We don’t see many epics in film these days. To be clear, I’m not talking about big movies, because we already get those on the regular. Deadpool & Wolverine is a big movie, but it’s not an epic. Twisters is a big movie, just like Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and just like Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. But they’re not epics.*

“So what is an epic, Mr. Smarty Pants Critic,” I hear you muttering. Fair enough! For me, I think of a cinematic epic as possessing the following traits:

• It has hundreds, if not thousands, of people on screen. They’re used for massive battles, populating cities, and creating a general sense of scale.
• Speaking of scale, epics need to feel big. They’re intergalactic, and if they take place on Earth, they’re historically and regionally important. Not a lot of epics take place in Mead, Colorado, I’m sorry to say.
• Epics cost an insane amount of money.
• Epics have a punishingly long run time.
• Epics are anchored by a star or stars, and sometimes the lead is played by what is hoped to be a new star.

One of the very few directors who can be relied upon to shepherd an epic from screenplay to screen is the mighty Ridley Scott. The guy knows a thing or two, as evidenced by Kingdom of Heaven, Napoleon, and, yes, Gladiator. Scott’s film was the second highest grossing movie of 2000, made Russell Crowe a massive star, and won five Academy Awards. Twenty-four years later, we have Gladiator II, a film about corrupt leaders, a society rotting from within,** and insanely badass battle sequences.

Two decades have passed since Maximus took revenge and perished on the killing floor of Rome’s Colosseum. His name may have been scratched from the Colosseum’s walls, but his legend is still whispered throughout the Empire. His sacrifice may also have been in vain, since Rome is now ruled by the twin Emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger). They’re shallow, cruel, quite possibly insane, and joyfully running Rome into the ground.

Still, even when an empire crumbles, good people remain. One of them is Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), a general in the Roman army. He does his best to conduct himself honorably as a soldier as he leads a coastal invasion of Numidia. Despite the widespread destruction and death, we get the sense that Acacius genuinely believes the people subjugated by Rome are having their lives improved. He’ll beat the love of Rome into them if he has to, on the orders of his Emperors.

Acacius takes captives in the battle’s aftermath. One of them is a young man who watched his wife die in glorious combat. She was everything to him, and in an instant, everything was taken away. He goes by another name, but he is Lucius Verus (Paul Mescal), the son of Maximus and Lucilla (Connie Nielsen). He is the true heir to the throne of the Roman Empire, but he doesn’t care about any of that. He burns for revenge.

Lucius, along with other captives, is returned to the gladiator pits of Rome. After a battle involving some extremely unfriendly (and shaved!) baboons,*** he’s bought by Macrinus (Denzel Washington), a former pit fighter who’s become a mover and shaker in Rome’s power center. Macrinus has schemes of his own and wants to use Lucius as a blunt instrument. For the moment, Lucius is okay with that, but things will change when he discovers the part he has to play in a vast conspiracy.

After reading that plot synopsis, you might be thinking, “Jeepers, that sounds a lot like the original plot of Gladiator. I’m not saying that it’s nothing more than Gladiator II: Still Gladiatorin’, but there are definitely echoes. As he has previously, Ridley Scott directs a massive epic filled with political machinations, the vast sweep of history, and battle sequences that must be seen to be believed. For example, my personal favorite is a sequence in which the Colosseum is filled with water, sharks, and the gladiators are forced to re-enact naval battles. Is it awesome? You bet your bottom denarii, it is. As usual, Scott’s command of pacing is impeccable, and the two and a half hour running time sprints by. I could see other directors being overwhelmed by the scale, but Scott keeps it all humming efficiently along. Having said all that, it does at times feel like Scott has made Gladiator but more. It definitely feels of a piece to the first film as it expands the story.****

The same goes for the screenplay by David Scarpa. He’s been collaborating with Scott since 2017’s All the Money in the World, and much like his screenplay for Scott’s Napoleon, Scarpa understands how to effectively balance character against gigantic scale and sweeping action. It can be hard to care about characters if they’re one of five hundred people hacking away in a battle scene. Scarpa’s a smart writer, and he sets up the scale first, so we understand what’s at stake. Then, he zooms in to the relevant characters and sticks with them, so we also understand how the characters feel about everything. He also knows to bring the dialogue right up to the line of being turgid, which is the right move for this sort of project. Speeches about strength, honor, decency, and all that jazz could be deeply annoying if done without a pinch of wit.

Along with that needed wit, the dialogue cannot work without the right actors delivering it. While I don’t know that Paul Mescal’s elevation to the big time is quite as seismic an event as Russell Crowe as Maximus, he doesn’t get swallowed up by the film. As Lucius, I think Mescal makes a wise choice to not just be an emotionless killing machine bent on revenge. There’s aspects of that, yet as the film progresses, we see different sides to him and a nobility slowly emerging. That nobility is shared by Pedro Pascal as Acacius and Connie Nielsen as Lucilla. They’re good people, at least as much as societal elites can be, and while they’re forced into impossible situations, they struggle to do the right thing. The nobility of those characters acts as a nice contrast to the gleeful insanity of Joseph Quinn’s Emperor Geta and Fred Hechinger’s Emperor Caracalla. Geta is perhaps twenty percent less insane than his brother, and despite his total immersion into hedonism, Quinn plays him as someone dimly aware that he might want to watch his back. Hechinger, on the other hand, is portraying someone who’s gone all the way off the rails.***** He’s clearly having a great time, and I enjoyed when he names his pet monkey to an influential advisory position.

Speaking of actors having a blast, watch Denzel Washington as Macrinus steal this movie. Who else could appear in a movie with, allegedly, a $300 million budget and make off with the whole damn thing? He’s playing a man who knows he’s much smarter than virtually everyone else he deals with, and there’s a joy in his performance as his character performs when needed. Macrinus is witty when needed, cold-blooded when necessary, and always thinking three steps ahead. Having said that, Washington has never been a selfish actor, and he never hogs the spotlight and forces his scene partners to suffer. He’s, as usual, a total professional, and I expect him to nab a Best Supporting Actor nomination.

The entertainment industry is in a very strange place right now. I have no idea if, going forward, studios will be willing to spend this kind of money on a period piece. Gladiator is an IP, but I’m not sure if that’s the factor that attracts audiences. While we can, we should appreciate Gladiator II. It’s huge without being lumbering, old-fashioned without feeling stodgy, and made with immaculate craftsmanship. Go see this sucker on the biggest screen you can find.

*Are Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movies epics? Kind of, I think? My son also reminds me that Avengers: Endgame is an epic, but it’s the only epic the MCU has managed.

**The film is in no way a commentary on our current political situation. Obviously.

***Take a moment and consider that Ridley Scott wants us to believe it was someone’s job to shave a bunch of baboons before turning them loose on fighters. As bad as your life is, be thankful you’re not a baboon-shaver.

****Maybe that’s okay? The Godfather: Part II doesn’t look or feel radically different from the first film. It’s a continuation of a saga.

*****Again, this is not a commentary on our current political situation, and I don’t know why I have to keep reiterating that.

Tim Brennan Movie Critic

Tim has been alarmingly enthusiastic about movies ever since childhood. He grew up in Boulder and, foolishly, left Colorado to study Communications in Washington State. Making matters worse, he moved to Connecticut after meeting his too-good-for-him wife. Drawn by the Rockies and a mild climate, he triumphantly returned and settled down back in Boulder County. He's written numerous screenplays, loves hiking, and embarrassed himself in front of Samuel L. Jackson. True story.