With awards season dawning on us, here are two entertaining polar opposite movies that are worth the watch and cannot be described with a few words.

“Wicked”

According to IMDb, “Wicked” won 44 awards with 183 nominations, and “Gladiator 2” won three awards with 77 nominations.

“Wicked,” directed by Jon M. Chu, was released on Nov. 22. This film received an 8.1/10 on the IMDb ratings, 73% on Metacritic and 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. 

I saw Wicked on Dec. 6 at the AMC Theatre at Castle Rock 12 with my mom and sister. I saw this film because my family and I have attended at least nine “Wicked the Musical” showings since I was a toddler. 

It’s spectacular. The sets of each scene shifted the perspective from the musical stage because everything was much more colorful and intricate. The dramatic pauses they added before each ending of the songs were so suspenseful because it was the part of the song I looked forward to most. Cynthia and Ariana’s voices are perfect together and very similar to the original Idina and Kristen with their twists to the songs in the movie. There are rare moments in my house when the playlist isn’t playing.

I would rate this movie a 9.5 out of 10 because while nothing is perfect, this was pretty close. After all, I still love the original musical better because I grew up with it, but this was a beautiful remake.

 I had some critiques on parts of the song being delayed because of dialog or silence, but other than that; this movie made me cry three times, laugh more than I can count and tell my mom we needed to see it the second we left the theater. Zoe Kandel ‘27 also saw “Wicked” when it came to theaters.

“I think, for the most part, casting was good. I know that they had to put it into two parts because that would be a long movie, like four hours long. It was amazing. I mean, I love live theater, there’s nothing like that, but the movie was excellent,” Kandel said.

“Gladiator 2”

“Gladiator 2”, directed by Ridley Scott, was released on Nov. 22 in the USA. This film received a 6.9/10 on the IMDb ratings, 72% on Rotten Tomatoes and 82% on Fandango. 

My favorite thing about the first “Gladiator” film was the music composed by Hans Zimmer, Lisa Gerrard and Klaus Badelt. It reminded me of the music in “Pirates of the Caribbean” because of how Hans Zimmer composed his music. I saw the second movie at AMC Theaters at Castle Rock 12 on Dec. 11 with my dad. 

The second the movie was over, my dad and I said in unison, “That was awesome.”

There was nothing to upstage the music from the first Gladiator because the action was the only thing we could pay attention to. I especially liked the correlation between the first movie and the flashbacks and characters from the movie. The evil look of each emperor in both movies, with the pale face and dark eyes, fits each character perfectly. My dad and I especially loved the cinematography of Rome. 

If I had to describe this movie in a simple phrase, it would be, “Jaw Dropping.” In my review of Wicked, I wrote that nothing is perfect, but I would rate this a 10/10. Despite the negative reviews about historical accuracy, I thought this movie was terrific and had nothing bad to say about it. I loved the first movie, and while not every sequel is as good as the first, this one was pretty close. The second “Gladiator 2” started streaming from home, we bought it. A little spoiler alert: if you know the story of Romulus and Remus, director Ridley Scott used Emperor Geta and Emperor Caracalla to be equivalent to them. 

I had doubts before I saw this film because of the negative reviews online, but my dad and I left the theater saying, “What were those critics talking about? Did they see the same movie?”

“I would rate it a 9/10. The fights were really good, especially the ocean fight. I wish they would’ve explained the first movie a little better because the follow-up wasn’t awesome. The casting was pretty good and I liked the character changes from the first movie to the second movie,” Rigel Dodge ‘27 said. 

“Wicked” made me cry; “Gladiator” made me want to fight in a war.