‘Gladiator II’ Is Here. Are We Not Entertained?

‘Gladiator II’spoilers flagged 50 minutes in

Gladiator II 2024

Structurally a near one-to-one redo of the first film with the politics flipped, which keeps inviting a comparison it can't win. Denzel Washington's Macrinus, a freed slave and arms dealer improvising his way to power, is the best thing in it; Mescal's Lucius, revealed as Maximus's son, gets buried under CGI baboons, a rhino, and a shark battle. Everyone loved the intimate hand-to-hand fights and the twin-emperor debauchery (Fred Hechinger, Joseph Quinn); everyone found the movie messy. Empty-calorie Ridley: a fun night out, not a serious film.

Gladiator 2000

The measuring stick, and by their read arguably the last truly practical blockbuster, with little CGI beyond the wide shots of Rome. The sequel's Skywalker-style retcon (Lucius as Maximus's son) sent Mallory back through her memory of a film she'd rewatched three days earlier.

Sean's Top Five Legacy Sequelsdirector revisits the work much later

No. 1

Mad Max: Fury Road 2015

No. 1 — one of the greatest movies of the century; Max is almost incidental to the world and the experience.

No. 2

Top Gun: Maverick 2022

No. 2 — the degree of difficulty is higher than Fury Road's, and he can't name one person who didn't like it. Val Kilmer's scene got him.

No. 3

Doctor Sleep 2019

No. 3 — the director's cut. Disliked it the first time; the longer version made it one of his favorites of the last 10 years. Flanagan as the coming Stephen King 'Kevin Feige.'

No. 4

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 1986

No. 4 — same filmmaker, 12 to 13 years later, swapping horror for slapstick, with a ludicrous Dennis Hopper as the hero.

No. 5

The Color of Money 1986

No. 5 — also Chris's No. 1. Scorsese and Richard Price find Paul Newman's Eddie Felson in his twilight, mentoring a protégé; to Chris, better than The Hustler.

Mallory's Top Five Legacy Sequelsdirector revisits the work much later

No. 1

Before Midnight 2013

No. 1 — the guts Gladiator II lacked: what if these people actually wound up together, and it was hard? A raw, very French reckoning; the Before trilogy is one of her three favorite trilogies.

No. 2

Logan 2017

No. 2 — also Chris's No. 2. One of her favorite comic-book movies; Daphne Keen, Hugh Jackman, and Patrick Stewart bridging old and new. 'Desecrated by Deadpool & Wolverine.'

No. 3

Mad Max: Fury Road 2015

No. 3 — first saw it at the Vista on release, 'electrifying,' one of her favorite theater memories.

No. 4

Top Gun: Maverick 2022

No. 4 — inseparable from the COVID-era moment of gathering to share something, but it holds up absent that context.

No. 5

Star Wars: The Force Awakens 2015

No. 5 — maps closely onto A New Hope (Starkiller Base, Jakku, BB-8) but far more successful at launching a trilogy than The Phantom Menace. She'd argue The Last Jedi is the better film.

Chris's Top Five Legacy Sequelsdirector revisits the work much later

No. 1

The Color of Money 1986

No. 1 — the most magical revisiting of a text he can think of, and better than the original.

No. 2

Logan 2017

No. 2 — one of his three favorite comic-book movies, alongside The Dark Knight and Into the Spider-Verse.

No. 3

Before Midnight 2013

No. 3 — one of the most beautiful movies ever made; a portrait of youth revisited two decades on.

No. 4

T2 Trainspotting 2017

No. 4 — came and went despite the original's cultural impact; middle-aged men reckoning with their masculinity in Danny Boyle's throw-everything-at-the-wall style. Underrated.

No. 5

The Exorcist III 1990

No. 5 (tie) — William Peter Blatty's return, 13 years after the second film; a straight-up great horror movie that's also provocative about the first film's ideas.

No. 6

2010: The Year We Make Contact 1984

No. 5 (tie) — Peter Hyams following Kubrick, with Roy Scheider and Helen Mirren; sacrilegious for trying to answer 2001's questions, and Chris likes it anyway.

Also mentioned raised along the way

In the Gladiator II talk NapoleonPrometheus1492: Conquest of ParadiseThe Last DuelHouse of GucciBlade RunnerAlienBlack Hawk DownThelma & LouiseTraining DayConclaveAnoraKing KongApocalypse NowA Complete UnknownMotherless BrooklynAftersunAll of Us StrangersFencesRoman J. Israel, Esq.The EqualizerA Quiet Place: Day OneThe Fantastic Four: First StepsA Beautiful MindGosford ParkThe Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the RingMulholland DriveDuneDune: Part TwoFuriosa: A Mad Max SagaTwistersWickedBlue Thunder

Legacy-sequel examples they didn't pick The Godfather Part IIIPsycho IIJurassic ParkJurassic WorldStar Wars: The Rise of SkywalkerStar Wars: The Last JediThe Phantom MenaceThe Empire Strikes BackReturn of the JediStar WarsThe Exorcist2001: A Space OdysseyThe Texas Chain Saw MassacreTexas Chainsaw MassacreTrainspottingThe ShiningCarrieBefore SunriseBefore SunsetThe HustlerTop GunDeadpool & WolverineThe Dark KnightSpider-Man: Into the Spider-VerseCaptain America: The Winter SoldierDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of MadnessEternalsAvengers: Infinity WarAvengers: EndgameInglourious Basterds

Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads

TV The SopranosNormal PeopleThe White LotusStranger ThingsThe Last of UsGame of ThronesThe MandalorianThe GreatHis Dark MaterialsThe AcolyteHawkeyeThe Rings of PowerDune: ProphecyLandmanThe Dark Tower

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