Gladiator 2

ancapailldorcha

Hollywood isn't dead. It's just choosing to make safe, easy, anodyne films for the masses instead of anything that requires staying awake to appreciate.

The White Wolf

How is the score in it, big shoes to fill to say the least.

Basq

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122847329#Comment_122847329

Most memorable bits of the score were callbacks to "Now We Are Free" from the first movie tbh. Didn't really much of an impact for me otherwise.

jj880

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122847283#Comment_122847283

I was mildly entertained 😄

My son enjoyed the fight scenes.

The twin emperors reminded me of hobbits.

Denzel was decent even though he was in paycheck mode.

Mescal did a good job with mediocre dialogue .

Spoiler Warning

Throwing out a spot of poetry after gutting someone in a prize fight was a bit random.

Its more or less what I expected.

SheepsClothing

Not much to add on this one. Just not a good movie.

There's a few worthwhile elements, but it's all stitched together so clumsily, that throughout the movie you can't help but compare it unfavorably to original.

I think Mescal is poor enough to be honest in it. I dont think he is a good actor but his name is gold at the moment so we'll be seeing more of him no doubt.

A poor movie. Shouldnt have been made.

santana75

Saw this earlier and I thought it was pretty good, a lot better than I feared it might be anyway. Although it has to be said, Paul Mescal's agent is playing and absolute stormer………the bloke is wooden. Pedro Pascal on the other hand is absolutely brilliant and the contrast between how good pedro pascal is compared with Paul mescal is almost painful. I feel like there may have been some sort of Faustian pact made in exchange for these roles(goes double for Barry Geoghan).

accensi0n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122844235#Comment_122844235

Yeah it's definitely still great.

I watch it and the first Matrix probably once a year for the past 25 years 😅

jackboy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122847994#Comment_122847994

He has no presence and a very boring voice, which he can't do anything about. It's a bad state of affairs when the likes of him are getting lead roles like this.

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122848050#Comment_122848050

I think its solely his looks getting him gigs since Normal People.

quartz1

I watched it this evening and really enjoyed it .

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122848068#Comment_122848068

He could make a hundred **** films between now and retirement and still his performance in Aftersun would be one of the best of the 21st century. The man has the chops.

siblers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122848068#Comment_122848068

Go watch Aftersun, he's phenomenal in it

murpho999

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122848068#Comment_122848068

Ah yes of course , he was nominated for Best Actor Oscar purely on his looks too.

Seriously , the bile people spout based on nothing , apart from maybe their own jealousy.

ledwithhedwith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122848068#Comment_122848068

he’s a normal enough looking bloke? Good actor though.

Rowley Birkin QC

I saw it last Friday. Came home from the cinema and watched the original one. It's night and day in terms of score, acting, storyline, pacing and cinematography. All of the truly awful fan service in 2 just serves to annoy and make you realise how 2 can't stand on its own or even as a coherent sequel.

There's a moment where it seems like Connie Nielsen is about to give it the full "My name is Maximus Decimus etc. etc." and because of all of the other call back stuff, you fully expect her to go for it even though it would be completely ridiculous.

Mescal is grand I suppose but I totally agree with comments on the script where they attempt to slot in "rousing speech 1", "inspirational quip 2", "stoic stare 23" etc.

Poor all round and I might have possibly been able to enjoy it as a popcorn flick if the tickets hadn't cost €25 each and it had made some attempt at originality.

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122848197#Comment_122848197

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122851661#Comment_122851661

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122848273#Comment_122848273

I meant to say I watched Aftersun yesterday after the Ireland game and yes I can appreciate that he can actually act. The movie didn't exactly cheer me up after the defeat ha. I hadn't ever been impressed by him before in anything. I will amend to say I don't think this role really suited him.

speedboatchase

There are some great ideas in this trying to get out, but it's beholden to repeating the opening structure of the original and includes too many unnecessary callbacks.

If the movie was set 100 years later - with a prologue about how the 'dream of Rome' didn't pan out - and Mescal was an original character, everything would work better. The line about "A slave dreams not of freedom, but of his own slaves" should have been the crux of it, since Mescal and Denzel's characters find themselves at opposite sides of that argument as it progresses.

Tying the movie to Russell Crowe's characters hurts this movie and the original, since it doesn't really make sense (e.g. Maximus final line: "Lucius is safe", is now untrue) and means the movie is stuffed with too many character motivations and plots.

That being said, the second half begins to do its own thing and is all the better for it. And surely that's a second Oscar for Denzel?

felonious_Gru

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122848050#Comment_122848050

He's an accurate reflection of his generation, that's how guys his age are nowadays, not too proud, assured or commanding

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122851912#Comment_122851912

A lot of that is to do with how good Crowe and Phoenix are in the original. Denzel and Paul don't hold a candle to them in that regard.

Aftersun is a good movie and I think Paul is niche to be honest. There is a reason why his success has come in Normal People and Aftersun. He can certainly act in such dramas and with really thought out dialogue. When it comes to a leading man role like an action film he can't carry it though. I don't think he is a box office start. Nothing wrong with that but hopefully we don't see a trend of him being shoe horned into films. I think it will hurt his career.

speedboatchase

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122852513#Comment_122852513

I agree that he felt miscast. What the role called for - that undercurrent of rage - seemed like it would've fit a young Mel Gibson like a glove. Mescal's specialty is sensitive, sad boys. He's not a leader of men in the way that Crowe was. Which is no criticism of his acting - he's very good at what he does within that indie template.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122851912#Comment_122851912

The callbacks are their for marketing, not for the story. Hollywood has no appetite for risk so anything isn't a remake, a sequel, a prequel or something that is part of a franchise like superheroes isn't worth making. Exceptions can be made if you get a big name like Ridley Scott and an all-star cast attached but that's a rare enough thing.

Your suggestions, while sensible, just increase risk. There is no shortage of fascinating historical characters, wars, battles and epochs that could be brought to the big screen. Unfortunately, if Gladiator II does not live up to expectations, Hollywood will just feel like it gambled and lost. I suspect that having Mescal run through Crowe's old lines was a condition imposed by Hollywood for this thing to be made.

As you've said, trying to continue Maximus' story after the first film is pointless. The Romans have been an endless source of fascination for generations and will remain so for future generations. There are countless other themes and stories that could be explored like the fall of Rome, the life of Julius Caesar, the rise of Augustus, Claudius' conquest of England, the Punic wars, the Parthian wars, and so on…

Hyperbollix

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122852513#Comment_122852513

Agree completely. It wouldn't be fair to make comparisons of Mescal with a young Orlando Bloom in Kingdom of Heaven, he's a better actor, but it's a similar dynamic playing out here. He's primarily getting this gig because he's flavour of the month and a hearthrob just as OB was in the aftermath of Lord of the Rings, despite him not really being suitable for the part.

Crowe is one of the last of the old school movie stars, a leading man who can carry films on his back. He's one of those actors who can play everything from action heroes to quite dramatic parts and he just pulls the viewer in. I just don't see that level of charisma or craft in Mescal. Not in this type of work anyway.

Electric Nitwit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122851852#Comment_122851852

Changing your opinion and agreeing with people, don't you know you're on the internet? 🤣

I also think he's very good on All Of Us Strangers. Outshone by Andrew Scott, of course, but that's no criticism at all. I'd highly recommend it if you haven't seen it. Though it is pretty desperately sad too

Romario11

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122847315#Comment_122847315

Its not dead but its dying for many years now, and its not looking like its gonna find a cure any time soon. So may well be dead soon!

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122856091#Comment_122856091

How is it dying? It's still making a fortune and breaking records every year. Their output might not be ideal for a lot of people but the masses are still consuming it like there's no tomorrow.

CWMMC

Look the movie was meh. I think the first hour was good and flew by and the last hour dragged by. It almost felt like you could have shortened the movie down completely. The references back to the first one were meh. Am I glad I seen it? Yeah. Would I watch it again? No.

Also the scene with the football? Did football even exist back then?

Dogsdodogsstuff

Went with some friends to cinema last night and it was just over half packed, a very large cinema so that was impressive.

The movie itself was a 6/7 out of 10. Not sure where I fall on it. As a cinema feast you can add one star to the score. All my friends enjoyed the experience and we aren’t young bucks.

Objectively speaking it’s probably 2 stars below the original but I’d seldom expect these movies to match the first one. I agree with others that the acting and script felt far stronger in the original. Even Washington, I don’t know, sometimes I’m just not feeling his acting, it’s not that it’s bad, it’s just it’s Denzal doing Denzal in a different movie.

Had they actually differentiated Mescal to be more the quiet leader with no speeches (maybe just one at the very end) it would have worked better. I feel like I remember him saying he doesn’t do speeches but he does poems and multiple speeches about not liking speeches and not being a leader. It was too on the nose, having him really saying little would of been more impactful or even a sidekick for him that does most the talking and then only at the end when his sidekick bravely dies does he say something.

But all that aside I enjoyed it. Was a great night in the cinema. Some people need to learn to chill out and not be so precious about originals. Keep your standards if you want, but why goto something you know will probably trigger your anger that it was made in the first place?

Romario11

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122856097#Comment_122856097

I dont think that true on the revenues. Maybe it is for specific movies as a stand alone, but overall the 2010's compared to the 2020's the gross revenue is down by almost half, even in the years after covid, and movies are getting around half the releases because there are less cinema's.

The biggest grossing films have also been tentpole stuff back since the early 90's apart from the odd anomaly, so it's not like the content is changing, but the industry is dying based on revenue, its dropped by almost 50% in 10 years.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122856146#Comment_122856146

We're less than halfway through the 2020's so I don't think the comparison is fair. Hollywood seems to be in rude health as far as I can see. The odd flop is nothing new.