Highly Overrated Popcorn Movie about Ancient Americanized Rome

Rating: 3/10 (22 April 2003)

Somehow many people seem to like this Roman empire set action drama flick. I'm definitely not one of them.
It's a cheap, yet expensive, excuse of a story, already seen a thousand times (i.e. basically revenge), to cover the real reason for this movie: the fights. In this it is quite similar to 'Braveheart'. It falls far behind many, if not most, other films taking place in the same era, like 'Spartacus' or 'Ben Hur', although these included action scenes, too.
The monetary success most likely originates from the same reasons that sports do--among them handsome people, villains/opponents, heroism, "blood, sweat & tears", and plenty of pathos. I honestly think this ultimately proves that today's people would visit real, bloody gladiator fights, if they were still allowed.
I must confess that I didn't watch it on the big screen, so maybe I missed the full beauty of larger-than-life landscapes and deaths, after all it was pretty well done technically. It also was dubbed in German.