4 stars out of five.
Ace is out of his tree, prefering to judge a movie by whether it follows a handful of screenwriting and directorial rules of thumb, rather than judging it on whether it works. I think it worked quite well. His well-established aversion to anything other than conventional action movie camera-work shows as well.
It certainly is a hybrid of a melodrama and action movie, but I thought it succeeded quite nicely in both realms, actually being extremely moving at times. I deem this to be more to the credit of the cast than the screenwriting.
As an action film, it certainly is quite busy, and while I do, as a rule, tend to think that medium shots, with longer takes, work better in action films, that isn't always the case if the director and editor are good enough to assemble meaning out of the larger quantity of shots. Scott is certainly good enough, and the only fight which was hard to follow was the first gladiator fight, a free for all, which was *meant* to have more of a visceral than a narrative feel to it.
All of the fights are top notch, particularly the battle against the charioteers.
As to the ending, I do think it works better than Ace and Jack do, in that the film pretty much prepares us for it in the characterization of the emperor. I would bet money, however, that one or two more scenes further establishing that particular aspect of his character were cut.
The movie made about $35 million this weekend, which is quite close to breaking Air Force One's record opening for an R rated film. I think the success of Gladiator is pretty much going to guarantee that Battlefield Earth, opening next weekend, is going to be a flop.
