J L

Some scenes are pretty to look at - which is what you expect from a moving budgeting hundreds of millions - but all in all it’s pretty appalling. Most of the script and even the characters are borrowed from it’s prequel. The new emperor twins are a copy of the emperor commodus. Hanno/Lucius is a copy of Maximus (with the same wife problem, the same grey dreams and the same story arc). Denzel Washington is a strange casting and doesn’t seem to act at all - he just plays himself as if he’s been teleported back In time, and there are some strange monkey-dog things they have to fight in the arena that look prehistoric. Some fight scenes are quite entertaining as are some of the ridiculous characters but whereas the first movie felt serious, beautiful and almost educational as a watch despite its historic inaccuracies, the sequel feels more like fantasy - more akin to hunger games or dune. Sadly the story is weak, the acting is weak, the costume design is strange and it’s a bit of a flop.

End of episode 2. So far verrry predictable… very much a cookie cutter plot… but somewhat entertaining. Not very scary or gory kinda feels like horror for kids, not that that’s a bad thing. Nice to look at. Also, everyone is very stupid and there’s loads of dad jokes, I think it’s more comedy than horror. Update: halfway through episode 3 and don’t think I’ll continue watching.