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Close to this time last year, Ridley Scott released a historical epic about a complicated leader with enemies aplenty that multiple historians panned in terms of the picture's historical accuracy. The film in question, "Napoleon," was cloaked in imprecision, but Scott couldn't have cared less. "Get a life," he backhandedly told those who questioned his vision in an interview with The New Yorker, caring not for opinions on whether or not Napoleon Bonaparte ever actually shot cannons at the pyramids of Giza, among other "falsities" that Scott and writer David Scarpa brought to life. After all, can you actually prove that Napoleon never shouted "You think you're so great because you have boats?!" in someone's face?

Twelve months have passed, but historians have yet to learn that questioning the factual validity of a film directed by Scott, particularly when said film is set during a prominent period of the past, is a fool's errand, one to be met with Scott's now-trademarked brusqueness and a few chuckle-worthy expletives. This time, the film under the microscope is "Gladiator II," the sequel to Scott's Best Picture-winning "Gladiator," set years after the deaths of Maximus (Russell Crowe) and Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). Scholars of ancient Rome have called "Gladiator II" "total Hollywood bullshit," specifically regarding some of the film's biggest setpieces. One of those sequences features a purposefully-flooded Colosseum in which sharks are swimming freely, prepared to feast upon the bodies of warriors tossed overboard; "I don't think Romans knew what a shark was," said Dr. Shadi Bartsch, a classics professor at the University of Chicago who has written several books about ancient Rome. Another scene involves the film's hero, Lucius (Paul Mescal), staring down a two-horned rhino that is charging towards him at full speed. The problem there? Only a single-horned rhino has ever been mentioned as a possible arena foe, and gladiators may or may not have ridden them. Scott has dismissed these criticisms, but the most fitting response is one that he gave last year about "Napoleon": "When I have issues with historians, I ask: ‘Excuse me, mate, were you there? No? Well, shut the f*** up then.'"

Scott wasn't there either, but he has been operating on Hollywood's grandest achievable scale for the better part of 40-odd years, and if nothing else, "Gladiator II" rewards those who have gotten used to the octogenarian's penchant for extravagance, especially in recent years. The sharks and the bloodthirsty rhino don't begin to scratch the surface of the sequel's resplendent ambitions, even though there's more where these zoo animals came from - including an army of rabid baboons who attempt to tear a group of ill-equipped prisoners limb from limb. Among these prisoners is Lucius, who we know from the film's premise and marketing materials to be the long-lost secret son of Maximus and Lucilla (Connie Nielsen, one of the few original cast members to appear in the sequel and not just via flashback) and the nephew of the vile, incest-hungry Commodus. When the film begins, he's living in the province of Numidia with his wife; within a few moments of their introduction, they are off to battle, where Lucius leads an army into combat against General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) and his Roman soldiers. Lucius and co. are resoundingly defeated, and to pour salt in the wound, Acacius shoots an arrow directly into Lucius' wife's chest, killing her instantly. Once imprisoned and taken back to Rome, the battles Lucius is forced to take part in essentially amount to auctions - advertisements for potential gladiators, to be awarded to the highest bidder, survival-dependent, of course.

Enter Macrinus (Denzel Washington, shockingly waltzing away with the film), a man who was once a slave and has come to earn the trust of the Roman Empire's top brass due to his ear-to-the-ground intel and savvy business dealings. Impressed by Lucius's skill in the arena, Macrinus purchases him and vows to pit him against opponents of increasing skill, each victory slated to recompense the latter's own investment and eventually, perhaps, grant the former his freedom. This plot - Macrinus', not the film's - has wrinkles abounding, however, as both parties have ulterior motives: Macrinus vies to take possession of the throne as emperor, which is currently held by a pair of sniveling, syphilis-bearing twins, Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger), while Lucius wants revenge against Acacius for the murder of his wife. It's not until later that a secondary incentive appears in the form of Lucilla, whose reunion with her son is delayed due, in no small part, to her marriage to Acacius himself.

From there, the plot could be described as a roller coaster, but not in the way that viewers typically tend to sum up the experience of riding one as it relates to film. There are ups, yes, and there are downs, of course. But the thing that people always tend to forget about roller coasters is that when the ride ends, you end up back where you began. If you were entertained enough, you might be happy to return for another round. "Gladiator II" banks on that experience being a common one, as its 148-minute runtime tends to go in wild, swordfight-heavy circles more than it attempts to reinvent the wheel that its predecessor set in motion.

Suffice it to say, there are more loop-de-loops on this ride than there are animatronic characters beckoning you towards a water feature, regardless of the film's numerous moving parts and many, many characters. And each trip upside-down - a Colosseum-set battle between two of the film's preeminent warriors; Macrinus first, sixth, and ninth attempts at politicking and puppeteering his way to power; every time Tim McInnerny loses another bet to Macrinus, losing more riches and power with every swindle - leads us back to the same place. Lucius, dubbed "The Barbarian" by Matt Lucas' head of the games character, is still seething, seeking revenge for his wife and, later on, his father, who was done dirty by those in power.

The problem lies in the battles themselves, as despite their ridiculous reliance on vicious Amazonian creatures, they are overlong and repetitive, with only two of the too many to count bearing any stakes whatsoever in terms of moving the film's plot forward. In and of itself, that's a quality that Scott's films have slightly discarded in favor of dramatics and humor. Not since "The Last Duel," which not-so-coincidentally was written by the magnificent trio of Nicole Holofcener, Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon, has one of Scott's films properly held up its end of the bargain in terms of honoring the deceit its script offers as a prominent narrative device. While Scott and the aforementioned Scarpa, now on his third collaboration with the director, nearly manage to elevate "Gladiator II" to such territory, one must wonder how much that has to do with the fact that Washington is often involved in these applicable scenes. As Macrinus, the two-time Oscar winner oozes charisma and shady ambitions, and spends much of his screen time cutting the legs out from under his allies, a delicious against-type role for Washington that prognosticators believe should nab him an 11th Academy Award nomination.

It's an excellent performance, and though it's not the film's only towering piece of work - Quinn is especially devilish as Emperor Geta; stockholders will be paid handsome dividends - it stands apart from those paired with him most, even the ever-capable Mescal, whose turn as Lucius is certainly bolstered by the actor's muscular frame and brooding, uber-Roman mug. Audiences are bound to swoon over his many cuts and bruises - one Letterboxd review joked, "everything lucius goes through i'd do for a night with paul mescal" - while looking past a performance that is a bit one-note, and has already been unfavorably (while unfairly) compared to Russell Crowe's Oscar-winning work in the original film. Yet nothing about "Gladiator II" seems interested in replicating what was done in "Gladiator," and it's a better film for it. "Gladiator II" is bigger, if not bolder, and though some of its battles feel as though they have been placed piecemeal throughout the runtime in an effort to inject excitement into the otherwise talky proceedings, those discussions are plenty interesting on their own.

The only thing as consistent in "Gladiator II" as the Colosseum, its penchant for deranged animals, and the presence of power-hungry supporting characters is an ideal that is repeated to Lucius by multiple characters throughout: "Do not let them change who you are." It's a notion that not applies to Lucius, a warrior who is hungrier for justice than he is blood, but to Scott as well. Of course, this critic also jotted in his notes that Scott is similar to a shark in that when he smells blood, he chases it and feasts upon it, a quality that bleeds from one movie to the next in his filmography. But he's also a curious kind of auteur in his ability to make epics that exist on the shoulders of reckless abandon yet remain grounded as far as their themes are concerned. There is certainly a more ambitious read of "Gladiator II" one could take - that it is politically cognizant of our current climate, its first major battle being a conquest of an immigrant-populated province whose survivors are taken prisoner by a more powerful realm with satanic-leaning leaders - but I tend to believe that the film is far more curious in taunting its inspiration with an "anything you can do, I can do bigger" sort of jab. It's no coincidence that Lucius never bellows "Are you not entertained?!" in this film, because Scott, Scarpa, Mescal, and co. already assume that you are. That assumption is, in a sense, "Gladiator II''s meat and potatoes. Anything else you take away is just gravy.

"Gladiator II" opens in US theaters on November 22nd.