Like most people reading this, the original Gladiator is one of my favorite movies.
PROS:
- There are 3 actors that really impress me in this movie.
Denzel Washington, Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger.
After seeing the trailers, I was nervous bout Denzel’s accent/character arc but he absolutely crushes it.
Quinn and Hechinger are also great as dual fill-ins for the legendary Joaquin Phoenix performance as Commodus.
- The production value is there!
The CGI rarely looks wonky, plenty of big practical sets that help immerse you as well.
- The fight sequences are all pretty awesome.
I wouldn’t say anything is better than the action from the original but nothing is much worse.
CONS:
- Paul Mescal was a really bad fit for this role in my opinion.
Mescal is just not built for that.
He is a fantastic actor but this was just square-box-round-hole to me.
- The story is bad.
Like, lifted from a fan fiction reddit level bad.
Not nearly as bad as Ridley’soriginal script, but very uninspired, messy stuff.
And the dialogue does no favors to any of the actors.
- Pedro Pascal was a non-factor in this movie.
This is one of the hottest names in Hollywood and he was only afforded what felt like 20 lines.
SUMMARY:
The shiny parts of this movie work and satiate the dumb parts of your brain.
However, I think the biggest fault of this movie lies in the story.
SHOULD YOU WATCH THIS IN THEATERS?
It’s a good theater experience and I had a lot of fun despite it’s flaws.
