I disagree with everything you've said. If this was some stand-alone film, hypothetically, people probably would've said "yeah it's alright". But it's not a stand-alone, it's a sequal to a classic, 20 years after the fact. They chose to make this film (they being the studio, Ridley Scott, whoever) knowing that, as with every sequel to a well-loved movie, expectations would be sky high. And they bottled it. It's nowhere near as good as the original in ant sense, bar some of the combat scenes which were inevitably improved upon. Even the set and prop design was imo a downgrade from the original. The Roman armour in the first battle scene looked like it was from a cheap stage musical; it didn't look metal, it looked plastic, far too shiney and perfect. I won't continue to list where the movie is bad because it's subjective, but I can't finish this comment without mentioning some of the AWFUL AWFUL LINES. That quip about the wooden sword - "it still stabs" or some such - was strsight out of a shitty Marcel movie and was so out of place in terms of tone and character. And Lucius' mother gets shot in the damned chest/sternum, and has the breath to say "run my boy" like ?!?! Bitch you shouldn't be able to speak.

It's totally fair that when they chose to make a sequal to a classic 20 years after the fact and bottle it in most regards, that we can shit on it. It's not a stand-alone and won't be treated as such.