Cynical sword-and-sandal
A competently made, but ultimately cynical follow up to the first gladiator film, unlike the first film, this one will most likely be quickly forgotten, why? Well to put it in broad terms, the main character and most of the other characters lack the humanity to make you care about their faith, so it does not matter if Hanno lives or dies, neither do you feel anything for the main villains, who do evil for the lulz?
What else is wrong with this film? Well naturally it's an anachronistic and unhistorical clusterf**k. It blackwashes several characters, whitewashes the two evil emperors, the Dark man defeats the two White emperors, but gets defeated again by the White liberal Hanno, who is le champion of the people. So you get the worldview behind this entire film.
What's more, the entire film has this strong and distinctly oriental feeling to it, and I mean as in Orientalism, not Asian, I am not necessarily negative about this, it's a good way to show the decline of Rome, but it does not make for a film that feels uplifting.
Jan 19th 2025

This review was posted from the United States or from a VPN in the United States.