Ridley Scott's Gladiator II is bigger and bolder but lacks the original's emotional power

Twenty-four years after Gladiator was released to acclaim, Gladiator II arrives in cinemas and follows the sequel trend of being bigger, brasher and more expensive than its original.

It also exhibits a campy tonal change in director Ridley Scott's vision that has become more apparent in his last few films, from The Last Duel and House of Gucci to Napoleon. They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks but for this octogenarian filmmaker, his embrace of camp has become one of the saving graces in his latter-day filmography.

Yet it can only do so much heavy lifting in Gladiator II, an overly bloated alternative Roman Empire sojourn whose lead Paul Mescal never quite fills the gladiatorial sandals left by Russell Crowe. 

The film begins with gorgeous brushstroke animated credits reminding audiences of the events of Gladiator and like the original, slowly sets up an opening battle.

It's 16 years after the death of Marcus Aurelius and Rome has gone through several rulers while expanding its Empire further into Africa Nova (North Africa). 

General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) arrives with a Roman fleet on the shores of the last Numidian city not ruled by Rome. He's conquering under the instruction of the tyrannical twin emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) played with juvenile flair by the young actors.

Pascal plays Acacius with the valiant attributes of Crowe's Maximus who similarly hopes his war efforts will afford his retirement. Not to mention the continued protection of his wife Lucilla (Connie Nielsen reprising her original role), the daughter of Aurelius who is a threat to the twin's rule. 

Meanwhile, Hanno (Paul Mescal) and his warrior wife Arishat (Yuval Gonen) prepare to defend their coastal home, swapping farming tools for armour, bows and swords. It's not much of a giveaway that Mescal's character is a grown-up Lucius, the heir-apparent son of Lucilla who was sequestered away to Egypt for protection against senatorial conspirators.

Here he's taken on a Carthaginian name, married an Amazigh native and shook off the sheen of Metropolitan privilege to become a rough-around-the-edges protagonist ready to fight for his adopted home.

The subsequent battle sequence across land and sea is a riveting rollercoaster that captures every facet of the conflict. The camera weaves in and out of the ships, from oarsmen, soldiers and archers up to the Numidian wall defences raining down arrows and cannon balls on their enemy. Say what you want about Scott, but he sure knows how to shoot action and it's one of the many complex and layered sequences of blood, gore and violence that will have you scream-mouthing "CINEMA" at the screen.  

The Numidian city falls, forcing Hanno to familiarly channel the grief of his wife's death into bloody vengeance once he's taken as a slave to Rome and enlisted as a gladiator by Denzel Washington's slave-turned-power player Macrinus.

His gladiatorial confrontations will leave you just as, er, entertained as the original, even if the CGI rhinos, apes and sharks – yes, a naval battle with sharks in the Colosseum! – are less convincing than the impressive wide shots of Rome, Numidia and other landscapes of Antiquity the VFX team has vigorously recreated.

The world-building of Gladiator II is pretty majestic, with the granular detail of the hair, make-up and costume design, in the main cast down to the background performers, adding rich historical depth. 

Still, it's a shame to see May Calamawy restricted to window dressing (as part of Macrinus's crew) while Washington, Quinn and Hechinger get to play main characters with SWANA heritage along with Swedish-Ugandan actor Alexander Karim in the role of Parthian (Iranian) healer Ravi. 

Harry Gregson-Williams's score has some heroic swells but is far less compelling than Han Zimmer's iconic and heart-wrenching original offering. David Scarpa's script too struggles to match the emotional ebbs and flows achieved by David Franzoni, John Logan and William Nicholson with Gladiator.

It's weighed down by threadbare attempts to link the events of the first film to the sequel and convoluting historical fact with cinematic fiction to project modern-day ideas about racial divides and political corruption onto the past.  

In splitting Maximus's hero's journey between Acacius and Hanno/Lucius, their characterisations rarely feel as substantial or match the gravitas Crowe deftly imbued.

Pascal does his gentle, charismatic best with his limited screen time while Mescal plays his white saviour with aggressive broodiness and an earthy accent that rarely inspires or lifts the, albeit, humdrum dialogue – even when reciting Virgil. 

Washington and Hechinger are the MVPs when it comes to line delivery, each amusingly engaging in backstabbing, intimidation and political corruption in the pursuit of sole power over the Empire.

Hechinger offers a kookily deranged Caracalla compared to Quinn's more conceited Geta but both gesticulate with amusing conviction in cutaway shots during Gladiator bouts. Washington imbues antagonist Macrinus with the arrogant hubris of his Training Day character Alonzo Harris, swishing his long-sleeved toga around like he's rocking two Smith & Wesson pistols.

The film certainly takes a similar direction to the 2000 film by the final act as Macrinus works to undermine the emperors and cause Rome's house of cards to fall.

The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury," Macrinus quotes Aurelius to Lucilla and it's through his Machiavellian machinations that the film's message about power hits home the hardest.

Yet any sort of seriousness about achieving equality for all by "restoring the dream of Rome," philosophical hand wringing or feeling the deaths of key characters is undermined by the very unserious moments of pet monkeys being given official roles and cutaway shots of gormless extras. 

Gladiator II is a Colosseum of errors that might have you in tears – only if they're tears of laughter.  

Hanna Flint is a British-Tunisian critic, broadcaster and author of Strong Female Character: What Movies Teach Us. Her reviews, interviews and features have appeared in GQ, the Guardian, Elle, Town & Country, Mashable, Radio Times, MTV, Time Out, The New Arab, Empire, BBC Culture and elsewhere

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