 5 of them, 4 were bad. (One of the ones I enjoyed was, I think, also not a good movie, but I had fun with it anyway.) That's not a terrible percentage for a film director. Not up there with Spielberg, but then not down there with Shyamalan either.
I think he's just entered the pompous old man stage of his career where he can essentially ride his own coattails with these crappy big budget historical spectacles that pale in comparison to his earlier work. Personally Kingdom of Heaven was the first red flag for me.
Lucius is not a son of Maximus. Cannot be. Because that would be ridiculous. And they surely don't want to make a ridiculous movie... right?
The queen mentioned in the first one to Maximus that Lucius was already the same age as his son when they met.
Your comparison of Cincinnatus with Ridley Scott is what we Koreans would call an example par excellence of “the beginning meeting the end” (수미상관). Thank you for another masterful review.
@@lintzy398 I like that, the beginning meeting the end. Cheers to all you lovely people in Korea from the US of A.
@@pittland44 Same to all of you wholesome Americans in the land of the free and home of the brave!
th-cam.com/video/MF3Hg6FBBSU/w-d-xo.html
Yo, can Koreans really freeze people with their minds?
After watching Gladiator 2, we realized after Lucilla's admission to Lucius that Maximus cheated on his wife to sire him with her - that Maximus's famous dialogue in the original should've rather been:
“My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, and loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius (while banging his daughter).
Deadbeat father to a murdered son, cheating husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next”
So much for Maximus's "strength and honor" from the first film.
The story writers for Gladiator 2 completely sullied Maximus's character by making him an adulterer to sire Lucius with Lucilla. So he has no strength and honor to cheat on wife with Lucilla.
Denzel Washington meanwhile replayed Alonzo Harris from Training Day as Macrinus in ancient Rome.
So in summary, Gladiator +Training Day + CGI = Gladiator 2
The story in Gladiator 2 is crap and just an overCGIed rehash of the original.
I can imagine the production meetings: "I have one simple request, and that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads!"
It's so dumb because they had no way to fill the arena with seawater which sharks would need. Only freshwater and how the fuck did they get the sharks even to the arena without dying. I hate when they put in absolutely nonsensical stuff just because it looks cool. They did have actual recreations of sea battles in the coliseum, isn't that already badass enough? This sounds like they are trying way to hard. There is so much cool shit in history that we don't actually need to invent more.
For a movie like 300 that's fine because the whole point is to be over the top but that doesn't work for a sequel to Gladiator.
@@LukasJampen ...but, buhh, frickin' LASERs, for one billion dollars!
"At my command, unleash excrement." - Maximus 2024
The twin emperors look more like Fred and George Weasley.
lel
I don't know why they made them twins in this movie. The real emperors were brothers and it caused resentment from the older brother that he had to share his birthright with his younger brother.
Cheap imitations, it’s their attempt to bring us back, make us like them again. “Look, you remember this right? You liked this! Here’s more it’s just as good we promise, please like us again!” Hollywood can’t die fast enough.
Yeah but they had CGI sharks and baboons....
It's actually: "Remember that? Remember how it was always about this? No no no, it was not about that, it was always about this. Don't you remember this?"
There's still Dune, maybe there's still hope.
My major problem with this movie is that Maximus was the actual general of the Roman army and was well respected, and people wanted to follow him. In this movie, the main character was a random soldier in an army from North Africa that nobody knew and suddenly he’s rallying the troops and they’re all following him like everyone did maximus in the first movie, but there’s no reason why they should be following him. What did he do? He choked out a monkey?
It's not like Rome cared about status, rank, lineage, or accomplishment as a battlefield commander, or anything.
Metaphorically, Ridley Scott sacrificed his dignity to flush his legacy down the toilet like Oliver Reed flushed his liver with bottom-shelf rum.
Edgy
Why is Gladiator 2 past 400 million in just two weeks?
The Force Awakens all over again.
And also feels like Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as well with terrible / cheap CGI
@@brysonfreeman7226 #facts
Epic outro. It's so true that Ridley Scott needs to fuck off before he burns down his legacy further
Idk man, he’s already destroyed so much of it with this ridiculously stupid alien sequels and/or prequels. I don’t know what they are, but they’re low effort garbage
Oh, he's far from done with defiling the rancid corpse that was the Alien franchise, he's just warming up
@@davidnicholls5303 Romulus was a bit cack, I enjoyed Prometheus and Covenant somewhat even though you are left with more questions than answers.
Unfortunately, this is expected when you have people who keep "creating" into their elderly years. People generally don't produce their best work in their 80s. I think back to one of my favorite authors, Arthur C Clark. Most of his later books are very meh. Although right near the end, he had a really good trilogy of books. But I highly suspect that 90% of the writing was done by his much younger co-writer, with Clark mostly just there to provide ideas so the books still felt "Clarkesque."
What else is there to burn? I guess he can make Kingdom of Heaven 2 be about the foundation of Israel.
Gladiator II vexes me…
…I am terribly vexed.
*(VEXXING)*
I’m starting to believe that Ridley was never the “genius director” we all thought he was.
Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator were just flukes that were made good by the visionary efforts of the other people working on the movies. Ridley's job was just to tell everyone where to stand so that the shot would look good. He has built his reputation by taking credit for other people's hard work.
Denzel acting like it's 2024 still and Pedro basically playing himself, seems like a great way to start a historic epic
In Critical Drinker's voice: Go away now, Ridley!
THIS
“That’s all I’ve got to say Ridley. Go away now!”.
As the wise scot said "Oh Ridley Why do you hate us so?"
Prob why i never watched Napolean....
Here for your horror is a summary of both movies... ROFL.
I honestly hate that they made Lucius the son of Maximus. I liked that they implied with time tables that he wasnt his. It made the love Maximus had for Marcus Aurillius and Rome more powerful. It also made Connie's character more complex and less pathetic
Little Platoon would make an absolute killing voicing audio books.
I'd listen to Prince Harry's book The Spare if Platoon was the narrator.
@@SatanLiterallywith the critical drinker interjecting when I least expect it
@@IncredibleMet With the occasional outburst of deranged laughter from Disparu.
@@Uzarran We need drunk welshy Mauler there as well
@@IncredibleMetjust for the swear words or perhaps better yet just the "quotations"
I agree that would be pretty entertaining, unlike this film
Pedro Pascal’s new character:
Pedro Pascal 😅
Ridley Scott has clearly hit the point where his best work is long since behind him.
There are some truths about diddywood: Star Wars has no sequels, Star Trek has no STD, there is no Doctor after Peter Capaldi and there is only Gladiator.
There is no Doctor after Peter Davisson as far as I'm concerned.
@@rcrawford42 Aw, but I liked seven.
Can we add no American adaptation of Death Note to that list?
I loved it when Gladiator Jr. picked up his dead wife’s sword and said: ‘It’s Gladiating time.’
I preferred the scene in the arena where Lucius asks "Are we some kind of...... Gladiator Squad?"
I’d argue the wife dying in battle is not a superficial change, as it pretty dramatically undermines the revenge motive.
Unless, I suppose, there was a kind of ‘David and Uriah’ moment where maximus and his wife are left out to die on purpose.
Wait no not Maximus, Maximus-lite, whatever his name was.
Ridley Scott, it's time to give up and rest on your laurels.
As they say a lot, now, we "gave him his flowers". ("He" = Ridley) Unfortunately, those flowers turned out to be coca blossoms, lotuses and opium poppies.
@@donweatherwax9318 I've never heard that expression, but I agree with the flower choice. 🤣
What’s left of them…
@@scionofdorn9101 True. He keeps breaking the ones he has.
I found Washington’s Modern day American accent jarring when every other character has a thick accent in film
To be fair we never had deep immersion with Latin in the first one
Every time he's one screen delivering his lines you're expecting it to veer into a tirade about Jake giving him his money and it never happens. Even that is disappointing.
@@warbler1984 No, but there is a certain stuffiness to it that makes it fairly timeless.
Romans had British accents? Plus Macrinus was an outsider, from North Africa. Of course he would sound different.
Hello Platoon! If I wanted to study Roman history, from late Republic to downfall of the Empire, are there any books you recommend for each era?
I don't know of any books personally, but there are a ton of amazing youtube videos on those topics
I will watch Gladiator 1 and forget about Gladiator 2
Watched it the other month, still fantastic.
That’s the best way to go about recognizing and acknowledging great art and films. Only watch Gladiator because us purists don’t want anything to do with that unnecessary sequel under any circumstances.
But not today 🥲
Same
Why is Gladiator 2 past 400 million in just two weeks?
Thank you for this video. The Crow, Ghostbusters, now Gladiator and more...the list of crappy reboots keeps getting longer. Just watch the original, kids.
well said. they will never surpass the originals.
"You've got to do better, Senators."
Can we make Logan Paul fight lions for our amusement?
Gladiator 2 - A sequel that nobody asked for.
Exactly. There are some movies that should stand alone forever. Gladiater was one of them.
Yup, like most sequels. This one even did the famous second sin of coming out 20 after when the it’s target audience aged out and the new generation doesn’t even know what it’s about. It’s almost like it was manufactured perfectly to fail
@@Mr_Bones. Exactly. It was DOA.
Just like Joker 2, I'm so sad because I love Joker and Gladiator so much maybe the best i can do is rewatch the original movies.
@@norm-bb3bb 💯
They really do gingers dirty in this movie.
I remember going to the theartre for the first Gladiator with my dad I was only 10 and was so impressed with that whole world-building, the cold coloured battlefield, the lively exotic market, the desperate man who peed himself in that dungeon before the first fight, the almost breeze you'd feel in the crop scene, the gentle tap after Juba laid down those figurines. I remember getting a 3-vcd box set and would put it on every now and then and I feel that pain Commodos had and always cried along with him every time. And I remember I was so upset (as a kid) that Tom Hanks won that year's Oscar instead of Maximus, I know he deserves it more but still.
I gladly went to Romulus and enjoyed the first 15 min of that before it became a video game clip but this, this time I don't think I have the heart to go at all. It's different from Indiana Jones I love that franchise but that's a franchise for fun, this I feel like should not be remade at all.
Ridley Scott seems intent on destroying his legacy before he reaches the wheat field. I can't think of a movie less in need of sequel than Gladiator. If you want to do more movies set in the era of the Roman Empire, feel free, but there's no reason to connect them to Gladiator, apart from wanting the association with a beloved movie.
Gladiator 2 is a great film though.
Bro when Campea said it was Gladiator 1 all over again I got so sad.
1:02 Act Man?
One would only hope he wouldn't have a hand in this 😂
Gladiator 2 is the uncoordinated little brother that reminds everyone every five minutes that his older brother was the star quarterback who won the state championship years ago.
In 1960 Stanley Kubrick and Kirk Douglass gave us Spartacus, the best cinematic sword and sandal experience. The gladiator school, the single combat in its small arena, the revolt of the gladiators, and the spectacular battle scenes with the legions, and a compelling love story. These have never been matched. The Glavatar films of Ridley Scott, like his other films, are cold, dark and, well, alien horror films. The Duelists, an earlier film of his, may be his best work, imo; certainly it has the most compelling characters and an engaging, if simple, story.
Look forward to The Duelists 2 where Armand's daughter wants to follow in her father's footsteps and become the greatest duelist of them all.
Braveheart was the high point of the sword and sandals film, it did everything spartacus did to a much better level
5:17 In the trailer, the Rhino fight looked promising... then I saw a guy getting flung by a direct hit, and I just KNOW he gets up and fights on.... took all the fun out of it right away...
This video makes me want to re-watch the first one. Think it’s been about 8-10 years since my last watch so I’m sure I’d enjoy it again
The Ridley forget he made Gladiator? This is a screen for screen same movie?
Well look this is what they should have done for Disney Star Wars!! 😂😂😂😂😂
Maybe, he has amnesia but no one wants to tell him.
Fortunately, this movie will quickly be forgotten, while the first one will be remembered for a long time.
Hey, I remember that and thus this movie!
Bad Nostalgia and Fanservice at its finest
You memba?
Me memba!
Thank you for saving me the trouble of seeing it.
Hold up - Lucius is confirmed as Maximus' son? Wow, that is... I cannot even think of adequate word what it is... I mean, that ruins my imagination of Maximus, who I always deemed too just to have any affair that would end up in having a bastard child, given how much he loves his wife and son. He does not seem to be from Roman nobility, as his residence seemed to be rather earned for service (Roman soldiers received ownership of land after serving their time and they could enlist for further service, if I am not mistaken), so there was probably no way he would have gone with Lucilla further than just courteous behaviour followed by bitter realisation that this type of relationship cannot work in the reality they are in. Appearance of Lucius in the movie and Maximus' reaction to it always seemed to me as sad reminder of passing time and that, even though Maximus could have earned the title to have Lucilla as his mistress in the worst case scenario (I mean, guy would have become and emperor, so he would have been as close to dcoming a living diety as possible), he learned that she moved on. He, at least for a while, fell in love, for her it was just a fleeting romance with someone below her status, even a whim, maybe. But no, let's make that as Hollywood-esque as possible...
i didnt sense anything romantic between the two. there was no chemistry. so the fact that they are now making him Lucius' father makes no sense. I cannot imagine Maximus defiling his wife and and childs memory like that.
In the first film it's hinted that they were lovers/sweethearts when they were younger and they even subtly refer to it themselves but it was made clear that they hadn't seen each other in years and in the interim had married and had sons of their own. (She even asks if she's changed so very much since he knew her and he replies that she laughed more--delicate touches like that.) Such a dumb and downright bizarre brick to throw through the plot window and for what? A bloated cash grab nobody will remember in a few months?
Nitpick: Maximus wasn't poisoned, he was stabbed under the armpit. He dies from loss of blood.
If a sequel undoes the plot and character development of the original, it should not exist. The Force Awakens & The Last Jedi taught me that.
This movie needs a metal intervention.
AC/DC kicks the door down!
🎵“FOR THOSE ABOUT TO CRINGE, WE SALUTE YOU!”🎵
movie would’ve been way more interesting if caracalla and geta were the sons of lucilla that she’s lost control over and lucius and macrinus are leading the revolt against them only for macrinus to take control for himself. something like that would’ve provided a link between all the conflicts and not made the characters feel so disconnected.
"Gladiator 3: ah shit, here we go again"
I honestly don’t get why they’re still going on about the “dream that was Rome”.
In the first one they kept talking about making Rome a republic again. But at that point such a thing was neither practical nor desired. There were too many invested in the imperial system e.g. the army. Because the emperors are who paid them. And towards the end the republic was in constant turmoil due to competing politicians constantly waging civil wars against eachother. Having one guy in charge more or less kept the peace.
In the second one this “dream” seems vaguely about “peace, freedom, justice and security and stuff” for Rome. But everyone seems to be concerned about putting someone better in charge of the system that they confusingly seem to want to simultaneously restore and destroy in some fashion.
So what is the dream? Republic or more Emperors?
Until, ironically, the death of Commodus, where we had 5 Emperors in a year. Total chaos.
Well, once Ridley saw that Disney could completely undo the end of Return of the Jedi to make a truly shitty rehash of A New Hope, he determined that he, too, could undo the end of one of his own masterpieces in order to make a shitty rehash of his own work. Is it more or less reprehensible to do this to your own work rather than work you've bought from someone else? I leave you all to determine this for yourselves.
For my own part, I'll just paraphrase another great character from a great movie who also sacrificed himself...
"Gladiator has no sequel. Gladiator needs no sequel."
Gladiator 2 is a movie I legitimately joked about being made five years ago. How the turns table.
Gladiator 2 Lucius boogaloo
If I was a scheming Senator at the zenith of their grab for power, I would also 1v1 a man half my age, a 'Mike Tyson' if you would.
As an elderly man close to Ridleys Scott age I want to tell all the young people a secret. When you get older you do get wiser and deeper up until the age of around 75 years of age or so. But the truth is, after that as you really get old and you hit advanced old age the wisdom wanes and the impulses take over again and one one turns more and more into a child. When you super old (after 90) your slowly morph into something more like an infant. Sorry , that is close truth about the way it is.
no wonder all my grandma did was complain about how she was couldn't wait to die
@@mayhemmacy1566 Don't worry May , you made it through childhood, traumatic as that was, and you will make it through advanced old age. Why? Because you have no other choice. Just like when you were a child you had no other choice except to be a child with all these asshole young adults around you zinging through life. So it will be in advance old age. You become passive in advanced old age , just like an infant is passive.
Its like when blizzard remastered warcraft 3
Are you sure the sharks aren't mutant sea bass with frickin laser beams?
Ah, so this is where you drop the episodes as opposed to the feature lengths? Good to know! I could swear the last time I dropped in there was nothing but cactus and cattle skulls, with one lonely tumbleweed off in the distance …
The twin emperors are so lightly skin. It seems to suggest that the Targaryen bloodline would be so proud. They did clearly showed Commodus ' s tendencies in 1
True. Caracalla was dark skinned, but he was not the first black Emperor. Septimius Serevus his father was dark skinned also.
@@bentonrp Just as an aside, saying "dark-skinned" does not necessarily make someone "black" in the contemporary sense. TONS of dark-skinned people (cultures) who aren't "black".
@@matthewcarroll2533 Yeah, that's true. What I meant to say is that we at least know they had features common in darker skinned people. Especially Caracalla. Septimius, to some lesser extent.
@@matthewcarroll2533 *but still there.
@@bentonrp for some reason mainstream media likes to portray romans of partial levantine or north african heritage as subsaharans.
Is Ridley Scott suffering the approaching end of career madness like George Lucas? /facepalm
Amazing video btw, instant subscriber!
"Please for your sake and ours.....EFF OFF!!!"-LOL@lostchord! Stellar comedy right there and on point!!!!
Hearing this is like The Force Awakens all over again. Nevermore I say.
Also: Pedro Pascal's character,...Perdo Pascal. Good one. ^^
Also also: We're now at the point were we got Gladiator 2. I never thought there will ever be a Titanic 2, now I'm waiting for the teaser...
Cats director wipes sweat of forehead.
"Thanks Ridley, so kind of you to take the baton"
Lucius: "Maximus? Ha! More like Minimus, amirite ladies?
Ladies??"
Meanwhile, in the praetorian guard, there's a guy named Maximinus...
SUBBED! I didn't even know you had this channel. Love your stuff man. Thanks!
She's tied to a pillar in the centre of the Colosseum...wait, where did I see that one before???
Ohhh, yes! Deborah Kerr got tied to a stake in the arena, too, in the centre of the arena in "Quo Vadis" (1951) - just that it made sense. As did Sir Peter Ustinov as the crazy Emperor.
And I can't help, but the only gladiator film I really need is Kirk Douglas' "Spartacus" - legendary through and through and unmatched to this day.
I hope Quo Vadis (1951) gets the restoration it deserves. Great entertainment in itself, but also an excellent museum piece, if you’re collecting arena film classics. Ditto Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954) and Barabbas (1961), both with terrific arena action. But Kubrick and Douglass made something special with Spartacus (1960) that is simply superior to the derivative Scott movies, in all categories of production and without CGI effects. Spartacus and Wyler’s Ben Hur (1959) are still the best of the best.
@@BarlowPalminteri I couldn't agree more.
Especially if it comes to "Ben Hur" and "Spartacus". Had the pleasure to watch "Ben Hur" on the big screen as a teen in the mid-1980s. What a treat!
Same as the incredible "Lawrence of Arabia".
The films of the 1950s and 1960s are simply unmatched and unrivalled. They had the actors, the writers and the directors to create great things.
As for "Spartacus": Kirk Douglas' performance was so intense and he was surrounded by such great co-stars (Ustinov, Simmons, Curtis, Olivier). Scott's version of a gladiator movie is no match for it. Maybe it could tie Kirk Douglas' sandals...maybe...
@@PetraNaefcke I have a little Ben Hur story for you. My aunt took me to see the film in its first run at the Warner Theatre in Pittsburgh when I was 11. (1959). I was so struck by it that as soon as I got home I wrote a letter to William Wyler asking if there were some way I could acquire a Roman helmet. Some time later that year I got a personal letter from Wyler’s office with regrets that costume items were not obtainable, signed by the director himself. The letter has disappeared over the years but the buzz from it has lasted to this day.
@@BarlowPalminteri Wow! That's cool!
My dad was a total fan of "Ben Hur" too. He loved everything about it, starting with the visuals, the incredible score by Miklos Rosza, the chariot race, and so on. And I inherited his passion.
As for "Quo Vadis": Did you know that actor Leo Genn worked as a lawyer before becoming an actor? He visited KZ Bergen Belsen after its liberation and was also one of the co-prosecutors in the Belsen Trials.
So, Gaius Petronius was the perfect role for him. When I learned about his background, I admired him even more.
@ Thanks for that, no I didn’t know. Quo Vadis is, I think, my very first movie. I must have been only 3, and I can only guess my mom and dad took me to the theatre because they had no babysitter and didn’t know its content might traumatize me. But here’s my take away: all through my childhood, I was haunted by a vision of a burly man putting a knife to his chest and a woman pushing it in. It took me many years to connect the vision to the film Quo Vadis, but as I grew up my sensibilities were keen for high drama, ancient armor and trappings, crested helmets and lions. My dad read my first Dell golden age Tarzan comic book to me, and we bonded over a thrilling cover painting of Tarzan, armed with a big knife, straddling a lion. Good stuff for the analyst’s couch, no?
The moment I saw Denzel in a lead role, I had no desire to see it. He is an awesome actor and does great work but him being in an ancient Rome setting told me everything I needed to know about the movie without even seeing it.
Fun fact: Black Berbers are all over North Africa. Even Metatron admitted there's a 20 percent chance Macrinus was dark skinned. Denzel was the best part of Gladiator 2, I've seen it twice now.
Very good video. Thank You Sir.
Ahh,good another TLP video. I was getting bored without your quality videos.
Also, Gladiator 2: A showcase in cringe dialog.
I liked Denzel's reimagining of his character from Training Day with a toga on 😂
It was very disjointing to see modern American gangster character playing around as Roman usurper.
So glad to see a review from you
8:59 wait... that dagger Comodus hit him with was poisoned? I don't think there is anything indicating it, or am I wrong here?
Nope, no indication of poison. Just penetrating chest trauma likely open haemopneumothorax
"Don't wait for it to come on to a streamer, because we're at a critical junction. We have been for a little while with theatrical films. If cinema is a thing for you, get out and see both films.”
-Paul Mescal
This is the exact problem with Hollywood and the people who populate it. They think the entire point of the industry is people love the industry and want to sustain it. That type of mentality is why they forgot a long time ago to actually make good products to see.
I hoped it wasn't going to suck. Thanks for saving me 2 hours.