Maximus Decimus Meridius is not a particularly complex character. He is at first a noble soldier, than an angry and revenge seeking although still noble Gladiator. Admittedly there is not too much for Crowe to really work with, but I won't let him off the hook because of that. Crowe technically could have attempted to give something more to his character through is portrayal but he really does not.
Crowe keeps with his macho, noble portrayal throughout the film, with his dark stares and dramatic recitation of speeches. Now I do not think a performance like this should be taken for granted, if it was a good performance, but its not. Although the character is simple I do believe the real problem is with the performance. For example at the beginning of the film where he is about to lead his men into a battle against the evil hoards, he really is lacking as a true leader. I never really believed that he would be the commander of all these men, since he really lacks strength, particularly in his speech to his men.
After that initial scene they beat him down send him on his way, and turn him into a gladiator. Now he is dark brooding sort of, never frankly seems to grieve all that much, over his brutally murdered family. Anyway though he does become deeply anger over it, well more of just darkly talks about it, rather really showing any true rage, or obsession. Frankly Crowe portrays the part in an overly safe manner never really showing Maximus as just a super darkly heroic guy, which he frankly could actually have been more.
I think the biggest weakness of his performance though is he actually does not make for a compelling lead, in that I never really felt too invested in his character or his journey. Sure I did want to see Commodus get his, but who wouldn't. Crowe performance through this journey to kill Commodus is never impressive, many time lacking particularly in terms of being inspiring, and a great leader, or really create anything more than a very basic performance filled with dark stares, and dramatic line readings. Also really even the line readings mostly are made dramatic by the incredibly dramatic score. Overall just a lacking performance, that is not really is not even a functional performance.
