Given the reputation of director Ridley Scott and the impressive trailers I had seen, I went into Gladitator with some pretty high hopes. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to many of them. The frustrating thing is that I can see so much potential for the material, yet it is all handled so badly. There are a number of elements that I felt diminished the film, but the three most obvious are the direction, the cinematography (not so much the practical sets, but with the virtual sets) and the swing between a lack of character development in the secondary characters and the amateurish development choices made for the major characters.

The film opens on a battlefield with two armies ready to annihilate each other. The scene almost looks lifted right out of Braveheart, but all similarities to that film end once combat begins. Where Braveheart's battles successfully appeared chaotic, yet remained easy for the viewer to follow, the opening battle in Gladiator has more in common with the frenetic opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan. In fact, it seems as though Ridley Scott forgot that he was making a film set in 180 AD as this battle contains nearly as many explosions as you'd expect to see in a modern war film. Adding to the confusion, the camera spends most of the battle pointed at the ground. I guess that's one way to save time and money on choreographing a fight scene.

The hero of the battle is a Roman general named Maximus Russell Crowe). After winning the day, the dying Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) calls in Maximus and tells him that he can't return home yet, that he has one last task for him. Not trusting his son, the Emperor wishes Maximus to be his heir and return Rome to glory. The Emperor's son, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), overhears this plan and assassinates his father before he can carry out his plan.

Upon declaring himself Caesar, Commodus demands loyalty from Maximus and when the general refuses, Commodus has him removed from command and orders him executed. Maximus succeeds in escaping, which only inspires Commodus to kill his family in outrage. In despair, Maximus allows himself to be sold into slavery.

Maximus soon makes a name for himself in the gladiatorial arena and eventually finds himself in the Coliseum in Rome. It is here that Maximus begins to see a chance for revenge as he tries to take the respect of the people away from Commodus.

I mentioned that the cinematography was one of the film's problems. This is most evident during many of the shots of Rome. At times the city looks dirty and dingy, while at other times (only a few scenes apart), the city looks washed out and white. Many of the city fly-overs are clearly computer generated and never look convincing. A special effect should not distract and remove the viewer from the film. Computer effects, when used correctly, can greatly enhance a scene. Here, however, I think we would have been better off seeing a practical model of Rome rather than a computer generated one.

Another problem is that Russell Crowe simply isn't up to the role. Certainly he's able from a physical perspective, but his acting never seems to find the right notes. I hate to use Braveheart as a comparison yet again, but watch Mel Gibson's performance in that film. You can see William Wallace's emotions played out in Gibson's face. This is missing in Russell Crowe's Maximus. I can't single out Crowe, however, as this is a problem for all of the characters in the film. We are told plenty about the main characters, but shown very little.