C. A.O.

WOW! This is one of the best and most intelligent movies I’ve seen in a long time. It is STUNNING! I won’t do a plot summary, but I will address one point I’ve seen commented on and speak to two parts of the movie I might modify: 1. Everyone saying a hot multimillionaire would not be interested in the protagonist – First of all, the kind of man who does these things is a predator first and foremost, meaning he is looking for vulnerable women who (potentially) won’t be missed. Secondly, racism is unfortunately very common, but she’s beautiful. And thirdly, multimillionaires get bored and look for anything or anyone who can alleviate their boredom. Sometimes that includes someone others might consider “unlikely” to get their attention. 2. As far as the plot goes, there are two areas I would change. First, every single victim woman who remembered had the same reaction—horror, then anger and fight. It’s not psychologically realistic that all or even most women would respond that way after experiencing trauma and still being in danger. A more accurate depiction might have included someone who became completely incapacitated, frozen in fear. Another might have tried to escape, and perhaps one might have un-alived herself completely. Then there could’ve been one or two fighters. Not everyone reacts with immediate confrontation. We all have a fight-or-flight response, but it’s not always predictable who will be which. 3. The second thing I would change is the ending. It’s true that some women marry their abusers—there are many real-life examples. And while some women are driven by their own need for power and influence, the abuser is never a docile and compliant puppet. That fundamentally goes against their psychology—they don’t willingly give up control. Maybe if Channing’s character had been physically weakened from the ordeal, it would have been more believable? If he doesn’t remember what he did, he can’t be blackmailed because he doesn’t grasp the severity of it. There has to be some real leverage over him. It also would’ve made more sense if the female protagonist was secretly giving him the drug without his knowledge (maybe with help from the old red rabbit woman), rather than him willingly taking it to forget something he doesn’t even fully comprehend. That would have been a true role reversal, though still unethical. Marriage, in reality, is not an asset to a woman’s longevity or happiness, particularly not to your (former?) abuser, so if this was meant to be an empowering ending, there would need to be a stronger reason for it. Maybe he could’ve been held hostage on his island while the company ran as usual, but with the female protagonist benefiting somehow? I don’t know. I just know the ending felt a little unrealistic for such a brilliant movie overall. It was Wow.

Spoilers ahead Lots of spectacle, good special effects but there was no heart, no love, no young queen or princess in her prime- a huge missing plot hole that is characteristic and almost mandatory in royal life across all ages. The story could have been so much better, the costume design could’ve been more gritty and worn in instead of being so “costumey” in some parts. I found that I didn’t care that much about anyone when they died, demonstrating that the character development and inspirational motivators and drivers for the story were lackluster. The gladiator’s wife who died early in the movie they tried to create parallels of emotion like the first movie - but who cares - she fought as a soldier alongside the gladiator guy, so surely they expected one of them would die in battle and it’s not as much of a surprise or as gut wrenching as a man who went off to battle thinking his family is safe only to find out they were tortured and killed. We didn’t know the gladiator nor what he stood for at the time and he, as many actors, is just not as charismatic nor does he possess the same gravitas as Russel Crowe. He did his best but I just didn’t care. They kept giving us scenes that replicated the old movie- if I wanted to see the old movie I would’ve just done that. And kept giving us wistful shots of the old Queen, instead of adding on some new blood in a young Princess, in addition- SUCH a missed opportunity. Another missed opportunity was Pedro Pascal- the cinema was PACKED like I haven’t seen it be in ages and it’s because we have seen how charismatic HE is, we have seen him in an arena before when he killed the Mountain, when he told him to SAY HER NAME, when we were inspired and rooting for him and crushed when his head got done in. We came for Pedro, and he was so, so misused here, he was put in a sappy side role and even when he was in the arena, still a sappy soft storyline that could not give us the rage based ACTION we came for - that we KNOW he can deliver on. We came for Pedro and they gave us a side character. Ugh. This movie was a missed opportunity- their screenwriters were just not that good. The story should have been so much better. Story and costume design and a more charismatic lead. The only small light in this kerfuffle was Denzel, he was a formidable bad guy, and I stopped randomly falling asleep when he came on screen. HE has the gravitas and as we all know he is sooo sooo seasoned, his scenes were delicious. It still wasn’t enough to save the movie without a cohesive storyline, without a point of tension we can truly get behind, without the character development that makes us give a f*ck about any of the characters, without the necessary charisma of the lead, without the costume design that keeps us within the world instead of breaking the illusion at times and making me think I’m watching a play, without the love, the honor, the glory. It would have been better if the write a story of the gladiator wanting to destroy everything and getting to the palace and falling in love with the emperor’s new young queen and then trying to go against Denzel and co. We need better screenwriters!!!! Rant over.