The Case for 'Gladiator II'

Let’s get this out of the way immediately: No, the Romans never introduced sharks to the Colosseum.

Without giving away too much of the plot of Ridley Scott’s new epic Gladiator II, the sequel to the beloved first installment that made Russell Crowe an icon back in the year 2000, one long action sequence does indeed revolve around flooding the Colosseum. Long shots focus on those unfortunates who end up in the water, only to be torn into chunks by aquatic predators, much to the delight of the bloodthirsty crowd. It’s not subtle, or historically accurate in the pure sense, and it’s not meant to be. With that said, it is pretty cool, especially on an IMAX screen.