Gladiator II (2024) review

Lucius (Paul Mescal) has his homeland of Numidia (in Northern Africa) attacked by General Acacius (Pedro Pascal) of the Roman Army, his wife Arishat (Yuval Gonen) is killed in the battle and he's forced into slavery, Macrinus (Denzel Washington) "buys" him and makes him compete as a gladiator, and then Lucius discovers his true heritage - meanwhile, there's a plot underway to assassinate immature (and sociopathic) Emperors Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) and Geta (Joseph Quinn).  Despite its supposed historical inaccuracies, pitiful CGI (that would have appeared shoddy on a PlayStation release over a decade ago) and a pedestrian screenplay, this sword-and-sandal epic is pleasantly screwy and entertaining in parts (how did they get the sharks in the Colosseum?) and Denzel channels Iago from Shakespeare's Othello as he coldly manipulates everyone around him. Director Scott, who is currently 87-years-old, clearly doesn't care about "finesse" - he more or less slaps it together, has Lucius fight for his Mother (after seeing his surrogate Father impaled by multiple arrows) and hopes the audience is entertained.