‘Gladiator II’: Barely an Echo of Original

I would not say 2000’s Gladiator is one of my all-time favorite movies. But the Ridley Scott historical epic is the kind of movie I will watch the rest of any time I catch it on cable, or happily revisit on other occasions. It has an entertaining, often transcendent mix of spectacle and pathos. And who can’t help but feel something when “Now We Are Free” begins as Juba (Djimon Hounsou) promises to his friend, the valiantly deceased Maximus (Russell Crowe), that they will meet again, but “not yet, not yet”?

In 2024, we meet Gladiator again (though, alas Juba is nowhere to be seen). Gladiator II doubles down on the 2000 original. It has two warrior protagonists who resemble Maximus: Hanno/Lucius (Paul Mescal) and Acacius (Pedro Pascal). It has two emperors (Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger) who are varying degrees of unhinged, upping the count from Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus. It has twice the political intrigue. It has at least twice the spectacle. (Two naval battles!) It is, fortunately, not twice as long.

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Jack Butler

Jack Butler is a former submissions editor at National Review.

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I would not say 2000’s Gladiator is one of my all-time favorite movies. But the Ridley Scott historical epic is the kind of movie I will watch the rest of any time I catch it on cable, or happily revisit on other occasions. It has an entertaining, often transcendent mix of spectacle and pathos. And who can’t help but feel something when “Now We Are Free” begins as Juba (Djimon Hounsou) promises to his friend, the valiantly deceased Maximus (Russell Crowe), that they will meet again, but “not yet, not yet”?

In 2024, we meet Gladiator again (though, alas Juba is nowhere to be seen). Gladiator II doubles down on the 2000 original. It has two warrior protagonists who resemble Maximus: Hanno/Lucius (Paul Mescal) and Acacius (Pedro Pascal). It has two emperors (Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger) who are varying degrees of unhinged, upping the count from Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus. It has twice the political intrigue. It has at least twice the spectacle. (Two naval battles!) It is, fortunately, not twice as long.