“Are you not entertained?” bellowed Russell Crowe over the bodies of half a dozen or so armoured combatants in the original Gladiator. It’s a line etched in our collective memory. It also sums up Ridley Scott’s belligerent and punchy directorial approach to this brawny, businesslike sequel. Nearly a quarter of a century has passed since the first film scooped five Oscars in 2001 (including best picture and best actor for Crowe), but what’s notable is how little has changed. Admittedly there’s a splatter of fresh blood. Gladiator II passes the tunic and battle sandals to Paul Mescal, as enslaved but noble warrior Lucius. It sees Denzel Washington sink his teeth into a peach of a role as the slippery, ambitious master of gladiators, Macrinus, and ramps up the spectacle (and, it has to be said, the silliness) with sharks in the Colosseum, an attack rhino and a terrifying CGI hell-creature that seems to be part shaved baboon, part demon. Yes, we are entertained, how could we not be? But, sharks and rhino aside, fresh ideas are conspicuously missing. This sequel is so derivative of its predecessor, it’s practically a remake.
