Posted on 07/09/2024 7:05:40 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The trailer for Ridley Scott’s new epic, Gladiator II, is undeniably impressive, but then it rather had to be. Rumors that its already massive budget had ballooned to as much as $310 million — which would mean it would have to be one of 2024’s highest-grossing movies just to break even, never mind making a profit — may have suggested that the film was in trouble, but an early screening of the preview at the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas reassured exhibitors and studios alike, with the few journalists who had seen the footage rushing to extol its scale and grandeur. Now it’s been released online, and viewers have a chance to judge for themselves. (Its cinematic debut will come with Deadpool vs Wolverine.) Does it look like a worthy follow-up to Gladiator?
To be frank, it would be nigh-on impossible to compete with the original, but that is because the success of the Oscar-winning behemoth is a more subtle and complex thing than it was given credit for. Its central revenge storyline was something out of Death Wish — man trained in the violent arts has wife and child killed; man gives into violent impulses; everyone who gets in his way suffers — but it was elevated to artistic respectability by its peerless technical accomplishment, a script that neatly balanced profundity and quotability and performances by veteran British actors like Richard Harris, Derek Jacobi and Oliver Reed, who could give gravitas to General Hospital. And, of course, it boasted an award-winning performance at its center by Russell Crowe as a terrifying instrument of vengeance, who hacked, slashed and decapitated his way through the picture as he sought revenge on Joaquin Phoenix’s sniveling, incestuous-intended emperor Commodus.
Crowe will, of course, not be returning for the Gladiator sequel, on account of his character Maximus dying heroically at the conclusion of the first one, his job done. Yet judging by this preview, his influence will be keenly felt throughout, whether it’s Paul Mescal’s Lucius (apparently his son, although this has not yet been publicly revealed) gazing awestruck at the legendary general-turned-gladiator’s armor, or the massed ranks of fighters declaring “Strength and honor,” the original’s catchphrase, as they prepare to face their adversaries. And there are countless other callbacks to the first film, too, from Lucius’s double-sword decapitation technique to the reappearance of Connie Nielsen as Lucilla, Maximus’s former lover and Lucius’s mother.
It all looks vastly expensive, with sea battles and scenes of siege warfare that may feature CGI embellishment but also have thousands of extras and a reassuring amount of bloody peril right up on the screen. Mescal, who is a critical favorite after his roles in Normal People and All Of Us Strangers but has yet to make his blockbuster debut, may not quite be measuring up to Crowe for sheer force of charisma on this evidence, but the always-welcome presence of Denzel Washington as a mysterious powerbroker who seems intent on seizing power from the corrupt but effete emperors indicates that the sub-I, Claudius politicking that made the first film such a pleasure to watch will be returning here, with a vengeance.
There will be an awful lot riding on this picture’s success. The beleaguered Paramount Pictures desperately needs a hit, and for the film to make serious money, it needs to bank Oppenheimer-level amounts. And there is something of a question mark over the now-eighty-six-year-old Scott, too, who appears in recent years to have gone for broke in emphasizing the comic aspects of everything from Napoleon’s conquest of Europe to the murder of Maurizio Gucci by his wife Patrizia. Few would relish the prospect of Gladiator II being turned into the British sitcom Up, Pompeii. But judged on the evidence of this fiery, propulsive trailer — and I haven’t even mentioned Pedro Pascal as Mescal’s nemesis, offering two muscled gladiators for the price of one — then Crowe’s outraged bellow from the first film of “Are you not entertained?” will find an enthusiastic response in the affirmative from audiences worldwide in a few months’ time. Strength and honor, indeed.
Thanks for the Layer Cake tip! :)
Dark is possible but light is also possible and lighter or darker is also possible notwithstanding that a lighter dark or a darker light is possible and maybe a really dark dark or a very light light is or are possible.
And the soundtracks to “Black Hawk Down” “and Mission: Impossible 2”.
But they’re going try it anyway(See “Ride of the Rohirrim”)
The Eowyn thingee was a VERY important part of the plot in Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings.
Yuge.
While I disliked the Battle of the Pelennor Fields sequence in the movie, the scene with Eowyn and the Witch King of Angmar was ripped directly from the book.
The Witch King cr@pped his sorcerous robes when he realized that he had misinterpreted the prophecy for 1000 years - just before he got one in the epiglottis.
"...Far off yet is his doom, and not by the hand of man shall he fall."
The trailer looks horrible, with subpar casting, and what is this ridiculous rap song? Awful.
On the one hand, I think it goes without saying that Denzel’s presence in the film is basically D-E-I. On the other hand, it’s actually true that the Romans did important black Ethiopians for gladiatorial and other entertainment purposes. Pygmies were also a subject of fascination in Roman times.
Hey, Kamala; you took a wrong turn. Democrat Underground is that-away.
“Are you not entertained?”
Really great line...useful when watching news and leftist drivel.
They need to portray the Constantine story, around 320 AD if they want to exceed original.
I agree. The trailer looks like a WOKE crapfest.
The film will not bomb but also will not recover enough profits to make it successful. You need more than CGI to make a great film, especially if it is smothered with modern day liberal democrat sensibilities. The only true surprise, is that Denzel Washington’s character is not a transsexual (although he wears dangling earrings and woman’s clothes).
I may check it out in a few years when it streams for free.
Notice that, in the cable TV world, Gladiator is on somewhere every damn night?
I checked IMBD and Denzel doesn’t have any movie coming out or has done one where he played Hannibal probably some film they talked about doing but dropped. I know actor Vin Diesel for years talked about wanting to play Hannibal but that never materialized.
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