So Ridley Scott is directing a Gladiator sequel...

[thestat 448]

Can't agree more with this quote more from Trope:

 

how poorly composed and orchestrated much of this score is. Endlessly repeated ostinatos, thin-sounding and generic orchestration, static and emotionless harmonic construction... Much of this score sounds like stock library music (and not even top-tier library music at that).

 

HGW started doing this shit with KoH (all the battle music sounds so frigging thin) but back then the other stuff was so rich with vocals, choirs, instruments, symphonic elements that it was great.

 

Spy Game encapsulated that approach - it's so wild and innocative like HGW put everything he had into that one score: symphonic, choral, electronic, minimalist, and it came out like a perfect ensemble of elements - for 2001!

 

Not for frigging 2024 and the sequel to Gladiator.

[Jamie Dutton 7,643]

 

Welp, she's spoken. This movie is a complete and total disaster. We are not entertained.

[The Train Station 9,077]

[A. A. Ron 2,040]

Well, I was entertained. Yes, the plot is weak and the score's a dud, but I enjoyed the goofy animals, the naval/mock naval battles, and of course Pedro and Denzel. Would watch again.

[The Train Station 9,077]

The movie won't get upset if you don't really like it deep down.

[Davis 3,286]

I still can’t believe that there is a Gladiator 2. A sequel to an Oscar-winning film that had an Oscar-winning performance by the lead actor. Ridley Scott should not be allowed to touch his old films. And he is given tons of money over and over again to make these completely unnecessary films like Napoleon that no one watches. Well, we’ll always have Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, Thelma & Louise and Legend. 

[The Train Station 9,077]

He must have compromising videos of the studio heads and financiers.

[A24 4,651]

1 hour ago, Davis said:

I still can’t believe that there is a Gladiator 2. A sequel to an Oscar-winning film that had an Oscar-winning performance by the lead actor. Ridley Scott should not be allowed to touch his old films. And he is given tons of money over and over again to make these completely unnecessary films like Napoleon that no one watches. Well, we’ll always have Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, Thelma & Louise and Legend. 

 

It's easier to get a project off the ground when it's based on a well-loved classic. And Ridley doesn't mind doing sequels of classic movies, he just loves to work. Mark my words, Ridley will die on a film set, or at least, while working a film. 

[crocodile 8,707]

My main issue with the film is that

Spoiler

it undoes almost everything Maximus has achieved by his sacrifice at the end of the original (as the flashback shows us). Lucius isn't "safe" after all. He's not even safe for 5 minutes! 😆

 

Karol

[A24 4,651]

How would Nolan handle a Gladiator sequel, crocs? 

[crocodile 8,707]

Spoiler

He wouldn't. 😂

 

Karol

[Davis 3,286]

36 minutes ago, A24 said:

How would Nolan handle a Gladiator sequel, crocs? 

This film never needed a sequel.

[LSH 1,080]

2 hours ago, Davis said:

I still can’t believe that there is a Gladiator 2. A sequel to an Oscar-winning film that had an Oscar-winning performance by the lead actor. Ridley Scott should not be allowed to touch his old films. And he is given tons of money over and over again to make these completely unnecessary films like Napoleon that no one watches. Well, we’ll always have Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, Thelma & Louise and Legend. 

 

He's very much a 'studio's director'. He works incredibly fast and as a result his films often finish production under-budget. Including this, according to him. 

[Davis 3,286]

7 minutes ago, LSH said:

He works incredibly fast and as a result his films often finish production under-budget.

and underwhelming. 

[LSH 1,080]

Problem is, he’s a visual director. He needs a good script to begin with. Some of the dialogue in G2 is truly bad.

[A24 4,651]

2 hours ago, LSH said:

 

He's very much a 'studio's director'. He works incredibly fast and as a result his films often finish production under-budget. Including this, according to him. 

 

Didn't he go way over budget with Glad II? 

[Tom Guernsey 2,790]

16 minutes ago, A24 said:

 

Didn't he go way over budget with Glad II? 

It costs a lot to train a shark. Ask Steven Spielberg.

[Jamie Dutton 7,643]

Ridley Scott is like the Star Wars filmography of Directors. There's a few great ones, Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator, but the rest are whatever.

 

Tony Scott I was also never impressed with. His most iconic movie is Top Gun, which was alright, then 30 years later some director I'd never heard of came along and made a sequel that was so much better than the original, it looks like a joke by comparison.

[The Train Station 9,077]

I thought Beverly Hills Cop 2 was Tony's best flick, and even then it's just a flashier retread of the first one.

[Davis 3,286]

27 minutes ago, John Dutton said:

Tony Scott I was also never impressed with. His most iconic movie is Top Gun

My favourite TS film is CRIMSON TIDE. And it has an awesome Zimmer score.

[Edmilson 9,394]

4 hours ago, LSH said:

Problem is, he’s a visual director. He needs a good script to begin with. Some of the dialogue in G2 is truly bad.

The first Gladiator had a great script. Why didn't they brought back the same writers from that movie?

 

You're right, Ridley needs a great script to work well, otherwise we get forgettable dreck like Body of Lies, that Robin Hood movie that no one cares about, etc.

[Chen G. 4,767]

"A profanation" - Cosima Wagner on L'Africaine. Seems suitable here.

 

Oh, its a beautiful, meticulous, earnest profanation, don't get me wrong. But a profanation nonetheless.

[Davis 3,286]

 

[Chen G. 4,767]

We are well-beyond not entertained.

 

We revile it.

 

We excommunicate it.

 

It is anti-art.

[Thor 8,639]

I don't understand the negative comments here, regarding the film itself. Most reviews have been positive, and I share in them. True, my estimation of the score has plummeted from what I heard it in the film to what I heard on album, but the relatively high estimation of the film itself still stands. MUBI (where my 2024 list is) is down right now, but it was definitely top 20 out of the 60-70-something new films I've seen so far.

[Chen G. 4,767]

Gladiator, for all the crap it puts its characters through, has a happy ending.

 

This film takes that happy ending and doesn't just douse some cold water on it. It drowns it at the very bottom of the Challenger Deep. It is vile and repugnant to the absolute extreme.

[Doo_liss 6,970]

3 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

Gladiator, for all the crap it puts its characters through, has a happy ending.

 

This film takes that happy ending and doesn't just douse some cold water on it. It drowns it at the very bottom of the Challenger Deep. It is vile and repugnant to the absolute extreme.

He is a saving the happy ending for the the third film.

[Davis 3,286]

GladIIIator - Denzel's daughter, the first female gladiator fights a whale in the Colosseum.

[Chen G. 4,767]

GladIIator: Remember that amazing, moving, beautiful ending where the slaves were freed, the gladiatorial matches forefeit, and a literally rosier day shone on Rome as it became a republic again? All because a brave, devoted soldier laid down his life?

 

LOL!

 

So...

 

Spoiler

Rome did not remain a republic: it was given to two vitamin-D-deprived cackling maniacs.

 

The slaves were not freed.

 

The gladiatorial matches were not forefeit.

 

Our hero's allies were all viciously killed in the arena, not least Lucila who spent the remainder of her life parted from her son for unknowable reasons, was brutally widowed (again!) and then took an arrow to the chest. Oh, and our beloved Gracchus was literally butchered.

 

That's your movie.

[Nick1Ø66 6,076]

55 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

GladIIator: Remember that amazing, moving, beautiful ending where the slaves were freed, the gladiatorial matches forefeit, and a literally rosier day shone on Rome as it became a republic again? All because a brave, devoted soldier laid down his life?

 

LOL!

 

So...

 

  Hide contents

Rome did not remain a republic: it was given to two vitamin-D-deprived cackling maniacs.

 

The slaves were not freed.

 

The gladiatorial matches were not forefeit.

 

Our hero's allies were all viciously killed in the arena, not least Lucila who spent the remainder of her life parted from her son for unknowable reasons, was brutally widowed (again!) and then took an arrow to the chest. Oh, and our beloved Gracchus was literally butchered.

 

That's your movie.

 

Pretty much what happened with the sequel trilogy.

[Chen G. 4,767]

2 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

Pretty much what happened with the sequel trilogy.

 

It's very much a bloodier version of the sequel trilogy, yes.

[Davis 3,286]

Maybe Gladiator III is the mystery project JJ is working on. 

[Nick1Ø66 6,076]

Haven't seen this yet, but there seems to be a big disconnect between what I'm reading here (and feedback from people I trust) and what the mainstream critics are saying.

 

Despite Gladiator being one of my favourite films, after the crushing disappointment of Napoleon, this may be the first Scott epic I skip in the cinema. It's feeling like a watch at home with a bottle of wine flick to me. 

 

I'm vexed. I'm very vexed.

 

[Chen G. 4,767]

The good reviews that I've seen are ones that just look at it as "well, the cirque du soleil setpieces are well-executed, it looks good, and the actors perform their parts well." They just treat it as a brawny action flick, and give it points for execution.

 

But I think anyone that holds Gladiator at all to a higher standard - as an actual moving, stirring drama - will revile this for what it does to the original. How anyone can like a character like Lucila and not feel their stomach churning at certain points in this film at the sight of what's being done to her is beyond me.

[Jurassic Shark 13,659]

6 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

what I'm reading here (and feedback from people I trust)

 

A zero-intersection venn diagram, surely.

[Richard P 4,363]

21 minutes ago, Davis said:

Maybe Gladiator III is the mystery project JJ is working on. 

 

Ah, lens flares and Gia doing the score. What more could anyone possibly want?

[Nick1Ø66 6,076]

Between this and Napoleon last year, Scott has been damn busy.  Guy may have lost his touch, but he’s a machine. That’s two really big films within a year of each other. I wonder how long he actually worked on Gladiator II? 

[Edmilson 9,394]

27 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

 

Pretty much what happened with the sequel trilogy.

 

25 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

 

It's very much a bloodier version of the sequel trilogy, yes.

Not only them but also Dial of Destiny, Terminator: Dark Fate, etc.

 

Seems like a general trend in Hollywood to take the happy endings we see in older movies and then say "hey, remember all the sacrifices your beloved heroes of your childhood had to make in order to achieve definitive victory and live happily until the end of their lives? Well, actually they didn't win anything in the end, the bad guys are still out there with a lot of power and everyone is now older and miserable and pitiful".

 

Maybe this is the zeitgeist of this generation, that we thought after the optimism in the turn of the century humanity now faces even greater challenges than before. Or maybe Hollywood screenwriters are just lazy and this is the only way they found to keep churning out sequels and pleasing their shareholders.

[Thor 8,639]

NAPOLEON was absolutely fine. Came in 18th last year, out of 66.

 

I also don't know what Chen is on about. GLADIATOR II was a very good film. Obviously not on the original's level (very few films are), but far better than I expected, in everything from mise-en-scene to storytelling. MUBI is up again, so I see it's on 12th place out of 65 so far.

[Jurassic Shark 13,659]

2 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

the bad guys are still out there with a lot of power and everyone is now older and miserable and pitiful".

 

It's realistic and relatable. 

[Chen G. 4,767]

1 minute ago, Thor said:

I also don't know what Chen is on about. GLADIATOR II was fine.

 

You really don't see what a depressing - genuinely depressing - follow up it is to the glory that Gladiator ends with?

[Jurassic Shark 13,659]

3 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Maybe this is the zeitgeist of this generation, that we thought after the optimism in the turn of the century humanity now faces even greater challenges than before. Or maybe Hollywood screenwriters are just lazy and this is the only way they found to keep churning out sequels and pleasing their shareholders.

 

The optimism after the non-occuring Y2K problems has finally vaned.

[Thor 8,639]

Quote

You really don't see what a depressing - genuinely depressing - follow up it is to the glory that Gladiator ends with?

 

No, I don't really get that.

[Doo_liss 6,970]

To be fair, there have been media in the past that have done similarish, where characters break up, etc.

[Edmilson 9,394]

4 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

The optimism after the non-occuring Y2K problems has finally vaned.

The exact date from when it vaned is

Spoiler

September 11, 2001

 

5 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

 

You really don't see what a depressing - genuinely depressing - follow up it is to the glory that Gladiator ends with?

The only solace we can take on that is (now) we are free to create our own headcanons where we disregard these woeful sequels.

 

My Terminator headcanon ends with T2. Everything that came after is Sarah Connor's having a nightmare. Fuck James Cameron and his attempts at reviving a franchise that had a definitive ending in 1991.

[Chen G. 4,767]

I definitely believe in making your own canon for yourself out of what's there. This definitely won't make me see Gladiator differently: but its bad enough that it wants to.

[Thor 8,639]

And

10 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

The exact date from when it vaned is

  Reveal hidden contents

September 11, 2001

 

The only solace we can take on that is (now) we are free to create our own headcanons where we disregard these woeful sequels.

 

My Terminator headcanon ends with T2. Everything that came after is Sarah Connor's having a nightmare. Fuck James Cameron and his attempts at reviving a franchise that had a definitive ending in 1991.

 

And I thought FSM was cynical...

[Chen G. 4,767]

How can anyone who loves Gladiator watch with equanimity as...

 

Spoiler

Sir Derek Jacobi's Gracchus whimper pathetically before a roman soldier unceremoniously butchers him?

 

 

That image will not leave me for a while. 

 

People say its like the sequel trilogy. But I don't remember the sequel trilogy carving Sir Alec Guinness up...

[HunterTech 1,330]

I figured someone here would've seen the Terminator anime by now, but I have to remind myself all the weebs are in the Discord server 

[Thor 8,639]

Oh, I agree on that one. That Derek Jacobi scene didn't sit well with me.