Run time: 148 mins

Ridley Scott’s return to the Roman arena is something of a repeat, but it’s still a ludicrously engaging epic, and Paul Mescal is a formidable lead. We are entertained.

15 years have passed since Russel Crowe’s Maximus defied an empire. His son Lucius (Mescal) has grown into manhood in Numidia, northern Africa, and soon plunges into war against the Roman invaders. Scott is in total command of the action scenes, and makes that point with an extravagant opening battle. Numidians catapult balls of fire toward the approaching Roman ships; Lucius’s wife is killed, he is captured, and surprise surprise, is sold into slavery as a gladiator.  His destiny brings him to Rome, vowing revenge against the empire’s General Acacius (Pedro Pascal).

Denzel Washington plays the cunning and ambitious slave-owner Macrinus, who plans to parlay his warlord status into political power. Meanwhile, Rome itself is no better after the last film; now we have not one, but two insufferable Caesars in Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger).

This is a sequel that delivers on upping the ante, and while Mescal doesn’t quite match Crowe’s intensity (who does?) it is nonetheless an utterly thrilling spectacle