By 2000, actor Russell Crowe had made a name for himself in the U.S. through work in The Quick and the Dead (1994), Virtuosity (1995), L.A. Confidential (1997), and The Insider (1999). It would be his turn as Maximus Decimus Meridius in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000) that would, in the minds of the general population, create a lasting impression. This action drama, directed by Scott, written by David Franzoni (Amistad), John Logan (Skyfall), and William Nicholson (Les Misérables), based on a story by Franzoni, would reverberate throughout audiences for generations as a lone soldier found a way to topple a crooked emperor, giving his life in the process. It would take 24 years for Maximus to return to the screen, but in the form of his son, continuing a story that would prove as topical to the real world then as it does now in Gladiator II (2024). Available on digital since December 2024 and coming to physical formats, Gladiator II offers those who appreciate the craftsmanship of the Gladiator world more than an hour of behind-the-scenes bonus materials to explore, and each one demonstrates the thoughtfulness of cast and crew throughout production.
Since he left Rome as a child, Lucius (Paul Mescal) has been on the run from killers who would see him dead. He never really understood why, but, through his travels, has come to understand Rome as not a great nation of freedom, but a colonizer who destroys what it touches. Having made a home for himself in Numidia, he’s one of many who come to its defense when Roman soldiers ride their ships to the Numidia shores, bringing with them death and destruction along the way, and who fall under the weight of General Acacius’s (Pedro Pascal) men. Taken as a slave, Lucius finds himself in the service of Macrinus (Denzel Washington), a slave owner with plans of his own to rise to power. Together, Lucius is put into a position to get revenge on Acacius while Macrinus is able to increase his station, neither realizing that the consequences of each of their choices will determine the fate of Rome and its peoples.
Seeing as the film’s been available to own on digital since December, if you’ve come to this, you want to know about the physical edition, what it includes, and the on-disc presentation. Let’s start there before digging into the in-depth bonus features.
What follows is based on the 4K UHD steelbook edition, provided by Paramount Pictures for the purpose of home review. You can pick up a standard 4K UHD Blu-ray Combo that comes with a Blu-ray disc and digital copy, but, if you’re into the collectible nature of steelbooks, the front cover features a simple design of Lucius standing in the arena in close-up, wearing his father’s armor and dual-wielding swords while the back simply has the text “Strength and Honor.” Inside, the clear plastic liner allows for a two-page depiction of Lucius and Acacius in combat, though they are obscured by the three discs (one on the left, two on the right) in their holders. Credit to Paramount for putting only the film on both the 4K UHD and Blu-ray disc and supplying all the special features on a single, separate Blu-ray. This choice allows the film to exist on the respective disc formats using as much space as possible — a choice that means that each version of the film is not additionally compressed due to the reduced available data storage. The steelbook is incredibly minimal, so it may not be worth the additional price point from the standard edition which is more dynamic in design as it mimics the final theatrical poster.
GLADIATOR II 4K UHD limited edition steelbook packshot. Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment.
Whether you access them digitally or physically, Gladiator II includes six individual featurettes that total roughly 96-minutes in length. The first five are singularly focused, either on the origin of the narrative, the cast, the filmmakers, the combat, or on the post-production process, inviting audiences to go on an in-depth journey into the making of the film. Ordinarily, when going through bonus features like this, especially when they’re lengthy, there’s a great deal of repetition, either with the cast or crew, as they discuss their work. That doesn’t happen here. Regardless of the featurette’s focus, what we learn is unique to that topic, which really makes one feel as though they are learning something equally unique and important. For folks who love cinema and moviemaking, these featurettes highlight not only the incredible craftsmanship that goes into making a film of this scale, but why filmmakers like Scott get to do so over and again. While there are several fabulous insights we get from these, including how Scott returned the production to places the first film shot and where elements of the first cross over here (as one would expect given the narrative and thematic threads that connect them), my favorite comes from Mescal during the cast focus “What We Do In Life Echoes In Eternity” wherein he addresses the differences in approach between himself and Crowe as he (Mescal) has to contend with the enormous legacy of Crowe as Maximus whereas Crowe only had the focus of making a strong film with no idea of the legacy such a performance would create. As good an actor as Mescal is, filling Crowe’s sandals is a difficult task and hearing that even he grappled with this humanizes the actor and, in turn, his performance. The final featurette, “The Making of Gladiator II,” is a general behind-the-scenes featurette that touches on most of everything that the others do, just with less depth provided. Impressively, as previously stated, this featurette does provide information without repeating what was shown before; rather, it adds its own insights which help fans learn even more.
On top of this, there’re also combined 10 minutes of deleted scenes which show what might have been. Unlike other recent releases, such as Moana 2, there’s no introduction or commentary provided with them, so home viewers are left to speculate on their own why these scenes didn’t make the final cut.
In terms of the on-disc presentation, the 4K UHD presentation is solid. The audio is clean, enabling the dialogue to come through even when the score is pounding. Likewise, the video elements offer a clean image, details nice and sharp, giving the frequently muddy, natural look of Lucius’s storyline a nice contrast against the opulence of Macrinus, Lucilla, and those in power. Because of the inclusion of HDR, the increased range of color does mean that shadows are darker, making details harder to see when a character is framed in any kind of darkness, but it also means that dark scenes (such as Acacius’s capture) has an increased sense of danger. To its credit, the bitrate for the film hovers between 65-75 Mbps for the bulk of the film with scenes involving heavy digital work (such as any scene featuring boats on the water) drops down into the 40s and close-ups of people around the 80-100s. As explained in “Building An Empire,” there’s a great deal of post-production work to create the illusion of Rome, so it’s not too odd that so much of the film would be digitally enhanced and, therefore, possess a smaller bitrate than one might want from a 4K UHD presentation. But it’s not enough to make one concerned over the enjoyment of the film.
In terms of the film itself, I’m divided. On the one hand, the film is less engaging as a result of the convoluted nature of its plot requirements and Mescal’s inability to match Crowe’s stature. Comparing the second film to the first is an inevitability, especially because their narratives are linked by taking an inference made during one brief conversation between Maximus and Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) and making it fact for the second. This requires that II take great pains to establish the backstory in order for Lucius’s arc to hold more weight, though not as cleanly as Maximus’s in the first. Comparing Mescal to Crowe, too, is inevitable, but, perhaps the best thing to do is view Mescal’s performance as Lucius as one would in the real world when looking at the child of someone with a large shadow: they cannot be their parent, they must make their own legacy. From this view, Lucius (again, not as interesting as Maximus) ends up having the more complex and more narratively relevant journey compared to that of his father as, unlike Maximus, Lucius is raised by people outside the empire and comes to see the Roman Empire for what it is, an illusion held up by the corpses of its enemies. Long gone is the dream of Rome that Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) hoped Maximus would make a reality, but it’s something that someone like Lucius could achieve.
On the other hand, this is where the concepts at the core of the Gladiator films rise up and take center stage as each film speaks to the view of the country at the time (2000 under the Bush 43 Administration pre-9/11 and 2024 post-Trump 45 Administration/Biden 46 Administration). Under the first, American was riding high on its imperialistic tendencies, but not quite at Nero’s fiddle, whereas, now, we can hear the music as our systems of regulation and operation are being stripped for parts and investment in government official pockets. In the first, it was the story of a soldier who refused to accept the leadership role, being betrayed by his friend, treated as an enemy of the country, thrown into slavery, and fighting his way back to popularity before dying in the arena. This is almost entirely the plot of II, except that Lucius is aided by someone else, Macrinus, a slightly enigmatic figure played with mesmerizing gusto by Washington, with an agenda all their own and the viciousness to gut anyone who gets in his way. This switch from slave versus emperor to prodigal son versus vengeance-seeker enables the narrative to explore how violence done in the name of imperialist ideals only breeds more violence and it requires the people to step in to stop it, not the machine itself. Amusingly enough, II does feature a set of young adult twins (both impulsive, one syphilitic, both a combined amalgam of a certain presidential figure) as the emperors who thinks that all the people need is the glory of Rome to keep them alive and not small things like food, water, and education, only the games.
There’s a lot that can be said about the film, both in the positive and negative, but, what is easy to pronounce is that it’s differently entertaining than the first. It hews closely to the structure of the first, but finds its own voice from which to tell its epic. And Gladiator II is an epic. Love, vengeance, loyalty, betrayal, lost faith, returned conviction — all things that make this story of an empire’s fall and return to the people powerful in its telling. If this film speaks to you, well, you’ll likely delight in its revisit and, with the bonus features included with the home release, you’ll come away with a greater appreciation. So if you’ve not yet pre-ordered your edition and a 4K UHD physical edition is what you plan to opt for, at this point, the standard edition is where I would recommend you start. With the cost difference, the steelbook doesn’t add enough aesthetically where it would make sense for the upcharge.
Gladiator II Special Features:
- A Dream That Was Rome: Origins—Director Ridley Scott and producers delve into the history behind Gladiator II and how the story developed over many years before coming to the screen. (11:20)
- What We Do In Life Echoes In Eternity: The Cast—Take an inside look into Ridley Scott’s casting process. (15:28)
- In The Arena: Filmmakers—Go behind the scenes as the cast and crew journey to Malta, Morocco, and the UK for the epic production. (13:26)
- To Those About To Die, We Salute You: Combat—Discover how Ridley Scott and his team combined choreographed combat with cutting-edge visual effects to take the action to a whole new level. (14:00)
- Building An Empire: Post-Production—Join the filmmakers for insights into the fascinating process of crafting the finished movie, which includes a scoring session led by composer Harry Gregson-Williams. (21:26)
- The Making of Gladiator II—Explore how Ridley Scott, the cast, and crew worked to bring Gladiator II to life. (20:05)
- Ten (10) Deleted Scenes (10:16)
Available on digital December 24th, 2024.
Available on 4K UHD, 4K UHD steelbook, Blu-ray, and DVD March 4th, 2025.
For more information, head to the official Paramount Pictures Gladiator II webpage.
Final Score: 3.5 out of 5.
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Categories: Home Release, Home Video, Recommendation, Reviews, streaming
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