Just watched. My thoughts
I just walked out the theater about 25 minutes ago and started writing
The bare gist is this --- the movie, overall, is mediocre at best. There is an over-reliance on nostaglia and lazy writing. Instead of trying to replicate the first movie (which they do a lot), the filmakers should have gotten creative and tried to go in another direction.
Specifically: the movie's bare-bones plot mirrors the first movie far too much. In Part 1, Maximus is a general who loses his loved ones and becomes a slave. Here, Lucius is a soldier in Africa who loses his loved one and becomes a slave. Seriously? You had 23-24 years to create a plot for the sequel, and you just reproduce a premise that we all saw in Part 1? That is lazy writing
And speaking of lazy writing, there is much more. Lucius loses his loved one very quickly in the movie, an exotic girl named Arishat. He mourns intensely for a bit on-screen, but by midway point (maybe sooner), the audience literally forgets that this girl even existed: Lucius shows no signs of mourning or remembrance; it's as if he totally forgot about her. The movie has an arc where Denzel Washington goes from being a supporting cast member to a major character, yet the movie gives only a bare-bones explanation of his past and his motivations, making the ending feel less satisfying as it should. Major characters also die without getting their due attention.
The movie contains several cheesy flashback clips of the first film, such as Maximus' telling Lucius about the horses on his armour or Maximus grabbing handfuls of dirt from the ground. The credits at the end also uses the same musical theme from the original film ... All of these direct call-outs gave this movie the feel of a quick nostaglic money-grab, trying to capitalize on a classic from 24 years ago. Easter-eggs from the first film are fine; they just should have been more subtle.
A lot of people have praised Denzel Washington's performance. I actually found him to be one of the weak links. He seems to act like himself, not a Roman emperor. For some reason, he talks with a straight 2024 American accent while everyone else in the movie speaks with a more British accent. The effect is that Denzel seemed out of place. I'm sure an actor of his caliber is capable of an accent. Why he didn't have one is baffling.
Overall, I actually think Pascal gave the best performance as a grizzled, honorable Roman general. A part of me thinks they should have been more creative and found a way to make his character the lead. With Lucius, they seemed to have been trying to make Maximus Part II, yet the atttempt to do was doomed from the start. No matter how cool and tough you try to make Paul Mescal seem, audiences are always going to say that he's no Russel Crowe/Maximus. The best course is not even try it
5.5/10