The slogan for Ridley Scott‘film from 2000 Gladiator was succinct and effective: “The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an emperor.’ That tells us pretty much everything we need to know about the film’s plot, and promises an exciting journey of fall and rise, that Gladiator delivered mightily. A slogan for Gladiator II (in theaters Nov. 22) should be a little more complicated: “The warrior who becomes a slave, the slave who becomes a gladiator, the gladiator who challenges two emperors, but also some other bad guys and maybe a pretty good guy, but also the warrior/slave/gladiator is actually a Roman prince who is heir to the empire, but no one really knows.” The simplicity of the past is missed.

There’s a lot missing from the sequel. Gone is the rich visual texture of its predecessor, which was shot on film, replaced by the flat, dimly lit tinniness of digital. Joaquin Phoenix‘s brilliantly sniveling, sinister turn as the evil Commodus gets a pale imitation in the form of the literally pale Joseph Quinn And Fred Hechingerlike a pair of brother emperors flitting around in the background like campy Halloween ghosts. What’s most shocking is that the great emotional impact of the first film is nowhere to be seen Gladiator II; the sequel is epic in length and spectacle, but not in feeling.

Paul Mescalwavy and scruffy, plays Hanno, a farmer-soldier who lives with his wife in Numidia, on the north coast of Africa. Their relative idyll is soon violently disrupted by the Romans, who at the time were prone to violent disruption, and Hanno becomes the spoils of war, sold into the gladiator system and shipped to Rome to fight and die – or, as he had done, give up prefers to take revenge. Hanno arrives in a city full of conflict, suffering under the vain rule of the twin emperors, as the infrastructure creaks under the weight of corruption, rebellion rages on the streets and in dark rooms where powerful people plot a coup.

One of those conspirators is Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), the daughter of Marcus Aurelius and former clandestine lover of Maximus, the hero of the first film. She is now married to Pedro PascalGeneral Acacius, a formidable soldier who has had enough of all the bloody conquests demanded by the emperors. Through a series of somewhat contrived circumstances, Lucilla soon realizes that Hanno, now a rising star from the Coliseum, is not Hanno at all, but rather Lucius, the son she sent for safekeeping after the events of the first film.

So there is a family drama here, a homecoming that Hanno does not want to be part of. Gladiator II is about the hope for a better Rome, but also about a justified distaste for the entire imperial enterprise. Exploiting these rifts is arms dealer and gladiator dealer Macrinus, a clever and cunning operator, played by a florid, fantastic Denzel Washington. He is the true machinator of the story, playing an invisible long game in his quest for power and retribution.

There are many moving parts to the story, and yet that tangle doesn’t create the feeling of a dense and fascinating city in revolt. There is some binding energy missing here; The many parts of the story never coalesce into a compelling whole. Despite a running time of 148 minutes, Gladiator II is strangely rushed, zigzagging back and forth as it tries to stir up a storm of dynastic strife and intrigue. Hanno gets lost in the shuffling and becomes less of a character than just a piece on the game board.

Of course, a movie like this can always fall back on the battle scenes. Scott goes to the max in that regard by staging arena battles involving baboons, sharks, a rhino and boats. Technically they are impressive, but they also do not evoke much of the brutal horror of the first film. Those fight sequences had stakes; in this case the results are all too obvious foregone conclusions. And as always, a heavy reliance on CGI (which doesn’t look very good) proves more alienating than awe-inspiring.

However, Scott has some moments of wonder, especially as the film builds to its climax. There is finally the feeling of terrible momentum Gladiator II spent two hours trying to create the idea that history is unfolding in real time as these characters try to bend the will of fate in a just direction. It can’t be a coincidence that Scott is weaving some of it together at this moment Hans Zimmer‘s original score, such a floating and evocative piece of music. The sharpness and rumble of an older mythos descends upon this lesser story, elevating it in the process. Hanno’s arc suddenly matters, his place in the Gladiator firmament finally clear.

It takes a long time to get there, though, a mediocre trek through the Roman wilderness, occasionally enlivened by one of Washington’s enchanting highlights. He is the film’s true portrait of danger and mad drive, of the carefully planned overthrow of a vast and crushing system. Hanno, played with quiet power by Mescal, is no match for Macrinus and his ruthless, sophisticated maneuvering in the precarious hierarchy of the ancient world. And he hardly needs to pick up a sword to do so.