Anyone expecting a solemn, emotionally stirring follow-up to Ridley Scott’s Oscar-winning Roman epic should be warned that Gladiator II ain’t that. Instead, Scott returns with a robustly entertaining, sometimes stupendously silly sequel that hits many of the narrative beats of its predecessor, before taking off in its own daft direction.

Paul Mescal plays Lucius Verus, the estranged son of Connie Nielsen’s noblewoman Lucilla and Russell Crowe’s deceased general and gladiator Maximus. He’s brought back to Rome as a slave following the Roman invasion of Numidia, led by Lucilla’s husband Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal). Marcus is acting on the orders of Rome’s current emperors, the tyrannical twins Geta and Caracalla (Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger), who he is secretly plotting to overthrow.

Harnessing his rage toward those who are responsible for the death of his wife Arishat (Yuval Gonen), Lucius becomes a remarkably successful gladiator himself. He’s schooled by former slave and aspiring politician Macrinus (Denzel Washington) and is reunited with his mother, before it all kicks off.

As with much of Scott’s recent output (from The Counsellor to House Of Gucci and Napoleon), his choices in Gladiator II are often heavily eccentric. Mescal has star quality to spare, but his more subtle and sincere turn is drowned out by the noise that surrounds him; Quinn and Hechinger deliver two-for-the-price-of-one lunacy, while Washington goes from sneaking to showboating as he gradually devours the film.

Scott can direct an exciting set-piece in his sleep and there are plenty of those here, from the deftly executed opening invasion to Colosseum-based carnage, including a staged sea battle that unbelievably has some historical validity. Playing like a tribute concert to the maddest excesses of the Roman Empire, what Gladiator II lacks in gravitas it makes up for in scenery chewing and sharks.

Gladiator II is in cinemas from Friday 15 November.