Rome is teetering on the edge ‘Gladiator II’ by Ridley Scott. It is said that the fall is imminent. The dream it once symbolized is dead. The once lofty ideals of the Roman Empire have deteriorated into a venal country now ruled by a pale-faced emperor.

On the throne is Geta (Joseph Quinn), who sits next to his sniveling brother Caracalla (Fred Hechinger). The heart of this Rome is of course the Colosseum, where crowds cheer for the gladiators as they fight and die. The ageless Scott remains remarkably at home there. The arena, with its bursts of spectacle and violence, is a stand-in for the director’s vision of the big screen: Go big or go home.

This dichotomy – a fallen society and its insatiable need for entertainment – ​​provides the clever and not entirely flattering backdrop to the ‘Gladiator’ films. Part two, set twenty years after the events of the first film, brings a new warrior to the Colosseum: a mysterious outsider named Lucius Verus, played by Paul Mescal. And to answer the inevitable question: yes. Yes, I had quite a good time.

‘Gladiator II’ isn’t quite the prestige film that the first Best Picture-winning film was in 2001. It’s more of a swaggering sword-and-sandal epic that values ​​the need to entertain above all else. No one in ‘Gladiator II’ understands that better Denzel Washington. His performance as the Machiavellian power broker Macrinus is a delightful blur of robes and grins – so convincingly over-the-top that he almost reaches 1990s Al Pacino standards.

Within this Rome there are scattered interest groups seeking to overthrow it, including Marcus Acacius, a decorated general who has just returned from a successful campaign to Numidia in northwest Africa. (That siege provides the film’s thrilling opening, with an armada racing toward the walled city at near-NASCAR speed, towers on the bows of the boats climbing the parapets.)

Acacius is a loyal Roman, but when he discovers that the emperors are only more bloodthirsty for more territory and more war, he and his wife Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) begin plotting to overthrow the brothers.

In a film where everyone harbors a secret, few remain hidden for long. Chief among them is Lucius Verus, a warrior in Numidia who is captured and forced to fight as a gladiator. He is the son of Lucilla and Maximus (Crowe in “Gladiator”). After the events of that film, Lucilla sent him, an heir to the Empire, to Numidia to grow up away from the Empire’s power struggles.

Mescal, the great Irish actor from “Afterzon” And ‘We are all strangers’ steps smoothly into a blockbuster arena for the first time. “This one is interesting,” says Macrinus, looking at him for the first time. Mescal’s Lucius is vengeful: the Roman army kills his warrior wife in the Numidia battle. “The anger flows out of you like milk,” Macrinus says admiringly. The glint of mischief in Mescal’s eyes gives Lucius a little more character than the average vengeful gladiator.

We see how Lucius cunningly survives arena after arena. Meanwhile, Macrinus manipulates him to divert public interest away from the emperor. It is a rich, but somewhat cartoonish tapestry of palace intrigue, with Macrinus deftly pulling all the strings.

But in reality, no machinery of power is as compelling as the increasingly carnivalesque scenes of the Colosseum. During the gladiators’ first trip there, they are greeted by man-eating monkeys. Next, it’s a rider on top of a giant, charging rhino. Then the piece de resistance: a flooded Colosseum full of sharks. There are even small fake islands with palm trees scattered around.

Now ‘Gladiator II’ may not be able to compete with that a lot of research by historians. (Some issues were also addressed in Scott’s last historical epic, “Napoleon,” which was also written by David Scarpa). But this isn’t a film built on accuracy. It was created to inflate a few bits of history into a celebration and the charms of watching Washington’s Macrinus brandishing his head recently severed from his body.

Yes, heads are rolling in Scott’s sequel to Gladiator. Macrinus succeeds in sending Rome into a frenzy. In fact, he does it so easily and cunningly that as soon as things start to unravel for him, the air leaves ‘Gladiator II’. You don’t quite believe his recklessness after he turned the screws so patiently and artfully.

Nevertheless, two possible successors emerge: Lucius, who has the birthright to the throne, and Macrinus, who comes within his reach purely through his own wit. Is it any wonder I supported Macrinus all the time? How could you not, with Washington chewing up this kind of scenery and making pithy (and rather apt) statements like: “That, my friend, is politics!”

‘Gladiator II’, a Paramount Pictures release. is rated R for “strong bloody violence” by the Motion Picture Association. Running time: 148 minutes. Three stars out of four.