On Nov. 22, 2024 Ridley Scott’s, Gladiator ll, hit the big screen. 

I went to see a movie this past weekend, and I left the theater unfulfilled. At the moment I was enjoying the movie, but when I took a second to look back at the plot, I felt that it was a hollow regurgitation of the first “Gladiator” movie. I will give the movie its flowers, as it had great spectacles and fight scenes to keep me engaged.

Leila Gjeldum, junior, who I went to the movie with, said that she really enjoyed it.

“It was super entertaining, I didn’t care about the plot as much because the fights were super cool to watch,” Gjeldum said. ¨What I thought was really cool was when they flooded the Colosseum and had a ship battle.”

I agree with Leila to an extent because it was cool to watch, but that could only take its horrid plot so far. A minor issue I had with this was the historical inaccuracies. 

Senior Joao Victor Lourenco agreed.

“It’s hard for me to get immersed into a movie when there’s blatant historical inaccuracies right in front of my face,” Lourenco said. “In ancient Rome they didn’t have cafes and newspapers. Little things like that take away from the movie for me.”

Josh Bey, senior also had a similar comment, but with regards to the character plot.

“I didn’t understand where the twin emperors came from, or how Macrinus rose to power so fast,” Bey said.

Overall, “Gladiator 2” is a fun watch at the moment, but the shallow plot and lack of character development ruined it for me. A movie which had so much potential got turned into a cash grab, and in my opinion, tainted the good name of the franchise. 

If you want to watch “Gladiator 2” then you can find tickets at this link.