Gladiator II

This review may contain spoilers!

 

Gladiator II is a sequel to Gladiator (2000) and picks up the story fifteen years later, with a now grown-up Lucius in Numidia. The young former Roman is pulled back harshly to his home soil after a Roman military attack and now must seek his vengeance through the gladiatorial arena.

There is something to be said for the type of spectacle Ridley Scott puts on, there is time here to take in the sprawling grandeur of Rome. But it is more than Rome; it is Numidia, the road to Rome, the poverty of the people, and the opulence of those with wealth. We are presented with a compelling setting scattered with some intriguing players who all move through this with their own driving force and function. While Lucius is pursuing his motivation with great rage, humility, and honour; there is better at work than the classic hero's journey. There is a web of intrigue to all this that I really enjoyed. Lucilla and Acacius' plot to overthrow the mad emperors, and bring back the vision of a 'good Rome' once held by Marcus Aurelius. There is this force of good working from the shadows while also something more sinister and power-hungry encroaches upon Rome. I found Denzel's performance surprisingly weak but the character of Macrinus was interesting. He manipulated his way through senators, using gladiators to curry favour and ultimately endeared himself to the emperors by betraying other characters of the film. The way this film pivots and spins through the political narrative points is entirely fascinating. 

Ridley Scott knows how to shoot a big-budget beast of a feature and Gladiator II is no exception. There are incredible grandeur angles that take in the action, dramatic scene work and historical backdrops within this film. Perhaps the greatest achievement of the feature is the score, done beautifully by Harry Gregson-Williams. The music draws on those familiar emotional beats from Gladiator while blazing its own path of epic conflict and heroism.

Connie Nielsen, who played Lucilla, absolutely brings her A-game to this role; I felt like Nielsen had never walked away from the role and only gotten stronger in her portrayal of Lucilla's bravery. Paul Mescal, who played Lucius, is a very competent leading protagonist; I simultaneously enjoyed Mescal's representation of fury and the hero arc he took Lucius on. Pedro Pascal, who played Marcus Acacius, is a more stoic and noble figure here; this is a very honour-bound role that you will come to really root for. Peter Mensah, who played Jubartha,is quite the strong leadership figure early within the film; Mensah is a wise guiding voice and shares the screen with Mescal well. Tim McInnerny, who played Thraex, is a phenomenal character role; McInnerny enjoys being the measured ally as much as he does being the uncontrollable gambler or cunning master of secrets. Alexander Karim, who played Ravi, has a very light chemistry with Mescal that bonds them well as faithful allies on-screen; Karim's measured and steady delivery allows him to be both a kindly and wise figure. Lior Raz, who played Viggo, could have come off as a dull thug but he got to lean into the role a good amount; I enjoyed seeing Raz leap between conflict with the gladiators and begrudging respect from them.

However, the best performance came from Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger, who played Emperor Geta and Emperor Caracalla respectively. This film demands depraved and chaotic tyranny from its sibling emperors, and what we get is perhaps the most gripping display of acting in the film. When seeing promotional material for this film I always found this pair a little odd or gaudy; but damn does it work on-screen. Quinn is a little more tempered, he holds a mean streak and is quite vindictive with his power. However, he is cunning enough to remain a few steps ahead and he has an intellect that allows him to be a threat. Hechinger, by comparison, is almost entirely insane from start to finish. His role is bloodthirsty and prone to exhilarating bursts of violence. Watching Hechinger really descend into depravity is a neat spiral that is a great escalation into the final act. This pair make a tragic and despicable brother duo and I cannot wait to see more from either of them.

I started watching this film and felt a little confused. I swore I had paid to see Gladiator II but I was almost certainly seeing Gladiator, at least elements that were so comparable it became impossible to distinguish them. The whole framework of Lucius' journey in the first two-thirds of this film isn't very different from that of Maximus. A great warrior suffers tragedy, turns righteously vengeful, and becomes a gladiator, all the gladiators wind up loving him, big Roman revolt is helmed by the man of action. It just felt like the original film had been simplified, even dumbed down and raced to completion. The entire reveal and handling of Mescal's character being Lucius all along is barely surprising and almost comes off as a soap opera. As the film heads towards the conclusion, the pacing starts to crawl and loses its stride majorly. The final battle between our protagonist and the antagonist feels poorly constructed; I found the conflict lacking and the concluding scene an anti-climax.

For a film with a relatively sizable budget, I found the special effects to be quite subpar. The film opens with a very ugly ship battle, with both the boats and the water looking like the sort of stuff that would have functioned well twenty-five years ago. Worse is this film crams an animal into nearly every arena fight, and the constant need to lean on an effect becomes tiring, particularly because the effects don't blend neatly into the scene. 

Denzel Washington, who played Macrinus, perhaps didn't take this role seriously enough or lost focus within the fun he was clearly having on set; Washington's line delivery often felt jarring and entirely separate from the presentation by the rest of the cast. Derek Jacobi, who played Gracchus, is a prolific actor shunted into a meaningless bit part; I wanted to see some meat for Jacobi to sink his teeth into but there is nothing there. Yuval Gonan, who played Arishat, is more of a plot motive than an actual character performance; Gonan is just the wife waiting in the wings to be killed which is rather two-dimensional.

If the last one was a historical epic for Ridley Scott then this one is certainly more of an enjoyable summer blockbuster. I would give Gladiator II a 6.5/10.

Red One

This review may contain spoilers!

 

 Red One follows Callum Drift, head of Santa's secret Service (E.L.F.) as he gears towards his last ride on the sleigh. However, when Santa is kidnapped on Drift's watch he heads out on a globe-spanning mission to recover the holiday hero. But Drift will have to make an unsavoury alliance with the hacker who exposed Santa's location in order to find St. Nick. Will this decorated Christmas bodyguard and level four naughty lister be able to save Christmas?

 

There is something about this movie that had me laughing far more than I thought it would; there aren't a lot of big comedy players in this and it is geared up solidly like a blockbuster. However, the strength of Red One is that it never really takes itself too seriously, even better it sort of leans into the absurdity of the story and world it is portraying. Drift's stoic serious quality in the face of mythical beings, toys that come to life and attack snowmen only make the whackier elements more humourous.

 

The visual effects across the film justify the high budget at play too; with entire landscapes, mythical creatures and shrinking Dwayne Johnson's looking inventive and placed well in a fun romp of a blockbuster. I really commend the design team at work here, the final form for Gryla is surprisingly scary and good look for the showdown with the antagonist.

 

Dwayne Johnson, who played Callum Drift, works remarkably well as the straight man to a very whacky script; Johnson has a hard edge to this special Christmas operative that made me realise he works as the comedic backbone of this film. Chris Evans, who played Jack O'Malley, feels like one of the greatest actors in this ensemble; Evans takes a very smarmy criminal and steadily teaches him the meaning of Christmas over the course of this performance. Lucy Liu, who played Zoe, quite like Johnson works so well because she plays things so serious; Liu really commands a scene and feels like the leader of a globe-spanning force. J.K. Simmons, who played Nick, is a really fun casting for this gruff and tough Santa; he simultaneously embodies the spirit of Christmas while also having a bit of a world weary streak. Kiernan Shipka, who played Gryla, commands the screen as a pretty major lead antagonist role; it's really great to see Shipka own and lead a role alongside this major cast.

 

However, the best performance came from Kristofer Hivju, who played Krampus. A heavy amount of prosthetics and Hivju disappears into one of his most memorable roles I've watched onscreen. His take on Krampus is a cruel captor, a beast built out of the need to punish the naughty children on the list. Yet despite that I loved how raucous and boisterous this character was, he felt like the head of a very bizarre party. His immediate match-off with Johnson was very tense, and you actually felt he was a pretty intimidating force against the lead. I felt Hivju really inhabited his character to draw comedic moments out quite naturally. More than that, I found the way he brought a feeling of regret and connection to his relationship with on-screen brother, Simmons, to be a nice emotional touch.

Red One is pretty funny throughout but that doesn't really disguise the fact the plot has nothing to it really. This film is a Christmas action caper, with scenes of the American Air Force escorting Santa out of their borders, strict work structures for Santa's workshop and a hacker who accidentally ruins Christmas. The whole action narrative with a high stakes kidnapping is a bit thin, and the twist being Santa is still in the North Pole all along feels like a pretty deflated end to the whole adventure. The worldbuilding is extremely over the top and nonsensical with a whole SHIELD-like organisation romping around wrangling mythical creatures and Gryla with a very two-dimensional fixation on punishing all naughty people. Tie this very thin main narrative to an E.L.F. looking to hit retirement because he's lost the joy of Christmas and it becomes a bit too corny as well. The whole fluffy Christmas narrative is smushed against a film that wants to be seen as an action-comedy blockbuster and the whole thing doesn't pair together neatly. I also really couldn't stand Jack's absentee Dad storyline, discovering the joy of fatherhood again whilst also being a high profile fugitive felt like two very different subplots once again awkwardly entangled.

The way this film is shot pivots on the effects, holding us in the confines of a massive blue-screened or Volume set. Nothing in how this thing is captured shows much room for a unique style or artisitic voice. I expected a lot more from Henry Jackman's score; what we get is the most generic Christmas sound ever paired with a film that could've used a bit of flavour or for classic tracks to at the least be used comedically. Even the soundtrack is overloaded with more Mariah Carey than anything else.

Bonnie Hunt, who played Mrs Claus, is quite a timid and light performance; Hunt often fades into the background and doesn't impact the plot much. Mary Elizabeth Ellis, who played Olivia, is a tough pick to play off Evans as his ex-partner; the pair have no screen chemistry that even speaks to a history. Wesley Kimmel, who played Dylan, is perhaps the most annoying role of the film; watching him and Evans struggle through father and son scenes together resulted in the weak point of the feature. Nick Kroll, who played Ted, leans into the safe elements of his comedy acting a bit too much; by which I mean Kroll is here to make silly faces and sillier voices.

This film can be silly fun at times and boasts a solid cast, but it can't escape Dwayne Johnson's streak of lousy blockbusters. I would give Red One a 5.5/10.

The Critic

This review may contain spoilers!

 

The Critic is a drama that follows ageing theatre drama critic, Jimmy Erskine, as his comfortable career is brought under threat when the newspaper he works at gains a new editor-in-chief. Jimmy must go to extreme measures and manipulate many others in order to secure his place, but just how far will this depraved man go to keep his place?

 

I have a real fascination with a corrupt character who entangles and snares those around him, Jimmy Erskine is a real vile creation, but he influences our cast in such a compelling way. From the start of this film Erskine is a massive presence, he holds incredible knowledge of the theatrical arts, and he understands people around him in a way that allows him to lightly tug on their threads. Working against Jimmy is the fact he is openly a bully, he can be crass and even downright plastered in inappropriate settings. He is also a barely closeted older queer man in late 1930s London, a frequent target of those who would wish harm to those perceived as outside 'the normal'. He is not the rising star of his newspaper any more, he is an old fixture that could be gotten rid of. Only Jimmy won't go for anything, he revels in luxury and high society. He cannot give up a wonderful life but won't change himself in order to do it. To watch Jimmy start weaving an intricate blackmail surrounding an affair between his boss and upcoming actress, Nina Land, is like watching the scales truly tip. Erskine manipulates Land, promising her greatness and turning her ambition into something dark. What happens as a result is an obliteration of lives, death and misery with a triumphant Jimmy staying afloat by the skin of his teeth. It but takes one betrayal for the despicable puppeteer to fall, to fester in his loneliness and conniving mind. The end should be a high point, a happy ending. But it all feels a bit futile, Jimmy has destroyed his life and many others in the blind chase of status. There are no winners in this game, only loss. 

It's quite an intimate production, but a feature that is very considered with how it looks. The cinematography holds interesting tracking wides as characters march through corridors or wind through London streets. But what I loved was how closely the camera steadily held a microscope to the face, refusing to hide a single slight crinkling of the eyes or downturn of the mouth. This film examined the characters and only held their true selves accountable to the viewer. The editing felt very steady, even moving to a more frantic pace as the narrative unravels, and we race to the climax of the story. I commend Craig Armstrong's score, it feels very refined but also has those wild, dangerous streaks that tie so neatly to the film's protagonist/antagonist.

 

Mark Strong, who played David Brooke, absolutely dominates his scenes with this quiet yet powerful presence; I loved the measure of character and good honour Strong brings to this role in sharp contrast to McKellen. Gemma Arterton, who played Nina Land, is a triumph to watch in this and gives McKellen a real run for his money; watching Arterton battle for her ambition while grappling with her morals makes this a gripping role to watch. Lesley Manville, who played Annabel Land, is a more measured performance but a really strong one; I love the way in which she quietly advocates and fights for her onscreen daughter in spite of the tragic forces against her.

However, the best performance came from Ian McKellen, who played Jimmy Erskine. The filmography and indeed, wider acting career of Ian McKellen is a stunning one. There is no denying the man is a talent, and it is gratifying to see that this talent has not lost stride in his recent years. Erskine is a foul character, a rotten bully with a tendency towards vile behaviour for selfish means. It is one of the nastiest roles I have seen McKellen play and that is kind of the wonder of it all. McKellen plays this force of corruption and twisted ambition at the centre of it all, a pillar of darkness really that the whole thing spins around. Yet while he plays the darker nature of his role so well, there is a sincerity and a defiance to the way he is noted as a societal other in this. I quite enjoyed the sneaky, unabashed and yet very vulnerable queer storyline brought to the surface. McKellen's final monologue, his letter to Tom, was a beautifully tragic and terrible thing. It made me realise I will miss this magnificent man one day, even if I will not miss Mr Erskine.

The flaw with this film is the amount in it, there are a lot of little stray stories and sub-plots that comprise the whole thing, and they don't necessarily come together well. I thought the fact there was so much romantic entanglement got a bit over the top, the character of Stephen was particularly a role I felt didn't need as much focus as he got. I feel like the film had to pad itself out in such a way because the whole movie revolved around a role that didn't go through character development, so change had to be visualised elsewhere. But this made the movie feel distracted at times and uncertain of where to plant its foot in the next scene.

Alfred Enoch, who played Tom Turner, is quite comfortable in the background for this film; Enoch feels like he should be more present but even when the camera finally turns to him more he doesn't have the charisma to take the screen. Ben Barnes, who played Stephen Wyley, is this sort of mopey romantic role that doesn't fit in very well; Barnes' whole pining lover act is a very safe and generic performance for him. Romola Garai, who played Cora Wyley, could've really worked the screen a bit with more time I feel; as it stood Garai went from this background wife figure to an over the top business mogul in a blink. Ron Cook, who played Hugh Morris, isn't an especially funny performer for one who is playing a bit of a cad; Cook also struggles to keep up with or match McKellen in their scenes together. Nikesh Patel, who played Ferdy Harwood, is a very over the top performance that is really just there to be paired against Arterton; Patel is never very convincing as a leader/director type.

 

A captivating drama that is made all the more gripping for McKellen's turn as a vile and abhorrent fiend who I could not look away from. I would give The Critic an 8/10.