Gladiator II * * * *

Gladiator II.  Slaying 'em again.

It's hard to believe, but the first Gladiator came out nearly twenty five years ago. It still looks pretty good actually. 

As Maximus, Russell Crowe certainly left some big sandals to fill, but in fairness, in this sequel, Paul Mescal does a pretty good job as the new Gladiator, Lucius. 

It wouldn't be a spoiler to let you know that the Romans kill his wife in the beginning when they are ransacking his city, thus making Lucius a bit peed off. To make him even angrier they capture him and tell him that he and his mates must now all kill each other to entertain the Roman crowds.

But before they fight each other, first they have to fight the CGI animals:  In Gladiator 1 Maximus had to fight a tiger on a chain.  In this one Lucius has to fight mad monkeys and it's him who's chained, not the baboons. And then there is the rhinoceros.  Anyway, Lucius does alright, and is thus chosen by a trader to be a gladiator.

Denzel Washington makes a fine Gladiator trader.  "Hard but fair" as they say.  Lucius soon becomes his favourite.  But Lucius doesn't care so much about earning his freedom. He just wants to kill the man who killed his wife - that'd be General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal).

So in Gladiator II you've got all the blood and sand adventures of gladiatorial fights along with the determination of Lucius to have his revenge.  But there's a lot more to it.  

Firstly there are the two absolute nut cases who are currently running Rome. Shades of Caligula as these boys are clearly insane, especially when one of them decides his pet monkey would make a very fine senator.  Considering the behaviour of some of our own senators the choice could be worse.

From the raid on Numidia at the beginning, to the scenes in the Colosseum, the visuals are absolutely spectacular.  You will not be disappointed.   

The story gets a bit waffly at some stage as it reflects on who slept with who to produce Lucius years ago, but one might say that sort of thing has always been part of the sword and sandal genre.

It's got an ending that leaves things wide open for Gladiator III, and if this brings in the big bucks I doubt that we'll have to wait another twenty five years for that!