The best thing about “Robert the Bruce” — that finds Angus Macfadyen reprising his role from that Oscar-winning epic — is that it doesn’t find a role for Mel Gibson. Alas, the worst thing about this generic follow-up is that it almost makes you wish that it had.

Despite forsaking the massive scale and maniacal egotism of Gibson’s blockbuster in favor of something a bit more life-sized and contained (read: cheaper), Richard Gray’s medieval family melodrama could use some of the dick-swinging bellicosity that “Braveheart” kept under its kilt. It could use some of that movie’s fire and bloodlust, and maybe even a smidgen of the smirking charm that allowed Gibson to leverage the First War of Scottish Independence into a vanity project for the ages. It could use any kind of animating force whatsoever.

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