Gladiator II transports us into the Roman Colosseum with brutal and eye-opening immediacy. It's exactly what we've come to expect from director Ridley Scott who revisits the blood-soaked and powerful territory of his Oscar-winning Gladiator (2000).
Man of the moment Paul Mescal plays the former blue-blood Lucius Verus who is sold into slavery and becomes witness to a dangerous power struggle at the heart of the Roman Empire. The scale of the movie is vast, the emotions are vivid and Denzel Washington eats up the scenery as the scheming slave owner turned tyrant Macrinus.
It's the sort of movie that's expressly designed for the big-screen experience, taking us back into the realm of ancient antiquity in all its decadent, unpredictable glory. We caught up with Paul and his co-star Fred Hechinger, who plays the psychotic Emperor Caracalla, to chat all things movies.
In particular, we wanted to know which of their favourite snacks would make the ideal arena weapons. We also got their take on the Cineworld-exclusive format 4DX, which invests a greater sense of physicality into the movie's roaring action sequences. Check it out below.
Gladiator II is on release now at Cineworld. Book your tickets via the link below and we'll see you in Elysium.