‘Gladiator II’ evaluate: extra of the identical however nonetheless satisfying

Ridley Scott’s 2000 epic “Gladiator,” set in 2000, closed with a memorable shot that grew to become an indelible picture related to the movie: Russell Crowe’s hand, calloused and battle-worn, gently stroking strands of grain, whereas his character Maximus makes his approach house someplace within the afterlife. Scott references this peaceable picture within the opening of his sequel, “Gladiator II.” Rough, sturdy arms, hardened by farming and combating, dive right into a sack of harvested grain, feeling the fruits of their labor.

These two comparable photographs turn out to be the thesis of this devoted following. It’s the identical movie, barely modified and consistently referencing and recalling the unique, supplying you with what you already beloved about “Gladiator”: energy and honor, bread and circuses, blood and braveness.

The arms that open “Gladiator II” belong to Lucius (Paul Mescal), son of Maximus and Lucilla (Connie Nielsen). Once the crown prince of Rome, he was pressured to flee at age 12 for his personal security, and is now a humble farmer in Numidia, North Africa. He and his spouse (Yuval Gonen) reside an idyllic lifetime of home bliss, interrupted by Roman incursions. It is after one among these raids, led by the overall Acacius (Pedro Pascal), that Lucius returns to his hometown, now a slave gladiator and a grieving widower, simply as his father was.

Lucius has a aptitude for showmanship, with strikes he stole from Maximus, however he is extra ferocious, going tooth-to-tooth with an unpleasant baboon in a podunk ring outdoors of city. His ferocity attracts the eye of gladiator agent Macrinus (Denzel Washington), a lot the identical approach Maximus attracted the eye of Proximo (Oliver Reed), and Macrinus will make Lucius a star.

This is a movie of doubles, repeated characters, double identities and double violence within the Colosseum. Twin emperors rule Rome in an uneasy fraternal alliance. Did you just like the creepy Joaquin Phoenix within the first movie? How about two? Faces painted white, surrounded by concubines of all types, the emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) are utterly taken with the barbarian who can recite Virgil whereas lined in one other man’s blood, after Macrinus introduces Lucius in a non-public showcase. Become the toast of the Colosseum, main different gladiators to victory towards rhinos, sharks, and all method of human and animal beasts.

Lucius is set to take revenge on Acacius, whereas his mom Lucilla (Nielsen, returning) is determined to avoid wasting her son from the Colosseum. Elsewhere, Washington’s Macrinus has his personal designs on energy in Rome. Herein lies the Achilles heel of “Gladiator II”: There is just too a lot plot to actually care about these characters.

Because there may be a lot occurring, with a number of double-crosses, backstabbing, frontal stabbing, politics (and even sharks), what “Gladiator II” lacks in comparison with its predecessor is subtle storytelling, deep work on nuanced characters and messages. The story of the brand new movie (by David Scarpa and Peter Craig) is just a little flat as a result of it tells you what it is about proper on the floor.

If “Gladiator” was Scott’s thinly veiled movie about Hollywood, an allegory concerning the enterprise of making leisure for a fickle crowd and a patron who lazily raises his thumbs from above, then “Gladiator II” is his movie not-so-subtly-veiled “movie about democracy” (or “politic” as Washington flamboyantly spits). Subtext is textual content as Lucius delivers a number of speeches concerning the “dream of Rome” that he realized about on the knee of his grandfather, Marcus Aurelius.

While the script falters, the present would not, and “Gladiator II” is Scott’s best movie in years. Bright and bloody, sandblasted and sun-worn, it has the visible readability of the primary and may’t stand the unusual desaturated look of a number of the director’s latest work. The visions of the afterlife skilled by Lucius are as aesthetically distinct as these within the unique movie, however rendered in high-contrast black and white, setting them aside.

The forged is uniformly glorious, together with the preening Washington, who chews the surroundings, and the soulful Mescal, who appears just like the statue of David come to life in ferocious, brutal kind. Mescal has a component of unpredictable wildness, and when he’s allowed to come back out into the open it’s paralyzing, even when he’s largely saved on a leash, aside from a number of memorable scenes. Nielsen is radiant as Lucilla, 25 years after first enjoying the position, and manages to realize some redemption for the character. Quinn and Hechinger revel within the unpleasantness of their expensive leaders.

“Gladiator II” matches the construction and magnificence of the unique movie completely, so there is not a lot that’s shocking or sudden. The movie itself is a toddler, fabricated from the identical DNA in the identical picture. It’s the one “Gladiator” sequel that would exist and it is precisely what you anticipate, for higher or worse. Aren’t you having enjoyable?

Katie Walsh is a movie critic for Tribune News Service.