13/32
from Carmen and "St
Scenario
After his home has been conquered by the tyrannical emperors who now rule Rome, Lucius is forced to enter the Colosseum and look to the past to find the power to restore the glory of Rome to his people. Elsewhere" “Strange Things”; watch Gladiator II. the TV and film roles of its stars Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Joseph Quinn and others. In the years following the release of the first film, there have been many attempts to write a sequel. Musician Nick Cave was asked by Russell Crowe and Sir Ridley Scott to do a version.
Emperor Geta: The Gods HAVE SPOKE!
His version focused on the more mythic elements of ancient Rome and would have seen Maximus arrive in the afterlife only to be confronted by other souls who have yet to ascend. Finally, he is commissioned by Jupiter and other Roman deities to return to earth to find and kill Hephaestus, a former deity who betrayed them. From there, he is resurrected as a Christian and finds himself traveling back to Rome to stop the spread of Christianity while crossing paths with the new emperor, Lucius. The film would have ended with Maximus being cursed to live for eternity, and included a montage of the soldier fighting in the Crusades, World War II, and the Vietnam War, eventually revealing a modern-day Maximus working in the Pentagon in Washington. The studio decided not to pursue this version, but the script can be read online.
Spectacular decoration pieces
Appeared in Project 7PM: episode 3 July 2024 (2024). The film has a lot to praise. Multiple plots that intertwine. Interesting secondary characters. A beat that rises and falls with the right beats.
But it’s hard to appreciate them when the film has so many fundamental flaws
It feels like it’s set in a rich Roman world that has a life of its own. There is very little suspense outside of Act 4, everything before the events of the first film rescine. The echoes aren’t subtle either, but the characters evoke their predecessors and we get a few flashbacks. The plot, the historical details and even the key decisions of each character do so little that they often break the tension of disbelief (not least the scene of the kids playing football). Most critically, the main actors and most of Paul Mezcal (with the exception of Denzel Washington) simply do not make their characters believable: the fact that the scripts always give stern speeches instead of just talking does not help.
It has the makings of a good movie
But it’s hard to appreciate them when the mistakes are so bad.