Gladiator

I have a history of not liking Ridley Scott movies, and there's nothing in Gladiator for me. The time period reminded me of Titus (the Anthony Hopkins movie, not the comedian). I’d recommend watching that instead.

Gladiator came out the same year as Snatch. I guess I'm on an old movie kick. Like Snatch, I saw Gladiator back then, but I had completely forgotten all of it, and for some reason, I never saw the ending of Gladiator. It's widely regarded as a good movie, I guess. One of the people I was watching it with kept saying "this is such a good movie" during it, but I didn't share that sentiment. I think I'm pretty safe in saying I just don't like Ridley Scott's movies.

The opening fight scene reminded me of Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. I guess Gladiator came out first, so it should be the other way around. It's not a very feminist movie. There's not really anything for women to identify with or like.

Lucilla is completely powerless. She's just at the mercy of the men around her. They didn't try to keep their plan to take Commodus down a secret at all. But the acting was good. I liked Djimon's character. I felt bad for Commodus. His actions weren't justified in the slightest, but he was a really messed up guy. The parts with him coming on to his sister and nephew were super creepy.

 I liked that the slave owner turned out to be a nice guy and tried to help them. I don't think putting the senate in charge really fixed anything, since the old emperor was saying the senate was corrupt. And it was too convenient, too much of an easy out that Maximus died at the end.