While less quotable than the original Gladiator, I was far more impressed by everything else in this sequel. Keeping in mind that I like Gladiator and give it 4 stars, but I’ve never loved it. I’m not sure “love” is what I’d say about part 2 either, but I enjoyed it more than part 1.

Gladiator II (or GladIIator if you want to groan about it) begins with a naval assault on an African city that Paul Mescal is protecting. It doesn’t go well and he’s taken prisoner and turned into a gladiator. Taken to Rome to fight, we get into a lot more politics and skullduggery than ever before… plus baboons and naval warfare: Colosseum Style.

I really enjoyed this film, especially when it slowly peals back layers and reveals more and more than it’s an actual sequel to the first film. At the beginning, it’s just another day in the Empire, conquering cities and taking slaves. It’s a lot of spectacle with excellent big scale battles but it felt in-name-only (seen one Roman Empire, seen ’em all).

Once in Rome though we see two miserable emperors lazing about and we get into some interesting political theater. We also meet back up with Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) plus a handful of other familiar actors on loan from the previous film. Oh, and newcomer Denzel Washington who I, at first, thought would feel too modern… but he turned in a good (if campy) performance.

We ultimately have dueling heroes between Mescal’s gladiator and Pedro Pascal’s general. I was happy to see a different plot for General Pascal… not repeating the beats from the first film. And, as we all know, given enough time and ongoing health, Pascal will take over every franchise so not a big surprise to see him take the stage here.

I was very happy to get a more complicated plot in this film. There’s more depth to the political infighting and I was surprised and pleased by the backstabbing. It’s deeper than the simple tale of a general turned gladiator vs. a petulant emperor.

Perhaps the final act has one too many messy Romans backstabbing other Romans than necessary. It could have cut back a little and given us a two hour ending instead of 2 1/2 (and who’s taking bets on the Ridley Scott extended cut?).

Yeah, this may be an unpopular opinion, but this is Ridley Scott’s best film in years and an improvement over the original Gladiator. Don’t suspect many will agree and odds of it getting nominated for anything at the Oscars are low. But I enjoyed it. I was bought in.