In many ways, “Gladiator II” feels like a palimpsest of its predecessor.

| Apr 13, 2025

Mescal is stoic, Pascal is tragic, and Nielsen is pointless, but Denzel is having a fucking blast. Nobody told him this was another redemptive revenge story, or if they did, he simply doesn't care.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 5, 2025

Paul Mescal brings plenty of intensity to the role of Lucius, but he ultimately pales in comparison to Russell Crowe’s towering performance in the original.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 1, 2025

There are hints of what Gladiator II could have been in the more intimate scenes between star Paul Mescal and Connie Nielsen–thanks to the actors, not the leaden script which insists on keeping their relationship as black and white as possible.

| Original Score: B- | Mar 25, 2025

Once free to enjoy the sequel on its own merits, it is easy to find a smart, deliberately excessive Hollywood blockbuster with its own elaborate, idiosyncratic style and appeal.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Mar 12, 2025

While Gladiator II operates in the shadow of its predecessor, it isn’t exactly a carbon copy.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 11, 2025

And "Gladiator II" is an epic. Love, vengeance, loyalty, betrayal, lost faith, returned conviction — all things that make this story of an empire’s fall and return to the people powerful in its telling.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 4, 2025

While all of this marks Gladiator II as an unequivocal failure as a sequel and remake, it is admittedly still an adequate actioner.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Feb 28, 2025

Director Ridley Scott’s historical epic ramps up swords-and-sandals violence, delivering a visual spectacle of decapitation, dismemberment, and free-for-alls that include battles at sea. Yet the story doesn’t have the same resonance as the original.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 14, 2025

Sadly, Gladiator II fails to recapture what made the first film special. While it isn't egregiously terrible, it's forgettable and dull, which is arguably worse.

| Feb 11, 2025

Watching Gladiator II, it is hard not to be a little suspicious about exactly what we are longing for in our Roman fantasies.

| Jan 28, 2025

Paul Mescal delivers a primal, combustible performance in this disappointing sequel from Ridley Scott. Denzel chews a colosseum's worth of scenery that almost saves this uninspired rehash of 2000's GLADIATOR with terrible CGI and a flat finale....almost.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 23, 2025

Gladiator II is a great watch for anyone who hasn't watched the first part. This one is grander, more spectacular, and even more visceral than the first one, turning it up by a few notches in every department.

| Jan 21, 2025

It’s telling that it takes two actors, Quinn and Hechinger, to approximate the levels of insanity and menace that Phoenix achieved all by himself. And Mescal … doesn’t bring the same brooding charisma that Crowe had in abundance.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 18, 2025

By the end, you’ll have to answer the question: Were you not entertained?

| Original Score: Big Screen Watch | Jan 16, 2025

It’s curious how little of the story is new, compared with the former film. Gladiator-slave in Rome, fighting to stay alive but also to prove a point: that Rome just ain’t what it used to be.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jan 13, 2025

A sequel to the 2000 hit focusing on two charismatic leaders who could determine the future of Rome.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 9, 2025

Despite its shortcomings, Gladiator II delivers a full-bodied adventure that skillfully balances responsiveness to its audience’s expectations with a reverence for the epic grandeur of its predecessor.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 7, 2025

It is Denzel Washington, who steals the scenes.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 7, 2025

Washington’s gleeful wheelings and dealings, as Macrinus whispers poison into the ears of the emperors, are easily the best thing about Gladiator II. He seems to know exactly the level of camp to bring to the proceedings.

| Jan 3, 2025