All of the swords were pretty accurate, and had very shiny blades. So it's obvious that shine is possible, and it would help a great deal. Other problems were the flaming arrows and gasoline bombs hurled by the catapults during the opening battle in Germany, very silly. And the actions scenes were all filmed in a very jerky style, apparently to give the viewers authentic headaches. There was a little too much martial artistry in the fights, and too many swords being thrown.
Someone needs to be told that gladiators' tunics can indeed be hemmed.
A number of people have commented on the goriness, but actually, for the number of guys getting lopped apart, the amount of blood spraying around is pretty tame. My gripes may seem like minor points, but I find such errors obvious, unnecessary, and iritating. Imagine trying to have an interesting conversation while someone spits on your shoes every two minutes. It would have been so easy for this movie to have been so much better in many ways. This movie proves again that Hollywood hates ancient history, and gets a Quintus Rating of only one star.