Gladiator II is one of the rare sequels that deserves about as much acclaim and affection as its predecessor receives from movie fans. Ridley Scott returns to the director’s seat with a script written by David Scarpa. Scarpa shares story credit with Peter Craig.

Paul Mescal plays the lead role of a captured warrior named Hanno; however, he has another identity which is revealed in due course. Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielson, Denzel Wahington, Derek Jacobi, and Matt Lucas are included in the lengthy call sheet.

This story begins about sixteen years after the events depicted in the first film in which celebrated gladiator Maximus Decimus Meridius had died at the end. Rome is being ruled by a couple of twin emperors who really indulge themselves in the power of their position. Hanno is living in Africa with his wife when Roman soldiers conquer the town, kill his wife, and take him prisoner. Hanno survives and prevails in an unexpected display of combat against some feral baboons and is bought by a gladiator promoter named by Macrinus, played by the always formidable Denzel Washington. Hanno starts winning tournaments but is recognized by the daughter of a former emperor, played by Connie Nielson, who had known Maximus quite well. Lucilla also had sent her son away from Rome to protect him from some ruthless rivals when he was a young boy. The political machinations within Rome heat up when Macrinus arrives with his gladiators, and he has his own designs on the seat of power. Hanno is hungry for revenge against the Roman general who led the attack on his home. One of the twin emperors is losing his mind. The whole situation is on the verge of a full-blown insurrection, and Hanno is ready to light the fuse if he can get close enough.

There are some stunning visuals here. I know much the look is computer generated, but this time it turns out quite well. The performances were quite compelling. I am not sure of the historical accuracy of a black man wielding as much influence during that time in Rome as was depicted by Washington’s role, but I didn’t really care. Washington, as expected, was amazing as the Machiavellian Macrinus. I am not all that familiar with Mescal’s prior credits, but he appeared to be well-chosen for the lead role. There were some surprising twists in the relationships and alliances that cropped up along the way through this film. Many of the characters were written quite convincingly, which is often hard to pull off in a film with some timne limitations.’

The film does seem to run a little longer than necessary sometimes. Some of artistic liberties taken with some of the Roman history seemed a little too obvious at times as well.’

The fight scenes were pretty well-done, even when the stunts bordered on absurdly implausible. I am not sure how effective a man can be when fighting off a wild baboon like that, but it was a unique scene.

If I may offer a recommendation, it truly would have been more helpful if I had seen the first film again to refresh my memory on the plot there. This film does not quite work as well without a refresher.

Also, some of the moments where blood is just pouring out of people like a runaway firehose does seem a little excessively distracting, and I am not that squeamish about scenes like that.

Overall, Ridley Scott manages to throw in enough originality in this film to overcome those few times when it felt like a retread of the first release. It is indeed one of the few sequels in recent years that is worth the effort to see on the big screen.