Spoilers for “Gladiator II” follow.
It makes for a refreshing change of pace that one of the biggest films of the year doesn’t come with a costumed crime fighter or Tom Cruise leaping small buildings in a single bound. Instead, all eyes are on Paul Mescal squaring up against a rhino and the corrupt Roman Empire in “Gladiator II.” Harking back to the big-screen epics of old just like the film that preceded it, Ridley Scott’s return to the era of togas and treacherous rulers has plenty of sword and sandal based action, but there are some beats that might feel familiar to both Marvel and DC fans in regards to certain characters.
While “Gladiator II” director Ridley Scott may have turned down some superhero movies, there are a few heroes and villains in his latest film that mirror twists and turns reminiscent of some highly-talked about moments in comic book movie history. There’s Macrinus (Denzel Washington), an outsider to the Empire and a man bent on destroying it, whose overall gameplan runs in a very similar way to two iconic entries in the superhero movie genre.
Macrinus’ plot paws at Black Panther and Dark Knight Rises
A new face in a seemingly foreign land, Macrinus wanders into town turning heads and with an interesting idea to sell that Rome’s worst take to without hesitation. A man of mystery and with “many names” in his past, it’s only in the final act that we learn Washington’s manipulative gamesmaster is a byproduct of a forgotten era. Bought into slavery during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (the late Richard Harris from “Gladiator”), he’s a secret of a past even Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) either chooses to forget, or is completely unaware of.
This trope of the sins of the father being laid upon the children echo that of both “Black Panther” and “The Dark Knight Rises.” Perhaps not as volatile as Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger (who himself was inspired by Denzel Washington’s performance in “Glory”), the past catching up with the present is certainly here, just as is the case with Marion Cotillard’s Talia Al Ghul, returning to break the Batman after he killed her father Ra’s Al Ghul (Liam Neeson) in “Batman Begins.”
How his success rate compares to the other two is up for debate, given that Killmonger seemingly sticks it out longer during his Wakanda takeover, and Talia is around enough to see Gotham crumble. What might stir some cinematic trauma, however, is a key confrontation in “Gladiator II” that suffers the same fatal flaw as Zack Snyder’s most divisive entry in the now defunct DCU.
Lucius vs Marcus: Dawn of Justice
No matter what side of the Snyderverse you stand on, there’s no doubt the egregious “MARTHA” moment in “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” that Zack Snyder jokingly defended is a misstep. Having the two characters have a super-sized scrap rather than talk it out is compulsory for any comic book movie that aims to pit two heroes against each other. It’s still a downright dumb plot device though, which makes it even more annoying to see it crop up in Ridley Scott’s epic outing.
The confrontation between Lucius (Paul Mescal) and the Roman general Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), could’ve been cut so much shorter if they’d simply had a chat. It’s understandable why there’s a bit of tension between the two to begin with. The decorated general, now married to Lucius’ estranged mother Lucilla, also gave the order to kill his wife Arishat (Yuval Gonen), sparking the prince’s mission of vengeance. What might even be more frustrating though, is that when the two are forced to fight to the death in the arena, Acacius just doesn’t give his step son the full lowdown on what’s happening and that his mother is being held hostage by an intellectual villain who is playing both sides against each other. Instead, it takes Acacius getting turned into a human pin cushion via arrows for Lucius let bygones be bygones. Well, you know what they say, those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it, or release a director’s cut some time after.
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