Marcus Aurelius' garbled dream

Somewhere in the middle of the movie Gladiator 2, somebody makes the eponymous quote for the umpteenth time - "Marcus Aurelius had a dream that was Rome"... To which somebody speaks up and says.... "And what was the dream again?"

And that, to my mind, is the essence of the movie. Good visual effects, great in parts, as may be expected. Some very riveting action sequences. Paul Mescal as the Gladiator lacks the intensity and charisma of Russell Crowe (but admittedly a tough act to follow so lets cut him some slack). But overall we have no sense of gravitas or purpose. The difficult circumstances that brought Hanno aka Lucius to the arena do not seem to be reflected in his periodic grinning.

We lose all hope in screenplay - especially in the second half - that is resplendent more of Age of Empires than serious intrigue, and interspersed with characters like Ravi (the doctor from Varanasi who is communicating between two Roman armies). Or the key character Macrinus (Denzel Washington), who suddenly, in a paroxysm of ambition, takes on the mission of overthrowing the Roman monarchy altogether. All in all, extremely confusing second half.

But well, given the movie is so close to my heart and that of a few kindred men, I would still say go and watch the movie. Do not expect this movie to hold a candle to Gladiator 1 in any manner, but rather a very different movie, a very light Gen Z-style Gladiator Lite version 

14/20

The Civilized Wild

 Wikipedia prefaces The Wild Robot as a survival film. I think it is a coming-of-age film. A robot – Rozzum (Roz) 7134 (Lupita Nyongo) is shipwrecked on an island wilderness. Looking for a controller, Roz figures out the ways of animals and their language too, but draws no empathy except from a somewhat conniving fox Fink (Pedro Pascal). An unlikely bond with a gosling – Brightbill (Kit Connor) – leads to the formal definition of a mission objective – to teach Brightbill to eat, to swim and to fly – in other words to be a parent. But bringing up a gosling much like bringing up a human child is no easy task, and both the robot regimen as well as the formative gosling undergo a makeover and find some true sense of purpose and lives well led. An interesting watch, expectedly heartwarming, good for a break, not a Dreamworks masterpiece

14.5/20

Blaze a Trail

In a movie that bears little resemblance to the eponymous TV series, Burn Notice – The Fall of Sam Axe finds US Marine Commander Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell) shipped off to a dangerous mission in the jungles of Colombia. However, his mission to unearth the dangerous guerilla group Espada Ardiente (The Flaming Sword) does not quite lead to expected outcomes? How above-board is the outfit that he is working with? And how much of a terrorist group is the Flaming Sword, actually? While the skeletons tumble out of the closet one after another, the admittedly low-intensity action keeps the movie humming along. Truly unremarkable, even in respect of the surprises, and only redeemed by the periodic mild comic turns brought in by Sam Axe

10/20