John Trapp

Perhaps having recently rewatched the first Gladiator raised my standards for the follow-up film to an untenable height, but I found Gladiator 2 to be a disappointing departure from the beauty of the first film. Although the cinematography, battle scenes, movie score, and set design were all very well done, there was simply too much story for a 2.5 hour movie. With multiple plots running simultaneously, the film seemed to be in a rush to develop the myriad sub-plots rather than focus on the characters themselves. Despite the already lengthy run time, the movie felt very rushed because of this plot overload. While enjoyable and still easy enough to follow, the compromises made to fill out a dense story probably were not worth it. Despite this, would absolutely recommend seeing this movie, especially on the big screen, if nothing else to be reminded of the splendor and nostalgia of the first Gladiator.