Gladiator II

Well this is pretty terrible. There's so much obvious and bad CGI. Every time there are more than 5-10 characters on screen, there are a bunch of obvious digital crowds, all the boats/water looked terrible, and the baboons were like weird mutant video game renders... CGI rhinos, clearly comped in elephants, CGI poorly animated sharks... Going from a very grounded-in-reality first movie to this was super disappointing. Coming form Napoleon this was a surprise and a disappointment. Napoleon had many flaws, but the production and effects were super clean. The plot was also extremely bad. There's no plausibility, no stakes, and no emotional payoff at any point. You don't care about the characters because they have unearned skills and rushed backstories. There's also no believable message of sacrifice, duty, and honor like the first (which is what made it great in the first place). And so much awful fanservice moments. Some of the close up 1v1 sword fights had good action, and some of the individual actors, costumes, and sets were good. Super disappointing.

Borderline unwatchable hot garbage, and to think that there's a third one on the way. Someone pull ridleys funding already please. This cheap riding off the success of the first film does nobody's career any favors.