By Jacob Oliveira
Gladiator II was released over 20 years after the first film was released. The story had a good send-off and no hints or need for a sequel, so many fans are left wondering, why? Why make a sequel that no one asked for?
Recently in film, there has been a trend of old movies and franchises getting long awaited sequels or remakes. Top Gun: Maverick and Doctor Sleep are both examples of this. Both of the original titles were released over 20 years ago with no call for a sequel, but those films were still put into production. Although fan bases questioned why they even made these films, they were still big successes for the studios. Top Gun: Maverick was such a success that it was the number one movie in 2022. With films like these never ceasing to surprise box offices with their large outcome of movie goers, an influx of long awaited sequels are being made and produced. Gladiator II is the next movie to follow this trend of long awaited sequels, and seems to follow the same pattern as many of its predecessors.
Many film critics have been quite critical of the film. According to a review article on World of Reel, “It’s a ludicrous story that fails to entertain.” Additionally, the CGI has been called “wonky.” It seems reviews were quite negative. Even with the negative reviews from many critics, the film grossed 325 million dollars and is still earning more, showing that fans are still quite fond of these titles, and that the demand for these films are here.
The only question left is: how long will the trend continue before movie goers get bored of this concept? We have seen many waves of film trends fade out, such as superheroes and buddy cop films. Both these genres were all over the place before being slowly ushered out because it was far overused. In the meantime, this genre of film is still going very strong with more long awaited sequels to come.
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