Literally jumping the shark was a bit much.
Is this a joke or are there sharks in gladiator 2?
They fill the colosseum with water and sharks for a sea battle.
That sounds fantastic! Looking forward to it!
Edit: thought you were still messing with me, I’m really glad I didnt see the movie before I found out about this.
Sharks in the collesium was when I noped out. So awful.
It could have been a reasonable scene without them.
Most guys aren’t swimming very well in armor if they fall in, and they did small scale naval battles
They just kept turning up the stupidity
I wanted the obvious attraction between Hanno and the shark to be explored more in-depth.
It was super disappointing but not surprising. I’ve seen enough of Ridley Scott’s work to see that he is very uneven and unfortunately usually not because he is taking big artistic swings. He has made some of the greatest films and so the exact opposite just really stands out each time.
I think directors like Ridley Scott get corrupted by seeking spectacle. He indeed took a “big swing”…but it was a swing to make the next Avatar or The Matrix…he’s already checked his amazing filmmaker box…he wanted a mega blockbuster. The obvious problem being that Avatar and The Matrix aren’t actually very good movies…they just hit the zeitgeist.
While I agree with you that The Matrix really hit the Zeitgeist, I wouldn’t call it a bad or even mediocre movie. It’s a solid sci-fi cyberpunk action movie.
I personally wish they explored the early part a bit more where Neo is wondering about reality. The action is great, but a contrast with broader discussion behind the meaning of The Matrix would only make the action even more intense. The part about “Neo (The One)” and Trinity and Morpheus relationship to the prophecy was really weak though. I thought it sucked even as a late pre-teen.
Exactly what are these big artistic swings that he has whiffed on and what were the movies?
House of Gucci was just boring as shit.
The Last Dual was just a disjointed dull shitty mess that did nothing to make me give a fuck about any of it.
All the Money in the World was a plodding shitty movie that was just a chore to sit through.
Alien Covenant was two hours of idiocy with loads of mental masturbation over his silly android.
For Alien: Covenant and Prometheus I strongly recommend the Ninth Circle and Chaos edition fan edits respectively, it makes both movies far more coherent and enjoyable.
Prometheus, with the Chaos Edition fanedit, in particular becomes a completely different experience with characters behaving much more rationaly and viewers getting more insight into their personality and motivations.
It is strange that Scott did seem to have filmed more coherent versions of both films (most of the content is from deleted/alt scenes), but then decided to go with whatever we got for the theatrical versions.
I actually enjoyed the theatrical versions as well, but I love sci-fi/horror and I will watch almost any movie that combines these genres. That being said, many parts of the theatrical version of Prometheus were comically stupid, almost like an unintentional parody.
Alien: Covenant also had a lot of stupid moments.
It is strange that Scott did seem to have filmed more coherent versions of both films (most of the content is from deleted/alt scenes), but then decided to go with whatever we got for the theatrical versions.
No it isn’t. Scott has a long history of that. It is one of the many ways he fails as a movie maker. He is the poster child for the big bad evil studio interference card to explain away his mediocrity.
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Great director, terrible writer. Whenever he’s given more creative control is when he does his worst work.
This checks out with what Russell Crowe was saying in the interview. He doesn’t name Scott, but he was saying there were forces pushing for inserting smexy time. He rightly had things to say about that, "So you’re saying at the same time he had this relationship with his wife, he was fucking this other girl? What are you talking about? It’s crazy.”
I heard they didn’t really have a script for the first Gladiator and it turned out great.
But I think it’s a thing where if you have some actors that can contribute a lot, that kind of thing can work out. When you don’t, you get Gladiator 2. Denzel was pretty entertaining in it though, the rest of it was pretty meh. Seeing the ship battle in the Coliseum was cool, but I don’t remember what it added to the plot. In the first one the fights all added to the plot and characters.
Not that it’s the actors’ fault they aren’t supposed to be writers. But maybe the first one just worked because of dumb luck, who knows?
I don’t think that’s super fair in that I’ve never seen Ridley Scott do worse than mediocre.
On the other hand, I thought Gladiator was mediocre.
Exodus: Gods and Kings IMO had a b-movie vibe, but as if a b-movie was made with a large budget, A list actors and overly self indulgent tone.
That movie sucked so bad
I went in expecting the suck and was able to enjoy it as a result.
I expected it to suck and was still surprised at how bad it was. I wasn’t even happy with Denzel’s performance and I love that guy.
It was so laughably awful
I bailed on caring with the first things I learned of the sequel. I’m actually annoyed that Ridley Scott was a part of it.
Hey, his kids need to go to college too!
