Ridley Scott loses against the Computer

Rating: 4/10 (18 July 2000)

As a former comment stated, the first twenty minutes of GLADIATOR are unique in the historic genre. The adversities of the winter in Germania's hinterland and its barbarous inhabitants are displayed very realistically. This breathtaking effort will not be surpassed for decades to come. But afterwards??? It seems like Ridley Scott's work was done. The computer took over - a big mistake. Digital Rome, digital Forum, digital Colosseum, even digital people - so obvious, that the film becomes more and more similar to an "Asterix"-Cartoon. The plot... well, what plot?? It disappeared somewhere between two fighting scenes. And another very disturbing thing about GLADIATOR is, that every single line is spoken in such an over-significant way, that it could be as well the final line of the movie. Every time I thought: "No line can outdo this superb quotation". But it goes on and on and on... There's more to a good movie than exceptional fighting-sequences.