Rambo of Rome

Rating: 3/10 (10 January 2010)

As a fan of Peplum films (or Sword & Sandal) and having enjoyed previous films from Ridley Scott, I was surprised by how disappointing GLADIATOR was.
The first thing that stood out is how badly shot it was. The DP (and Scott) missed the boat on this one. The film's constant greyish tone was off putting and uninspired. It tries to give the film a realistic look but comes across as forced and in the end more fake than anything else. Because the look of the film wasn't believable, the film's other weaknesses stood out even more, like the acting. Except for Joaquin and the veteran cast, the acting was sub-par. Crowe is monotonous, almost sleepwalking through the entire epic. He can't really be blamed as his character is as one dimensional as possible. He acts like a robot, an unstoppable robot who kills everyone in sight. In one scene, Maximus enters the stadium grounds and proceeds to kill a dozen other gladiators, one after the other, in a single run. The scene is so ludicrous that the reality of the film flew out the window and couldn't get into the predictable story with Maximus reduced to a Roman version of Rambo.
The monotonous look of the film also can't camouflage the obvious CGI which today looks even more cardboady than it did 9 years ago.
To make things even more tedious, the entire film is a direct rip-off of Anthony Mann's THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, which, albeit wasn't great but at least it respected the intelligence of its audience, unlike GLADIATOR which is the fast food version of history. All of this could have been overlooked had the film been entertaining on some level but the slow pace, ponderous tone and predictable story killed all possibilities for it being entertaining. It's not a fun film at all.
In the end, GLADIATOR, which won the Oscar for best picture (it must have been a really bad year), is not even remotely memorable in any way shape or form. Give me a vintage Italian Sword & Sandal flick, like THE REBEL GLADIATORS, before this inert Hollywood production.