An epic that isn't epic enough

Rating: 7/10 (22 August 2011)

Ridley Scott's highly acclaimed, best picture winning film seems to be the right formula for the quintessential roman epic. However, I wouldn't allot it quite that much praise. In my humble opinion, speaking that highly of this film would be giving it a little too much credit when it isn't that masterful of a film. It's good, but not that good. It's the story of Maximus, a valiant Roman soldier who is betrayed by his emperor and cast out of Rome, only to return and find his wife and son murdered. Having lost everything, Maximus is captured by slave traders and sold to a man named Proximo who is assembling men to fight in Rome's epic gladiator games. Maximus takes this opportunity to return to Rome and enact his revenge on Commodus, the evil emperor who betrayed him. The film prides itself on being an epic scale action film, using it's flashy showmanship and it's enticing bloodlust to disguise some of its dullness and its weaknesses in many areas.
This is a film I really wanted to like. I really thought I could fall in love with this film, and I thought I was during some of the epic fight scenes full of bloody disgusting action that thrills and horrifies to no end. But there's a certain dullness which saturates everything else about this film so that it doesn't quite reach the heights you are expecting it to. Basically, it is your average hero's journey with every necessary archetype standing out and moving about as you would expect. There are no surprises in this film when you really feel like there should be. This film's storyline isn't inherently bad, it just doesn't offer all that it could with a story as epic as Gladiator perceives itself to be. I found myself very bored at times and never fully being able to buy into what was going on. Maybe it was in the acting, maybe it was in the dialogue, I'm not sure. Maybe it was a combination of all the factors of this film that just left me wanting more and feeling like I had been cheated out of some great potential in the end.
But what doesn't leave you feeling cheated are the fight scenes. They are explosive, graphic, shocking, and wildly entertaining. Ridley Scott shoots the film with his frenetic display of camera angles and quick edits that make every fight scene incredibly intense and almost too much fun. Honestly, everything that took place in the Colliseum I really enjoyed. And that's only appropriate for a film called Gladiator, right? However, everything else I wasn't all that fond of. The film strikes no emotional chords with me, despite being a well constructed story that, in theory, exceeds expectations. The execution isn't perfect but I still respect a good story, and that's what Gladiator has at its core. Everything that surrounds it is a different story, though. The film just lacks true prowess and integrity to live up to its epic expectations. If you just take it as is then it's still a good film, but it could have been so much more.
I spent this entire film going back and forth between liking and disliking it. There were things I thoroughly enjoyed and thing that just left me feeling empty and careless. In so many moments I felt like I was really going to love this film in the end, but the excitement and intrigue over this film flatlines just below a level of greatness. Gladiator isn't the epic scale story of bravery and violence, but it tries very hard to be. I wouldn't go as far to say that this is a bad film, but I wouldn't give it enough mercy to call it a great film either.