A quickie today. I saw the much lauded film Gladiator a few weeks ago, and I’ve been putting off reviewing it because honestly, I don’t have that much to say about it. I went in with (somewhat) high expectations, what with it being the Oscar darling of 2000, but I have to admit that I was pretty disappointed with the entire film.
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The whole movie just seemed…obvious. There was no question at the beginning that they would win the battle, that something would happen to get Maximus (Russell Crowe) to eventually be the titular1 Gladiator, so the first section of the film almost seemed like a waste of time.
Of course, there’s more to a movie than just going from point A to point B, but I didn’t find the characters that engaging either. Richard Harris was the standout actor, and he died fairly early on. (oops, that’s a spoiler) Jaoquin Phoenix and Connie Nielson were serviceable in their roles, but they weren’t given much to work with. And Russell Crowe does a fine grousing reluctant leader, but I was hoping for more depth in his role than that.
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I’m not saying it was a bad film; it just didn’t rise to the level of majesty that I think Ridley Scott was going for. It was all supposed to be Very Very Important, and it just didn’t work for me. The almost generic Important Movie Score, the golden glow cast over the every image (with the exception of the first battle, which got a bluish glow) seemed too calculated for me to get emotionally involved.
As I say, I was pretty disappointed.
1 *snicker* ⇧
