Gladiator II

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

"Hey Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?"

 

Well, I do love me an SBB run...

 

 

This takes place during the confusing reign of co-Emperors Caracallus (Fred Hechinger, White Lotus) and his d**s*** brother Geta (Joe Quinn aka fan favourite Metal Eddie from Stranger Things, though here he seems to be channeling MCR's Gerard Way. Bloody emos.)

And in case you're wondering, no, the idea of two Emperors trying to rule at once didn't work out all sweet'n'light.

 

Yes, sweaty muscle fans, it's got Pedro, and new Irish indie darling Paul Mescal in his first serious lead. On gravitas duties is Denzel His Very Self as a gladiator-turned-impresario and dodgy dealer looking to make political moves. And we also get a welcome turn for Derek Jacobi as an upstanding Senator, who's a veteran at putting puff and polish on silly flicks like this one.

 

It's certainly going to be spectacular, and even shows the Colosseum staging a naval battle - it's known that this happened IRL, and engineers are still fairly baffled as to how they pulled it off to this day. 

 

Exactly how necessary this all is as a sequel, I dunno... but a fine popcorn flick.

Edited July 10 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[Without_Pause]

But, why? I joked how Gladiator felt like Braveheart II, so I guess this is Braveheart III. 

[Techwright]

So as superhero pictures decline, Hollywood returns to Sword-and-Sandals pics?  Got it.

 

Any chance they are holding true the the real co-Emperors?  I remember it being said that Joaquin Phoenix's role bore little resemblance to the actual Commodus.  I'd rather have name changes and similarities than to give the public a false perception of a real person, even a tyrant.  It's my one beef with Shakespeare's Richard III, though I'm fully convinced the villain ordered the deaths of his nephews.

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

11 hours ago, Techwright said:

It's my one beef with Shakespeare's Richard III, though I'm fully convinced the villain ordered the deaths of his nephews.

It's halfway a history and halfway a portrait of someone descending into hell in pursuit of power, then getting stuck there, like the old morality plays Richard namechecks. (And a substantial chunk of PR for the House Of Tudor, just in case any stray Yorkist pretenders were still kicking around.)

 

I'm not sure how close the script is going to be to reality. Not all that much is known about Geta due to a fairly short career as co-Emperor, coupled with his damnatio memoriae - a formal and public Roman version of being "airbrushed from Party history."

 

But it's clear that Geta didn't perform well as a consul, argued constantly with his brother, and each tried to have the other assassinated repeatedly. After a few misses both ways, Caracallus finally succeeded around December 24th 211 AD, just after Saturnalia. (And you thought your relatives were painful at Christmas.) Oh, and Caracallus did quite a few good things - like enfranchising all free men in the Empire as Roman Citizens - but was also a bit of a git in many, many other ways.

 

So I can see where that could get fun writing it up in a sort of Roman Spy vs Spy way. But with two main interwoven plots to get through - Lucius the slave and Marcus the general - things are bit overstuffed for that already in the movie.

Edited July 10 by ThaOGDreamWeaver