Violence and blood left and right, music that seems like a basic emotions direction guide for the viewerpatriotic ultranationalist message – “die for Rome” -, dramatic slowdowns that are surprising today because of how old they have become… everything is predictable in Gladiator II and, at the same time and despite all this or precisely because of it, everything points to another bomb at the global box office.
Ridley Scott signed the second highest grossing film of the year 2000, Gladiatorconverted to Russell Crowe in a star and took five Oscarsamong many others.
Almost 25 years later has returned to try to repeat the feataware that now it needed to go further, that it had to surprise more visually, amplify the tension and violence of the combats, overwhelm with the battle scenes and the number of extras and media… crush with the power of super production any attempt at resistance to his film.
The Roman dream
Starring the young Irish actor Paul Mescal and for the indisputable Denzel Washingtonthe film also has in the cast Peter Pascal and Connie Nielsenwith Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger and Derek Jacobiamong others. Interpreters for real characters in the history of Romesuch as those of the corrupt and ruthless emperors Geta and Caracalla, and for others invented, such as that of the protagonist, Lucius, grandson of Marcus Aurelius and son of Maximus Decimus Meridius, Richard Harris and Russell Crowe in the previous movie.
With the invasion of the Romans Numidiaa spectacular attack from the sea, begins this story of revenge, death and war, in which a young man raised in Africa He returns to Rome as a slave and is forced to relive his past and repeat his father’s heroics to recover “the roman dream” by Marcus Aurelius. Lucio will have to become the star gladiator of the team owned by Macrino, who has promised him in exchange for the money he will earn with his fights, to put him before his great enemy.
Show ambition
There are a few historical errors in the film, such as presenting Macrinus as a former slave, when in reality this man who became emperor was descended from the local nobility. It is not the only historical kick in the film, but it does not matter, or rather, it does not matter to its director, who puts everything, absolutely everything, at the disposal of the bloodthirsty plebs of the stalls.
And in that ambition of spectacle above all, the filmmaker shoots, with great pulse, everything must be recognized, one fight after another of the protagonist in the arena in the Colosseum, fights with zero tension – you always know that Lucio will emerge victorious – and that extend throughout practically the entire length of the footage, two and a half hours.
They are fights in the arena in which, seeking to dazzle the spectators, Rildey Scott and the screenwriter David Scarpathey have not deprived themselves of anything, not even exhibiting a extravagant collection of ferocious animals facing the gladiators. Fighters on the back of an impressive rhinoceros, murderous primates with terrifying fangs, hungry and bloodthirsty sharks, tigers, dogs… They have earned him a complaint for animal abuse.
Duplicate budget
These complaints and some accidents that occurred during filming have doubled the budget of the film, a production that started with 165 million dollars and that, finally, it has needed 310. Shot in Morocco, Malta and Shepperton studios, on the outskirts of London, Gladiator IIIn addition, he has not skimped on extras and media for some of his sequences.
“It’s huge, like one of Cecil B. DeMille with steroids. In Ridley’s battle scenes there aren’t hundreds of guys, there are thousands. It doesn’t use 20 horses. He has 20 scores of horses. Everywhere you look in this movie, you’re in that world,” said actor Denzel Washington, who acknowledged that being on the set, accompanied by “thousands of soldiers with spectacular costumes and brightly colored swords and shields and horses everywhere made it All of that seemed like something more than a movie to me.“.
They are excessive praise for a film built, yes, with enormous means, which look great on the screen, but which They do not provide the necessary depth, humanity, or intelligence. to history so that it comes closer, even if only a little, to great cinema. “Once there was a dream called Rome, you could only whisper it… as soon as you raised your voice it would fade, such was its fragility. And now I fear it will not survive the winter.”
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