Gladiator 2… with added Denzel!

Trailer:

Feels like I’ve seen the film now.

Feels like I’ve seen the film now

Indeed.
But it should be good….

Is it a remake, reboot or sequel?

So nervous – Ridley Scott hasn’t done a great film in a long time. But the original Gladiator was a proper event film.

The trailer looked spectacular at the cinema.

Is it a remake, reboot or sequel?

It”ll be the  first of one of each no doubt. Then there’ll be the remake of the reboot.  Then a series, and a spin off series, season 6 will arrive 4 years late and only be 4 episodes long, and then an animated cartoon called Gladiator Babies.

In the first trailer it was pretty clear it was a sequel, there were referernces to the first film. But it also looked like a total retread, all I took away from it was “this does not look a film that needed to be made or has asked itself what it can add”. But maybe I’m just old and grumpy.

No I don’t think so Northwind. This is what Ridley Scott had to say about making the film:

“Your movies often get sequels, some you’ve directed and some not. What here interested you enough to direct Gladiator 2?”

SCOTT: Well, economically, it makes sense. That always begins there. I thought the [first] film was, as it were, completely satisfactory, creatively complete, so why muck with it, right? But these cycles keeps going on and on and on, they repeat globally for the last 20 years. It started to spell itself out as an obvious thing to do, and that’s how it evolved.

Love the first one.

Thought the trailer for 2 looked off the scale DREADFUL!

For me, this is where the cinema industry eats itself…….the original is a go-to favourite which stands perfectly as a single piece of work, so unless No 2 gets unanimously positive reviews I am unlikely to go to a cinema to spend good money and be disappointed, but I’ll wait until it is available on TV.

Yeah I cannot get excited by this – although it is a sequel, it looks like it is basically the same storyline with added extra special effects and bigger battles/fights etc.

Think you need to go into this not thinking of it as a sequel, but just a film based in the same ‘universe’ as the first, it has a decent cast, a similar storyline, modern day effects and is more probably aimed at the current market, rather than those who were around and enjoyed the first.

modern day effects

*theres an episode of Corridor Crew that talks about, what I would describe as a race to the bottom with modern day effects.

SCOTT: Well, economically, it makes sense. That always begins there. I thought the [first] film was, as it were, completely satisfactory, creatively complete, so why muck with it, right? But these cycles keeps going on and on and on, they repeat globally for the last 20 years. It started to spell itself out as an obvious thing to do, and that’s how it evolved.

Other than saying ‘money’, he’s managed to say absolutely nothing in that quote.

I have a bit of a go-to rule with films – it’s never rubbish if it’s got Denzel in it. That man’s charisma and ability to elevate nonsense to near brilliance is off the charts.

^ All the Nah

Black Widow jarred with me. Not because it’s a bit shit and silly (that’s why I was watching it),  but because the bit whey they land in remotest Siberia was filmed a couple of miles north of me, on a lovely sunny summer’s day.   Almost certainly a couple of dozen walking/picnicing families just out of shot.