Tim Nolan

The original Gladiator was amazing - I'm not sure what this movie was. I will still watch the first one every once in a while though. I'll start this review with I am a Denzel Washington fan, I loved him in American Gangster, Inside Man, Flight, the Equalizer movies, pretty much anything he's in. 1. Character Development - there is zero character development, why do we care about the protagonist? Why should we feel bad when something bad happens to him or his loved ones? Since there is no character development, you don't feel any connection at all to any character. 2. Reboot - the first half of the movie I thought - oh man I'm sitting here watching a redo / reboot of an original... but then it got worse. 3. Characters - adding from no character development, the characters had no soul or emotion, you don't feel any strong feeling, good or bad for the protagonist or antagonists. In the original the good and bad characters at least had their own set or morals, in this movie they have none of that. 4. Story - The story seemed ridiculous and whipped together, again with no character development. And when there is a plot twist, it should be jaw dropping and entice you... in this movie I just thought "this is ridiculous". 5. Casting - another review said it too, but great movies have great antagonists like the original Gladiator did. You love to hate their cunning and root for them to lose - in this movie the antagonists are ridiculous, have no cunning (well one of them does but I don't want to ruin it for anyone), they seem thin and "made up" like cartoon characters