5. It Created A Truly Believable, Immersive World
Once again, The Lord of the Rings tends to take credit for something that Gladiator succeeded in doing well before those films came out (For the record, I don't mean to rag on The Lord of the Rings - they are amazing and groundbreaking films in their own right). Nowadays we have become quite accustomed to fully believing in CGI-enhanced environments that take us to different, exotic worlds. But back when Gladiator first came out, films set in that period had to rely on practical sets, none of which could truly capture the scope of something as grandiose as the ancient city of Rome at its peak. As a result, many of these films tended to look stagey, and very obviously filmed on soundstages and artificial sets. But with the advancement of new CGI technology, top-notch production design, computer-enabled digital color correction and other tools in his arsenal, Scott was able to open the film up, showing us vast cityscapes and environments that, together, succeeded creating one of the first truly immersive and believable nonexistent worlds - a tool that would subsequently become a staple of Blockbuster filmmaking.