PAUL MESCAL MIGHT be the hottest Irish export right now, but he still has some things to prove. For starters: can he hold his own in a big-budget action film made by a legendary Hollywood director?

That’s his task in Gladiator II, the sequel to Ridley Scott’s Oscar-winning swords-and-sandals epic Gladiator, which was released in cinemas in 2000.

Today, as a global embargo on reviews lifts, Irish critics can finally have their say on Mescal’s performance ahead of the movie’s release in cinema’s this Friday. 

It’s been a remarkable journey for Kildare man Mescal, who studied acting in the Lir Academy in Trinity College, going on to tread the boards in the Gate and Abbey Theatres and even star in a sausage advert before his breakout role in Normal People in 2020.

Since then, the only way has been up for the 28-year-old – and it was in fact his role in the Covid-era Sally Rooney adaptation that led directly to Gladiator II.

As director Ridley Scott (Blade Runner, Alien) told the Hollywood Reporter:

I binge TV and saw this thing, Normal People, and thought: “This kid [Paul Mescal] is interesting.”

In Gladiator II, Mescal plays Lucius Verus, the estranged son of noblewoman Lucilla (Connie Nielsen, reprising her role from the first film) and nephew of the odious emperor Commodus, played in the first film by Joaquin Phoenix.

Lucius has spent 20 years living away from Rome and Gladiator II explains the reasons why he is forced to return, thirsty for vengeance.

One of the first hurdles Mescal has to jump in this film is the inevitable comparisons to Russell Crowe, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of the grieving, in-search-of-blood Maximus Decimus Meridius, the former lover of Lucilla. Lucius’s link to Maximus is made clear in Gladiator II, which makes any comparisons between them even more notable.

When asked how the two compare, Ridley Scott commented:

“It’s a different direction. They’re both theatrical. Paul is very much a theatre actor, that’s his thing.”

Transformation

Having seen the film along with a tranche of Irish critics last week, we can say that Mescal isn’t trying to do a ‘Crowe II’ here. Though his character also suffers loss, he’s at a different phase of his life and wears his youth as a sign of his ability to smash his opponents (literally) to the ground.

Mescal underwent a significant physical transformation to play Lucius, saying: “I just wanted to be big and strong and look like somebody who can cause a bit of damage when shit hits the fan.”

That he certainly does.

But while he looks the part, sadly the script doesn’t always give Mescal a lot to work with which could allow us to see deeper into what motivates Lucius. We get what motivates him in principle, but the script isn’t interested in giving him a broad enough sandbox to play in.

He has precious few lines to say that let him dig into his character, though he does feature in some ostensibly heartbreaking scenes alongside Nielsen (and fair play to the film for never choosing the easy resolution to any emotional drama). You’re left itching for more so that you can make a better emotional connection with his character.

But in lieu of Mescal being able to portray his emotions through words, he channels Lucius’s rage and sorrow into two things: brooding expressions and muscular violence.

It’s in those action sequences that Mescal shines. You believe in his strength and that he’s using his rage (just like Maximus) to bring him to the Colosseum so he can enact his own form of revenge.

More stunts, more blood

From its opening set piece we discover that Gladiator II has amped up much of what makes the original Gladiator compelling. Think more stunts, more intense action, more broken limbs, more blood, even worse baddies, sound design that emphasises every crunch of bone, and the confirmation that Ridley Scott is taking full advantage of all that modern technology now has to offer.

Though the film uses FX to push things to the limit (particularly with the horrifying baboons in one slightly silly fight scene), the key with Gladiator is that it’s all about the humans, too. For what would Gladiator be without dirty tricks, blood lust and some of the most nefarious people you’ve ever encountered on screen?

And while the film moves two decades into the future from the first Gladiator, the Rome we witness is in a worse state than before, rife with corruption and violence. The rich party while the poor suffer. The parallels to real life continue to resonate.

One of the film’s highlights is Denzel Washington as Macrinus, a jewellery-festooned power broker who acts a lot more principled than he is in reality. It’s Macrinus who spots Lucius’s talent with his fists, and both men spot something in each other that they can exploit.

Washington’s always great as a villain, managing to keep the audience on side even as we witness him revealing his true nature bit by bit. With every sweep of his toga or raise of an eyebrow, he tells us that he’s really enjoying himself here.

Speaking of villains, Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things) and Fred Hechinger (The White Lotus) are delightfully evil as emperor brothers Geta and Caracalla, making you hate them and their stupid faces from their very first scene. Caracalla is a flammable mix of idiotic and megalomaniacal, and Geta struggles to keep him away from open flames. 

Pedro Pascal gets a little less screen time than expected as Roman general Marcus Acacius, and his character arc feels a little unsatisfactory. But it’s always a treat to see Pascal on screen, given the level of tenderness he brings to every role.

So is it any good?

You might have seen some reactions on social media to preview screenings of Gladiator II already – but reviews were only allowed to be published from 2pm today.

Our verdict on Gladiator II is that Ridley Scott has made an epic sequel that rewards viewers who want a bombastic, bloody revisit to Rome. It’s definitely a case of spectacle above emotion – but boy does it lean into that spectacle.

While its predecessor had a slow-burn opening, Scott has chosen to move things along a lot faster in Gladiator II. Like the first film, the script can be a bit basic at times, and this is where Mescal’s character suffers the most. Yet some characters, like Washington’s Macrinus, are given plenty to play with, and make the absolute most of it. 

Narratively, the plot contains many callbacks to the journey Maximus went on. Some short flashbacks function to bring newcomers to the Gladiator world up to speed, and they work a lot better than you might expect (and add a bit of necessary emotional heft). 

Oscar hopes

It would be surprising if Mescal was in the mix for an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Lucius. This isn’t a chance for him to show the depths of emotion that we’ve seen him exhibit before.

But what Gladiator II does show is that he can hold his own on the very big screen. This is a shift in mode for him, and as the fans at the Light House Cinema in Dublin showed on Friday, there’s a lot of excitement about him taking on the task.

Part of this excitement is down to national pride – how good is it to see an Irish man who’s not yet 30 take on the lead role in a multi-million-dollar epic? It would be great if in the future, Mescal took on a similar role that also gave him a chance to delve into the range of emotion and humanity that he’s been so good at exploring in the past. 

But Hollywood is hungry for more of Mescal and it’ll be a while before he’ll do a run of indie roles again. Indeed, Scott was so impressed by him that the pair are expected to team up again for the film The Dog Stars, based on a 2012 apocalyptic thriller. 

Undoubtedly, some of Mescal’s fans who go to see Gladiator II will prefer him in indie roles like All of Us Strangers and Aftersun, where he inhabits a more complex reality than he gets in Gladiator II.

But Ridley Scott clearly didn’t intend for Gladiator II to be an emotionally complex movie. The 87-year-old veteran knows that to get bums on seats you need to think big: big setpieces, big names, big explosive moments, and big, intense battles.

You shall be entertained by Gladiator II. Just don’t expect the same emotional landscape as last time around.