If you fall asleep about halfway through “Gladiator II,” you wouldn’t be faulted for feeling like you’d just seen a weak rehash of the 2000 original film. Up until that point, Ridley Scott’s sequel pretty much hits all the same notes he did the first time—a steely warrior with a clouded past loses his wife and freedom, winds up a gladiator, and works his way toward revenge against the Roman authority responsible.

This time around—16 years after the events of the first film—the steely warrior is Lucius (Paul Mescal), who we meet in Africa just as he’s about to lead a shoreline defense of his people against Roman invaders. The invaders are led by Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), who orders the death of Lucius’s wife Arishat (Yuval Gonen) (who to be fair, is part of a detachment firing arrows at the Roman forces). Lucius survives the assault, but is captured and shipped off to Rome be a gladiator. There he meets Macrinus (Denzel Washington), who manages the sword-and-sandal cannon fodder the same way Oliver Reed did in the first movie.

The good news is that things don’t play out the same way, and after a modest twist or two, “Gladiator II” pushes into enough unique narrative territory that you start to feel the film was worth the effort. Granted, enough threads connect back to the original that, unless you were a passionate fan of the first film, Scott’s sequel will feel too derivative. Of course, as a non-passionate fan of the original film, I could be wrong—maybe the passionate fans will call this derivative, too.

Beyond the story, you have to look at the performances and the action, and both criteria deliver mixed results. Mescal is a solid lead, though he’ll come up short in the inevitable comparisons to Russell Crowe. Washington is more memorable in his role, even if it doesn’t feel like an especially unique role for the actor; here he’s mostly doing what he does best, and that’s plenty to get the job done.

One of the more intriguing comparisons is between the original heavy Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), whose equivalent here is a brotherly duo of decadent Roman emperors (Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger). They serve their roles well, but even combined they lack the violent and childish charisma Phoenix imbued in his character.

The action scenes are pretty solid—the opening battle is good enough that you come away wishing you’d see more of that than the hand-to-hand gladiator stuff to come. Some bizarre CGI monkeys that show up in one battle look too alien to be real, but most of the efforts look effective.

Overall, “Gladiator II” works as a watchable movie, but it doesn’t do quite enough to justify its status as a sequel. Just make sure you stick around past the first hour, or it won’t work in either case.

“Gladiator II” is rated R for some graphic bloody violence, as well as some sexual content.

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Like the “Terminator” franchise, “Alien” movies have been trying to recapture their former glory for several decades. In both cases, successful sequels gave filmmakers the idea that their franchises had continuing potential, but as of 2024, it’s hard to argue that any releases after 1986’s “Aliens” or 1991’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” have even approached the towering quality of those early classics.

That being the case, “Alien: Romulus” is a pretty worthy stab at the goal. Fede Alvarez’s film won’t threaten the lofty status of the Ridley Scott original or the James Cameron sequel, but compared to the other pretenders, “Romulus” does a lot of things right, and is worth a look in spite of its faults.

The story follows an ill-fated group of 20-somethings as a seemingly simple heist operation gets a heavy dose of Xenomorph complications. Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and her companions live on a remote mining colony where politics and bureaucracy have eliminated any chance of a better life. To escape, they need hibernation pods to enable the multi-year journey to the nearest civilized world, and a nearby abandoned space station just happens to have a few.

What the young thieves don’t know is that the orbiting hulk is the site of a science experiment gone horribly wrong. The crew had acquired a Xenomorph from the wreckage of the Nostromo (the ship featured in the 1979 film), and it chose not to cooperate with the experiment.

Naturally, Rain and co. get stranded on the station along with a host of aliens, either in traditional facehugger or full-grown form. The standard cat-and-mouse game follows as the more expendable characters get dispatched, and the slightly-more-sympathetic ones face increasingly steep odds of escape. Along the way Alvarez sprinkles in plenty of nods to the earlier films, most dramatically with another attempt to CGI a deceased actor back onscreen.

By focusing on such a young cast, “Romulus” undercuts some of the gravitas of those earlier films, but rather gives Alvarez’s film more of a traditional slasher vibe, befitting his own past work in 2013’s “Evil Dead” remake and 2016’s “Don’t Breathe.” It’s an interesting spin on the franchise, and a nod to the “haunted house in space” concept of the original film, but it has its drawbacks.

Still, there really are some good elements at work here. The visuals and atmosphere are spot on, and the world of “Romulus” is claustrophobic and fully believable. And even if the twists and turns get a little stale by the end of the film’s 119-minute run time, Alvarez keeps his moving parts mostly interesting. The finale is a little more funny than frightening, but the director deserves credit for trying.

Ultimately, the film’s reliance on franchise tropes starts to make it feel like more of a soft reboot of the first film, with sprinkled references to the second, resulting in a fun movie that’s more of a tribute than an original story of its own. Again, compared to some of the other sequels in the franchise, it’s not a bad thing. But there’s definitely the sense that some different decisions might have delivered something that could stand on its own.

“Alien: Romulus” is rated R for scattered profanity and sequences of horror violence.

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Here are five directors that started out so promising, but fell so far. Hopefully one day will win our love back.

George Lucas

Will George Lucas ever direct again? “Why would I make any more when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?” George Lucas once told the New York Times.

Well you are not a terrible person George, you’re just not good at making movies anymore.

George Lucas started out insanely strong directing films like
“American Graffiti” and “Star Wars: IV- A New Hope.” He then passed the directing reigns on for installments V and VI of the Star Wars saga. He then decided to direct the prequel installments, Episodes I-III. We could write hundreds of pages of what is wrong with those films, but if you’ve seen them you already know.

So maybe it is better he has called it quits for now.

Tim Burton

Burton has kind of got himself back on the right track with his latest movie “Big Eyes,” but before that can you name the last Tim Burton movie you liked?

For me it was 2003’s “Big Fish.”

Burton’s quirky directing style made him a hit with movies like “Beetlejuice,” “Edward Scissorhands” and “Batman” among some other awesome films. Then enter Johnny Depp. This weird partnership with Depp has produced films like “Dark Shadows,” “Charlie and Chocolate Factory” and a few other misfires.

Burton might have a chance to right the ship if “Beetlejuice 2” ever ends up happening. We all could use another Burton classic in our DVD collection.

Oliver Stone

Stone scored two Oscars for his directing skills back in the day. “Platoon,” “Born on the Fourth of July”, and “Natural Born Killers” are just a few of his earlier success. He was so good that the main focus of his trailers were the fact he directed the movie.

Well now when you see it is an Oliver Stone film you roll your eyes. How could you not after films like “Any Given Sunday”, “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” and “Savages”? His over-directing has become almost as comical as his movies. Almost.

Hopefully his upcoming film “Snowden” will get him back to his old self, but I am not holding my breath.

I think it might be time to retire to your mansion Mr. Stone.

Ridley Scott

“Alien”,“Blade Runner”, and “Gladiator” are all classic films. Scott’s films are larger than life, and he has the ability to put you right in the action. If you’ve ever seen “Black Hawk Down” you know what I am talking about.

These days, however, when I see a Ridley Scott film is coming out I can count on two things: it will be long and likely not that great. “Exodus: Gods and Kings” was a flop, “Robin Hood” put me to sleep, and I couldn’t bring myself to see “The Counselor.” Some argue that “Prometheus”, was pretty good, but it was no “Alien”.

Scott directed the upcoming big screen adaptation of “The Martian,” which comes out later this year. I still have high hopes for this one. Hopefully “Exodus” him a lesson and he’ll learn from his mistakes and get back to his roots.

M. Night Shyamalan

Oh M. Night, what happened to you buddy? I will start by saying I am a M. Night fan. I loved “The Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable” “Signs” and “The Village.” I even liked “Lady in the Water,” which most people hated. Then “The Happening” happened and it’s been downhill since.

I tried watching “The Last Airbender”, could not get through it, and the only reason I did watch it is because he directed it. I was excited he teamed up with Will Smith to make “After Earth,” but that was another massive failure and major disappointment. I watch his earlier films all the time and wonder how he fell so far?

His next film “The Visit” comes out later this year and the rumor is he is back to his old self. Well let’s hope so, because this might be his last chance before all his fans finally give up on him.

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