The first 5 minutes of this were very predictable. You just knew as soon as Hanno kissed his wife that she was going to be gone in the next scene. Add in the overused family tree aspect of the plot that has been done to death and there is more that we've all seen before. It's entertaining, but this film just never came alive for me in the way great movies do. Paul Mescal—who bears a striking resemblance to Daniel Radcliffe—lacks the commanding presence Russell Crowe brought to the first installment. On top of that, the mishmash of accents, with no effort to maintain consistency or embrace Italian authenticity, shatters any sense of immersion the film might have otherwise achieved. It seems like movies aren't even trying to do this anymore unless the actors are taking the place of a historical POC.