I saw this on the big screen and remember feeling like "this is cinema" instead of "just another movie". The audience loved it as well.

Absolutely. This was the best "Best Picture" winner so far of the 2000s (2000-Present), and it won in 2000.

It's a great movie that's about 3o minutes to long ,but to compare it to comic book movies is dumb.

@UpYours said:

It's a great movie that's about 3o minutes to long ,but to compare it to comic book movies is dumb.

I know where he's coming from though. they're all action movies.

@Heisenberg12 said:

@UpYours said:

It's a great movie that's about 3o minutes to long ,but to compare it to comic book movies is dumb.

I know where he's coming from though. they're all action movies.

True but The Gladiator is serious action ,could br taken for true almost ,well we know comic book action is brainless fun .

Definitely better than comic book movies, most of which are overrated action movies, this movie along with Braveheart helped bring back the sword and sandals genre for a time, but unfortunately no other sword and sandals movie since has come close to being as good as Gladiator.

I’d love to see Ridley Scott returning to making Roman epics rather than Alien movies.

Agree, Gladiator is one of the greatest movies ever made

That's not saying much since most movies are better than comic book movies once you realize they all follow the same template, even down to the placeholder music.

Not downplaying the movie, it's one of the greats. But why compare to comic book movies?

Thanks for the replies guys... I'm comparing it to comic book movies because Gladiator was a big, studio, action/adventure movie aimed at a mainstream audience... But it was dripping with quality... It's the kind of thing that big movies at least aimed for...

I look at movies today that are aimed at a mass audience and can't help but think that something is missing with all of these very ordinary comic-book movies... I really do think that if Gladiator was released today, it would own the box office and would show the audience something they haven't seen on the big screen in a long, long time...

I just saw Spartacus for the 1st time, loved it and wanted more gladiator movies, but I was really let down from Gladiator, the characters were really forgettable, the acting really dry, and the battles were just there for blood and gore on the audience nothing more, I think Spartacus is more advanced in terms of it's emotion, we care about the characters more, the soundtrack brings us in, and the battles mean something.

Gladiator didn't have the right actors, soundtrack, or tangible emotion to captivate.

Ridley Scott is a good director, but he falls short here, I would compare this to modern comic movies of how forgettable it is.

very interesting perspective... i should give Spartacus a try... thanks 👍

@intothenightalone said:

I saw this on the big screen and remember feeling like "this is cinema" instead of "just another movie". The audience loved it as well.

Just rewatched on DVD. I also remember pretty much the exact same feeling when seeing this for the first time in the theatre. When Ridley Scott gets it right, he really gets it right and this time Scott got really got it right. I can understand the comparison to comic book movies as they are so pervasive nowadays so they're pretty much the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of movies, but I think it's a bit unfair as they really aren't meant to be the same thing as Gladiator.

This movie is why we look at things like the functions of swords on a shield

Even with a rating on 8/10 this movie does feel underrated. It's the sort of film you just don't see anymore, a powerful, relatable and bittersweet story, an epic soundtrack and lots of ambition.