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Russell Crowe has issued a clarifying letter review of the Gladiator IIReiterating my previous comment that the creative team behind the film missed the mark.
61-year-old Crowe led ridley scottis original the Gladiator In 2000, with Joaquin Phoenix. His incomparable portrayal of the steadfast and loyal Maximus, the powerful general leader of Rome during the 2nd century AD, earned him the 2001 Academy Award for Best Actor.
A few months before the sequel debuted in November 2024, the Kiwi actor admitted he was “a little uncomfortable with the fact that they’re making another sequel.”
“Because, of course, I am dead and have no say in what will be done,” he told Resultkyle meredithAt the end of the first film, his character dies of wounds sustained in his final duel with his enemy, Commodus (Phoenix),
It’s been over a year now gladiator ii’s release, and Crowe stands firm in his criticism, telling Australia triple j Radio Show: “I think the recent sequel, you know, we don’t need to say the name out loud, it’s a really unfortunate example of how even the people in that engine room don’t really understand what made the first one special.”
He insisted that “It wasn’t the pomp. It wasn’t the circumstance. It wasn’t the action” that made the first film what it was. “It had moral origins,” he said.
“The thing is, there was a daily battle on that set. It was a daily battle to maintain the moral core of the character,” said Crowe, recalling how producers wanted to include sex scenes to create romantic tension for Maximus.
He said, “Every time he suggested sex scenes and things like that for Maximus, it felt like you were taking away his power.” “So you’re saying that at the same time he was having this relationship with his wife, he was fucking this other girl? What are you talking about? This is crazy.”
Maximus’s steadfast loyalty to his murdered wife and child drives the plot. the Gladiator In motion. Therefore, Crowe felt that the case would appear fraudulent.
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Still, the makers eventually got their way. gladiator iiAs it turns out, Paul Mescal is the illegitimate son of Lucius Maximus and Commodus’s older sister, Lucilla (Connie Nielsen).
The sequel stars Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington, and Nielsen, who reprises her role as Lucilla. It takes place years after the events of the first film, in which Lucius witnesses Maximus’s gruesome death at the hands of his uncle Commodus.
When his home is taken over by the powerful Roman emperors, Lucius is forced to enter the Colosseum in an attempt to restore Rome to what his father and grandfather had envisioned.
Upon its release, gladiator ii It received mixed reviews from critics. In his four-star review of the film, IndependentClarice Loughrey Found the sequel to be “exciting – even if Paul Mescal isn’t Russell Crowe”.