What the hell was so great about this movie?

Rating: 7/10 (22 March 2001)

First of all, I'll give you that the movie was visually spectacular. Yeah, great visuals, great CGI. I'll even give you that Crowe and Phoenix acted well in the movie. I didn't think it was anything special, but fine, I'll give you that.
But what the hell was the movie about?
Basically, the tagline "he kills and kills until he kills no more" applies to this movie. But it had no meaning. So what if his family was killed. Did anyone feel the pain outside of those stupid dream clips which is basically Ridley Scott's futile attempt to make you think about it? These characters were two dimensional. Maximus was the low-key uber-fighter. Phoenix's character was the ultimate evil. There was absolutely no story outside of who is Maximus going to fight next. Pro-wrestling offers more of a storyline.
Hey, this was a good action flick, I'd even say a great action flick. But that's all it was. This movie, IN NO WAY WHATSOEVER (IMO), separated itself from any other action flick outside of the level of visual detail and perhaps superior acting.
What bothers me is that this movie will probably beat out much better movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Traffic, and Wonderboys for best movie of 2000, according to the "experts" at the Oscars. History will look back on this as a mistake. Good movie, yes. Oscar winner? No, not even Oscar nominee. 7/10.