Gladiator II (Steelbook) (4K UHD Review)
- Review Date: Feb 25, 2025
- Format: 4K Ultra HD
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Director
Ridley ScottRelease Date(s)
2024 (March 4, 2025)Studio(s)
Scott Free Productions/Red Wagon Entertainment/Paramount Pictures (Paramount Home Entertainment)- Film/Program Grade: B-
- Video Grade: A+
- Audio Grade: A+
- Extras Grade: B-
Review
[Editor’s Note: This review contains spoilers for the film, as it’s difficult to discuss this film properly without revealing key plot details. Continue on from here forewarned accordingly.]
Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II tells the story of young Lucius Verus Aurelius (Paul Mescal), the grandson of the late emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) and, unknown to Lucius himself, the illegitimate son of Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe). It seems that after Maximus killed Lucius’ amoral uncle—the emperor Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix)—at the end of the original Gladiator (2000), his mother Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) chose to give up her son, sending him into hiding as far away from Rome as possible, knowing that the power vacuum left by Commodus’ death would mean that Lucius—the rightful prince of Rome—would likely become a target for assassination by those who would take the throne for themselves.
Fleeing to North Africa, Lucius endures a terrible childhood and a difficult road to manhood, but changes his name and eventually finds a wife and builds a life in the kingdom of Numidia. However, the new Roman emperors—the mad brothers Geta and Caracalla—hungry for conquests of their own, command Acacius (Pedro Pascal), the general of their army, to conquer Numidia. This Acacius does, if reluctantly, inadvertently killing Lucius’ wife and taking him and many other Numidian warriors prisoner in the process. But because he can fight, Lucius is sold as a gladiator to the wealthy Moor arms dealer Macrinus (Denzel Washington), who sees a chance to ride Lucius’ victories in the arena to greater favor in Rome and ultimately revenge of his own.
The frustrating thing here, is that Gladiator II is actually consummately well made. The production design, cinematography, visual effects, and editing are all superb. Mescal is perfectly compelling as Lucius. Connie Nielsen and Pedro Pascal deliver fine and empathetic performances in their roles too. Better still, Denzel Washington tears up the screen here, managing to steal every scene he’s in and it’s a genuine pleasure to watch. But for all its charms, Gladiator II suffers inevitably from the “second verse, same as the first” curse. It hits the exact same notes as the original film; there’s just more of everything and the eye candy is grander. Scott can direct this kind of action in his sleep at this point, so by now it just feels rote. And unlike Top Gun: Maverick (2022) for example, which somehow managed to tell a new and relevant story that built upon the original Top Gun (1986), Scott’s sequel actually diminishes his own and much greater Gladiator.
The key issue with Gladiator II is that to justify its story, they’ve completely undercut the sacrifice that Maximus made at the end of the original film. Maximus gave his life for the dream that was Rome, but after his death it turns out that dream evaporated like a mirage. Nothing at all was won for his death, other than freedom for his fellow gladiators and the chance for Lucius to live what turned out to be a mostly miserable life in exile. And the despicable Commodus was replaced even more despicable emperors. So as enjoyable as the experience of Gladiator II might be—and it is enjoyable in the moment to be sure—it’s also largely forgettable. It’s simply a carbon copy of the original; just swap Lucius for Maximus, Geta and Caracalla for Commodus, and Macrinus for Oliver Reed’s Proximo. And while I was delighted to learn that Derek Jacobi reprised his role from the previous film (as Senator Gracchus), his character has no meaningful impact on this story.
Worse still, at no point does it feel like Lucius is genuinely earning his victories—they come too easily, despite plenty of digital and practical carnage, merely because he’s his father’s son. We never see him train, we never see him building his strength and skill in battle. The original Gladiator took its time in establishing the idea that Maximus was a war-weary general who’d fought for years for the dream of Marcus Aurelius but who simply wanted to return home to his family—we even saw him achieve his greatest victory on screen. But here, young Lucius finds a new home, finds a wife, and becomes both a farmer and leader completely offscreen. We see him have less than a minute of happiness before it all goes to hell. So when he almost immediately loses those things, we don’t really feel his loss—it’s just exposition so that he can become a tremendous gladiator essentially overnight. But you know… they’ve got sharks in the Colosseum this time, so there’s that.
Gladiator II was captured digitally in the ARRIRAW codec (4.5K) by cinematographer John Mathieson (Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, Logan) using Arri Alexa LF and Mini LF as well as Z CAM E2-F6 cameras with Panavision Primo 70 Zoom, Angenieux EZ-1, EZ-2, Optimo Ultra, and Optica Elite Zoom lenses and it was finished as a native 4K Digital Intermediate in the 2.39:1 scope aspect ratio for theaters. For its release on Ultra HD, Paramount has graded the image for high dynamic range (compatible with both HDR10 and Dolby Vision) and encoded it for release on 100GB disc, all of which is devoted to the film (with video data rates averaging between 60 and 70 Mbps). So the 4K image is fantastic—essentially reference quality. Detail abounds and fine detailing is crisp and well refined. Shadows are deeply black, while highlights are naturally bold. The wider gamut of HDR renders vivid and nuanced colors that tend toward the warm, as you might expect given the film’s Mediterranean setting. Put simply, the glory of Rome has never looked more glorious.
On the audio side of things, the 4K disc offers a terrific home theater port of the theatrical English Dolby Atmos experience. The sound stage is big, wide, and highly immersive. Dialogue is clean and clear at all times, and there’s a pleasing foundation of low end in the mix. Subtle sound effects filter in from every direction, particularly in the various gladiator combat sequences—baboon squeals, crowd noise from above, creaking wood, the whisper of arrows, etc. The height channels give the sound stage a bit of lift in key moments, and complete the sonic enclosure overhead. Harry Gregson-Williams’ score is workmanlike, though it’s a pale imitation of Hans Zimmer’s work on the original film. Additional audio options include English Audio Description, Latin Spanish and French Canadian 5.1 Dolby Digital, and French Dolby Atmos, with optional subtitles available in English, English for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Danish, Latin Spanish, French, French Canadian, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish, and Swedish.
Paramount’s 4K Ultra HD Steelbook package is a three-disc set, featuring the film in 4K on UHD and 1080p on Blu-ray, plus a Blu-ray bonus disc. There are no extras on either of the movie discs—which is a good thing for the reasons mentioned above—but the bonus disc adds the following:
- A Dream That Was Rome: Origins (HD – 11:18)
- What We Do in Life, Echoes in Eternity: The Cast (HD – 15:26)
- In the Arena: Filmmakers (HD – 13:25)
- To Those About to Die, We Salute You: Combat (HD – 13:58)
- Building an Empire: Post-Production (HD – 21:24)
- The Making of Gladiator II (HD – 20:05)
- Deleted Scenes (HD – 10 scenes – 9:54 in all)
- Centho Bears Mark of Fugitive (HD – :19)
- Lucilla and the Emperors (HD – 1:40)
- Fortuna and Lucius at the Party (HD – :47)
- Lucilla Looks Out of the Window (HD – :34)
- Macrinus Sees Acacius Statue (HD – :33)
- Lucilla in the Crypt (HD – :56)
- Fortuna Visits Lucius in His Cell (HD – 2:07)
- Lucilla Mourns Acacius (HD – 1:00)
- Ravi Hands Out the Keys (HD – :42)
- Macrinus Greets Caracalla (HD – 1:12)
The featurettes are decent, if far from comprehensive. But they’re all certainly worth watching if you enjoy the film. You get the usual look at Ridley’s process, plus the entire cast is given a chance to weigh in and some key crew members speak up as well. Sadly, there’s no audio commentary. And the deleted scenes really don’t add up to much; they’re just little character moments and trims. So while this is yet another Ridley Scott historical epic that feels like it needs an Extended Edition to deliver its fullest experience, not only are there no plans for one here, it doesn’t even seem as if there’s anything worth restoring to the cut.
Note that the film is available in 4K Steelbook packaging and also in a standard Amaray case with an O-card. A Digital Copy code is also included on a paper insert.
In the end, Gladiator II is perfectly fine. It’s certainly an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours, not to mention a great way to test your home theater setup on 4K Ultra HD. But it’s not great, and it’s definitely not as good as the original Gladiator, which is a shame. It turns out, some films just don’t need a sequel. Gladiator II exists not because fans demanded it but because Ridley Scott was impatient to revisit the world, which now makes two historical epics he’s made recently (including Napoleon) that fall short of the mark. It’s as if simply making the films is the overriding goal, but he isn’t as deeply invested in them as he was earlier in his career. Honestly, the best reason to buy this 4K Ultra HD release is for its A/V thrills, of which there are plenty. But you might enjoy revisiting the original Gladiator (in 4K) and Ridley Scott’s outstanding Kingdom of Heaven: Extended Director’s Cut (on Blu-ray) more instead.
- Bill Hunt
(You can follow Bill on social media on Twitter, BlueSky, and Facebook, and also here on Patreon)