Out Today.
Gladiator Keto, a film that shouldn't have existed, IMO.
First things first, I loved the original Gladiator (2000), saw it 5 times in a cinema, Ridley Scott used to be my favorite director (well, one of them, these days I go with Tony), and it's one of favorite youtube binges. So I was appalled ever since this project originated back in 2001 (if only they would've done the crazy Nick Cave script...;). In 2006 they sold the property to Paramount and then Rid came on board back in 2018. No worries or why , worry, me ? there's plan for a Third one. Yes, it shall be the Gladiator trilogy, eyeing The Godfather, well, we all know how well the third Film fared.
Gladiator II rips off & pillages the original big time, and its sucks completely. It's just a repetition and a shameless knock-off, with e a double budget & in excess (210 mill. $ repoterd, word of mouth of 350 mill. pff), super bad CGI (those monkeys man, oh, and how about'em sharks?) and uncharismatic leads. Mescal and Pascal look more Dacians than Romans. The two punk emperors and a small monkey (did u say Minky? ;) can't make for a Caligula knock-off. I wouldn't even bother writing about the historical anomalies and the weak script (which I bet was re-written as the movie was shot).
Don't get me wrong, its shot effectively (again by John Mathieson, see on the comments his opinions about this production, he said it was not so brilliant...), and how can you get it wrong when you have eleven (!!, yes it goes to Eleven !) cameras shooting at the same time ? The set design is even better (Arthur Max again), costumes, yes production values galore.
well, Denzel rulez, but he chews the screen like there's no tomorrow, they would've better made the film about him. And for my money, he was better in Equalizer 3. he worked with Rid in American Gangster (2007). Denzel will be 70 in December this year.
Also the music by Harry Gregson-Williams (2nd time around for Ridley, after Kingdom of Heaven) is lame and the only good cues are from the original (by Zimmer, Lisa Gerard, etc), that at the time were absolutely on point !
Strength & Honor it ain't....
John Mathieson, the cinematographer for Gladiator II, recently accused Ridley Scott of adopting a “lazy” approach to filmmaking for the blockbuster sequel, claiming that he exhibited signs of lacking crucial attention to detail.
RăspundețiȘtergere
Gladiator II stars Paul Mescal as Lucius, who has to enter the Colosseum to fight for the glory of Rome and its people after witnessing the death of Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Commodus. Upon its release, it grossed over $221 million overseas, which has made it a mammoth success.
However, discussing his experience working with Scott on the film, Mathieson, who also contributed the original 2000 film, said that the filmmaker’s method had “changed” and become more “rushed.” He also claimed that Scott neglected to pay attention to small objects in the shot, like shadows, cameras, and microphones.
“It’s really lazy,” he told The DocFix Documentary Storytelling Podcast, adding, “It’s the CG elements now of tidying-up, leaving things in shot, cameras in shot, microphones in shot, bits of set hanging down, shadows from booms.”
When the issues were raised, he said that the team’s response was that they would “clean it up” in post-production editing. According to Mathieson, the difficulties stem from Scott’s desire to “get as much as he can at once” with multiple cameras. This wasn’t useful to Mathieson, who said that it meant that he could “only light from one angle.”
Aside from the obvious challenges, Mathieson also said that his attitude on set made it difficult to add emotional depth with lighting in the shots, which is a defining feature of many of his previous films. “Look at his older films, and getting depth into things was very much part of lighting,” he said. “You can’t do that with a lot of cameras, but he just wants to get it all done.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEyg_WP7Z5M
RăspundețiȘtergere