I only found the fight scenes and the sets to be decent; nothing more

Rating: Null/10 (15 August 2001)

If it weren't so damn overlong and overly-wholesome, GLADIATOR would have been a winner in my book. The film overstays its welcome because of all the hype, and that's what I didn't get. Most of the performances (especially by the star, Russell Crowe) weren't that good as I
expected, plus the extremely long time length of the film was a
downer, and this movie won the best picture of 2000?? The Oscar
committee was far too generous for GLADIATOR, that's for sure.
I thought the only saving graces in the film were the intense action sequences in the battlefields and the arena, plus the costumes and landscapes were fantastic. But sometimes the minor details are indeed minor; they didn't help to buoy GLADIATOR from sinking.