4K Blu-Ray: Gladiator 2

To talk about Gladiator 2, we have to talk about Gladiator.

Released in 1999, Gladiator remains one of Ridley Scott's masterpieces. A grand sword and sandal spectacle that recently saw a re-release for its 25th anniversary. On the big screen, it still packs a tremendous punch. From the triumphant score by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard to the sumptuous visuals and nuanced performances, it remains a pinnacle of 90s filmmaking.

By comparison, any film would struggle. Even a great one. Except Gladiator 2 isn't a great film, let alone a good one. It's a lazy, meandering mess that feels like an obligation. As if someone remembered that we've reached a quarter-century without cashing in on something beloved.

It's easier to say what works, because there isn't a lot that does. Denzel Washington is great as the conniving slave trader turned politician Macrinus. He brings an impish energy to an underwritten part, and uses his great skills as a Shakespearean actor to a brilliant degree. Whenever he's not on-screen, the picture is lifeless and inert.

Which is a problem, because much of the film rests on the bulked up shoulders of Paul Mescal, who just isn't up to the task. He is tremendous in All of Us Strangers and Aftersun, yet he never musters any of that believability into his part as the vengeance-driven soldier turned gladiator. When he delivers speeches and pretends to lead men, which he often does, it all falls to deaf ears. He's a great actor in the wrong part.

Pedro Pascal is better as the war-weary general who would rather wash his hands of the psychotic emperors, even if he's basically typecast at this point. He brings an easy charm to the part, but his character is effectively an afterthought who comes and goes as plot herring.

Said plot is a convoluted mess of betrayal, politics, and exposition. None of it is interesting, and very little works if you think about it. The original Gladiator was a lean best by comparison, easily understood by all involved. Its sequel follows the same beats as the first one, yet over-explains itself at every turn. Characters refer to each other with their full titles and familial relations. As if the film is uncertain we can't remember who just walked in.

Mescal plays Hanno (though his true identity is barely a secret), a soldier who loses his wife to Pascal's campaign for Rome. Captured and forced into slavery, Hanno follows in Maximus's footsteps to the Colosseum, where he pursues vengeance for his wife. But Rome is a powder keg ready to blow, and all it takes is the machinations of the suave Macrinus to set the stage for a greater revolution.

Gladiator 2 is a legacy sequel that refuses to let go of the original and do something new with itself. Maximus hangs over every frame, and every minor character speaks of him as if he was a personal friend. Everyone is connected somehow, which makes this vast empire feel small as a city block.

It's a film that asks us to remember how great the original film was, which in turn makes the sequel lesser by comparison. It doesn't stand on its own, and it doesn't reveal us anything new about our relationship to the 1999 film.

Gladiator 2 was never going to be the Nick Cave -penned sequel, where Maximus returns from the afterlife to become the Christ-killer, which the songwriter turned in as a half-joke in the mid-2000s. But that film at least would have been interesting. Not this draggy, lifeless mess that is full of empty spectacle.

From the AI-infested visuals to the drab effects work and sloppy editing, Gladiator 2 feels rushed in every respect. It's more expensive and has bigger set pieces, yet none of them feel like anything. They come and go without any lasting impact because the one-note characters don't matter in the slightest. To counter this, Gladiator 2 repeats famous lines from the first film multiple times, as if to say: But look at the legacy we've built on!

But a legacy means nothing if you squander its potential, and that's precisely what Gladiator 2 does. It's a bloated mess of a sequel to a film that deserves better.

Technical Specs & Presentation

The 4K UHD release of Gladiator 2 is a robust and happy surprise. Released across 2 discs, one UHD and the other a regular Blu-Ray, it's one of the better modern releases to date.

The packaging itself is typical to Nordic releases, with all the languages of the release areas plastered unceremoniously on the back with promises of more extras than there actually are. I miss the days when the packaging was part of the experience, and it's a shame titles beyond boutique labels are so bereft of artistry anymore.

Nevertheless, the content itself is stellar, and I have very little to complain about. I do wish the film came on both 4K and Blu-Ray formats as the extras disc is quite meager in terms of material. There's barely over an hour of footage, and most of that is just deleted scenes. Surely it would have been OK to put a second copy of the film on the Blu-Ray, too?

Video

I saw Gladiator 2 for the first time in IMAX with laser projection, and even then I could tell it would look amazing at home. Now, viewed on an older Sony full array backlit model, it looks exactly as I imagined it to look. On newer OLED's, this is basically your new demo disc for gorgeous and vivid tech, at least until Sinners comes along later this summer.

One of my favorite aspects of this disc is that nothing takes away from another area. Colors are bright and poppy, but shadows are rich and textured too. Nothing gets crushed, and nothing is washed out. Look at the late night meeting, where Pedro Pascal's commander meets with his ill-destined army, and you can see how gorgeously the Maltese country side looks in the moonlight.

Elsewhere, like in the senate sequences with deliciously tawdry lighting, Gladiator 2 gives HDR a run for its money. You can tell where people have walked on the marble floors in the background. It's that crisp and clear.

The upscaled CGI sequences are happily clean, too, with nothing perceptible in their transfer to 4K. The big sequence involving ships and sharks in a confined environment is a highlight, especially as the camera dips beneath the waves and we get lovely reflections of sunlight gleaming across the surface.

All in all, this is essential quality for all fans of physical media. No other disc has looked as good this year, at least so far.

Audio

Like the visuals, the audio mix on Gladiator 2 is spellbinding. Everything from the sound of whooshing arrows to the clanging of swords to subtle details like how Denzel's rings click together when he's rubbing his hands together, all meld together into a hypnotic whole that washes over you.

This is one of the riches and most punchiest audio tracks I've heard in a while, but that never comes at the price of dialog, which I value above all else. There's never a need to adjust the volume to hear what's being said, nor is there a reason to lower it again to not shatter your eardrums as the action picks up.

It's a shame the soundtrack itself is a complete wet blanket, as this mix could have easily made a meal of some good Hans Zimmer tunes. When the film references the classic soundtrack to the 2000s masterpiece, it's a reminder how good Zimmer once was.

Despite this, I'll be using Gladiator 2 as a demo disc in the future, especially when it comes to the big bass sequences, like the rhino fight, where each channel has something interesting going on. From the shifting sand to the rumble of the crowd, this is exactly what Dolby Atmos was made for.

Extras

Gladiator 2 is already a bloated film that was cobbled together in editing, and that couldn't be more clear than looking at the deleted scenes. Some of these are entirely superfluous, others are the kind where I can't help but wonder why they were cut in the first place.

It's a mess of material that only makes sense to Ridley Scott, who seems to have a vision for the film he's not sharing with the rest of us. Maybe one day we'll get a director's cut in line with Kingdom of Heaven, which revealed itself as a different beast altogether almost a year after the theatrical cut came out.

The featurettes, on the other hand, flirt with the good old days of behind the scenes footage, revealing a bunch of cool details about the production and the artistry that went into making it a reality. There's a depressing amount of stuff that's glossed over, like how much the film uses AI and CGI trickery instead of built sets, and the actors are barely here to talk about the process.

That said, what is there is still a welcome addition to any physical media release. Mostly because there's so little of it in the first place elsewhere. This is a step in the right direction, and I genuinely hope it's a sign that physical media continues to deliver on this front even in the future.

Overall

Gladiator 2 isn't a great movie. I'm not convinced it's even a good one. But the 4K UHD release is a banger, and a top-tier title for anyone who cares about the audiovisual presentation of their cinema. For aficionados and geeks who love their bonus content, this is a great addition to the lineup. Especially if you've got a Dolby Atmos rig you've been wanting to show off. At the present, there are few discs that are better than this.