By Matt Soergel
Florida Times-Union

It's a blast when Russell Crowe is desperately fighting a behemoth who looks like the Great Humongous from The Road Warrior, all brawn and armor and whirling blades.

But when trap doors open in the sandy floor of the Colosseum and snarling tigers jump out at Crowe, straining at the ends of their chains . . . well, it's just too much -- in a really, really good way.

Gladiator, a movie that has had action-starved moviegoers salivating for months on the Internet, is here today.

And it delivers.

It's no Braveheart -- it's more interested in spectacle than passion, and rarely makes you feel truly transported back to those muddy, mucky times.

But it's often thrilling, not flagging for a second of its two hours and 30 minutes, not from its opening scene in the frosty German woods to its conclusion (a unlikely but satisfying one) inside the Colosseum.

It has fantastically staged stunts and a computer-generated re-creation of ancient Rome that owes more than a little to the imagination of Star Wars' George Lucas.

For all its extravagance, though, it revolves around one ordinary-sized actor: Russell Crowe, a long way from his overweight, aging informer in The Insider.

Crowe is Maximus, a beloved Roman general turned slave turned gladiator turned revolutionary. He's flinty, macho and compassionate; it's hard to picture anyone else pulling it off.

Just watch him growl this order -- a memorable movie line, this -- to his massed troops: "At my signal, unleash hell."

Joaquin Phoenix, meanwhile, is appropriately craven and tormented as Maximus' nemesis, Commodus, a scheming weakling of an emperor. Connie Nielsen, the only good thing about Mission to Mars, makes the most of her role as the emperor's sister, who has had a thing for Maximus all these years. And there's good help from a strong supporting cast, including Oliver Reed in his last role, Derek Jacobi, Djimon Hounsou of Amistad and Richard Harris.

The action and the acting are good enough that you'll cheerfully shrug off the corny, didactic dialogue, which, after all, isn't why you're here. And, to its credit, the dialogue does what it's supposed to do, which is move the story along efficiently through the necessary palace intrigue.

For a while there, though, it seems as if Gladiator's going to get all serious on us, drawing parallels between the bloodthirsty Colosseum crowds and modern entertainment.

Wisely, though, it ditches such high-minded thoughts and brings on the tigers.

Director Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, along with the filmed-in-Jacksonville G.I. Jane), has a sure touch with the epic sets and scenes, even if he has a few too many shots of fast-moving clouds.

The violence is brutal and outrageous, but Scott's quick-cutting technique distracts from the gore. The energy in the Colosseum ring is undiminished, though: It is spectacular.

Gladiator even has a scene with those chariots with the blades that stick out from the wheels, slashing at those in its path. They do plenty of damage, in a most thrilling way.