Over the years I’ve enjoyed several of Zack Snyder’s movies, but his Rebel Moon franchise is further proof that, contrary to his fandom’s belief, the guy needs more studio oversight, not less.
Scargiver, or Rebel Moon #2, is a #2 if you get my drift. Or my whiff.
The first one was bad enough, with forgettable characters, cheesy villains, and shockingly questionable visual effects for a Zack Snyder film. At the very least, it hardly inspired confidence in what was to come—and set low expectations.
The first bad decision Snyder makes is that he brings back the bad guy, overacted with zeal by Ed Skrein, who for all reasons should have been left dead at the end of Part 1. Not only is he uninspiring, but he is resurrected through some form of lame scientific experiment, though what remains may not be what we saw before (as is foreshadowed). Except he’s exactly what we saw in Part #1.
From there, Snyder subjects us to an hour of nothingness as the characters no one cares about or remembers reset and prepare for invasion. There is a lot of planning and talk and melodrama, but it’s all so generic that your finger will linger over the fast-forward button—one benefit of this thing going straight to Netflix.
When the action does come… it’s an improvement over what we say in Part #1. The visuals are solid, you get all the dramatic slow motion you’d expect, and things proceed with some semblance of suspense.
However, Snyder has done so little to establish his characters as people we should care about—from lead protagonists Kora and Gunnar to empty lightsaber-wannabe chick Nemesis to deer-android Jimmy (voiced by poor Anthony Hopkins)—that you just don’t give a damn. Oh no, that character is dying! Snyder seems to think it’s a big deal, but I don’t even remember her name let alone that I am supposed to cry over her. Oh no, the enemy is surrounding him! Is he a named character? No clue.
While the action is improved, it, like this franchise, still feels generic. There is nothing ambitious or clever or sensational or memorable about anything that happens. The action is okay and yet will you remember a single moment from it a year from now? Remember when Laura Dern flies her spaceship through the Imperial fleet in The Last Jedi? Love or hate that movie you remember that shit. In Scargiver, it’s just shooting and explosions and slow-motion screaming without any real care to setting a new bar.
The story too is so small—a small farming village defends itself against a great foe—an odd choice for a world-building franchise. If I wanted to watch something similar but more rewarding, I’ll go watch those early scenes in Braveheart.
Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver isn’t without its positives—but it takes way too long to get to the action and when it does it is just more of the same. Netflix and Zack Snyder set out to build a whole new universe, but what they’ve done is make another generic sci-fi franchise that has yet, and probably never will, establish why it deserves to exist.
Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.