I'm not sure if I saw this too late (nearly 10 years after it's release) or if I had the bar set too high before me, probably a combination of the two. I just wasn't as impressed as other people had been before me. Even Netflix suggested I would rate this 4.7 out of 5 stars, and needless to say if I had a "star system" I wouldn't be giving it quite so high of a rating. The movie just seemed lacking characters seemed to come and go endlessly and you never had real back story or relationships. Yes there were a few main characters who had their own stories revealed but overall I just felt like it was a task to follow each new character that popped up.
I did enjoy the storyline, a man ripped from the top of his game and tossed into slavery. And only to come back to the top not through old connections or cheats but with his personality and will to prevail. I felt that Russell Crowe did a fantastic job at the lead role but it was with some of his co-stars that I had issue. I think that casting Joaquin Phoenix as Commodus aka Ceasar was a fatal blow for my vote. He seemed detached through the whole film. I understand that he was supposed to be showing his recluse as the new Ceasar and how he felt estranged among the crowd but I felt that he wasn't really connecting with his co-stars as well as other actors could. I was really happy with Oliver Reed's Proximo he really came across as a ruthless slave driver who viewed his warriors as property that he used for profit. As I said before there were far too many other actors in this film to critique them all but overall I did enjoy the movie just not as much as I thought I would it simply didn't live up to the hype for me. It was a good period piece and I would highly recommend it to anybody interested in the Roman Empire and the gladiators in the Colosseum. I'm just not one of those people. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed! Share your thoughts on the film in the comments below!!
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