Rebel Moon
Part Two: The Scargiver
Year: 2024
Director: Zack Snyder
Starring: Doona Bae, Sofia Boutella, Ray Fisher, Anthony Hopkins, Djimon Hounsou, Michel Huisman, Staz Nair & Ed Skerin
Runtime: 122 mins
BBFC: 12
Director: Zack Snyder
Starring: Doona Bae, Sofia Boutella, Ray Fisher, Anthony Hopkins, Djimon Hounsou, Michel Huisman, Staz Nair & Ed Skerin
Runtime: 122 mins
BBFC: 12
Netflix put a lot of faith in Zack Snyder to deliver their answer to Star Wars with Rebel Moon, giving him nearly $200 million to make a two-part film. Part One: A Child of Fire which released in December had a large marketing campaign and even a limited theatrical release, things that are typically not seen by Netflix. But following a slaying by critics and audiences, as well as seemingly not performing particularly well with viewership on the streaming platform interest in the upcoming second film was practically nil.
I had actually forgotten all about Rebel Moon until I woke up on the morning of the nineteenth of April, looking forward to listening to the new Taylor Swift album, when I saw a review for Rebel Moon Part Two: The Scargiver and was surprised to see that it was release day for the film. Zero marketing, no news articles in the lead up to it, and even Letterboxd was short on people who had seen it with just a couple of hundred ratings.
So I watched a five minute recap of the first film (which was actually considerably more interesting than that film was) and dove into The Scargiver hoping that it might be the film I hoped the first one would be. But somehow it managed to not only be worse, but retroactively make me like the first film even less.
With a band of warriors in tow, Kora (Sofia Boutella) and Gunnar (Michiel Huisman) return to Veldt to share the good news of Noble’s (Ed Skerin) demise.
But when the Imperium plan to launch a full-scale retaliatory attack on the small farming community, the warriors must train the farmers to defend their homes and fight for their lives.
Not only has Snyder managed to make a worse Star Wars film than Disney (quite an achievement that really considering the current state of Star Wars), but he’s also made a four-hour gritty sci-fi take on A Bugs Life. Yes, when you put both Rebel Moon films back-to-back you get A Bugs Life but three times the length and ten times worse.
Literally the story arc of the two films is a social outcast goes to assemble a team of warriors to protect a colony of farmers from a powerful ‘protector’ that abuses them.
I had actually forgotten all about Rebel Moon until I woke up on the morning of the nineteenth of April, looking forward to listening to the new Taylor Swift album, when I saw a review for Rebel Moon Part Two: The Scargiver and was surprised to see that it was release day for the film. Zero marketing, no news articles in the lead up to it, and even Letterboxd was short on people who had seen it with just a couple of hundred ratings.
So I watched a five minute recap of the first film (which was actually considerably more interesting than that film was) and dove into The Scargiver hoping that it might be the film I hoped the first one would be. But somehow it managed to not only be worse, but retroactively make me like the first film even less.
With a band of warriors in tow, Kora (Sofia Boutella) and Gunnar (Michiel Huisman) return to Veldt to share the good news of Noble’s (Ed Skerin) demise.
But when the Imperium plan to launch a full-scale retaliatory attack on the small farming community, the warriors must train the farmers to defend their homes and fight for their lives.
Not only has Snyder managed to make a worse Star Wars film than Disney (quite an achievement that really considering the current state of Star Wars), but he’s also made a four-hour gritty sci-fi take on A Bugs Life. Yes, when you put both Rebel Moon films back-to-back you get A Bugs Life but three times the length and ten times worse.
Literally the story arc of the two films is a social outcast goes to assemble a team of warriors to protect a colony of farmers from a powerful ‘protector’ that abuses them.
Anyway, now that comparison is out of the way, what makes The Scargiver suck so much?
First of all, a quick look back at The Child of Fire. That film spent two hours visiting random planets to assemble random strangers with no backstory, so one would hope The Scargiver gives context to these worlds and backstories to these warriors. Well, it does give the warriors backstories at least…but it’s done in one single scene in a massive exposition dump! You’re still given no reason to care about these warriors, and aside from Titus (Djimon Hounsou) none of them have anything to do in this film. Titus is seemingly the only one training these farmers to fight as the others seem to join in on his sessions rather than running their own, he’s also the only person with a plan, and I know his background is a former Imperial commander, but it makes it seem like these other warriors are completely inept and it seems pointless having them there.
There’s also a decent chunk of the first twenty minutes or so spent recapping Kora’s story, seemingly for the benefit of people that didn’t watch the first film, and it’s totally pointless.
The first half of the film is spent exclusively to set up a massive battle which is the entire second half of the film. Close to an hour is dedicated to this battle sequence and whilst it’s definitely better than anything the first film had, it’s still very dull. Part of this is likely because you never leave the confines of the farming community, it’s just a series of brown huts and a big wheat field.
There’s one moment that ruins the whole sequence and that’s the sudden arrival of Jimmy (Anthony Hopkins & Dustin Ceithammer). He just blows through an entire battalion of troops and a walking tank without even trying and you are left wondering why he didn’t show up earlier and why he doesn’t go on to take out any other troops after that. Like clearly this robot is capable of decimating the entire army single-handedly because he’s apparently bulletproof, so why does he not just do everything?
This battle sequence did contain a few visual Snyderisms which was nice considering how bad the first film looked at times, but it’s still nowhere near the grandiose standards of the DCEU films or Watchmen & 300.
I’ve seen a few sequels that have retroactively made the first film better, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a sequel that makes the first film worse. The Scargiver doesn’t utilise anything the first film set up, the universe is traded for a single farm, and the one-dimensional characters that were made out to be super important don’t really do anything.
This is bad with a capital B, it’s genuinely awful at times. I’d be surprised if this gains enough traction from audiences for Netflix to finance future Rebel Moon films, because it certainly won’t be getting the critical praise.
Zack, I love your films man, but what the hell is this shit?
First of all, a quick look back at The Child of Fire. That film spent two hours visiting random planets to assemble random strangers with no backstory, so one would hope The Scargiver gives context to these worlds and backstories to these warriors. Well, it does give the warriors backstories at least…but it’s done in one single scene in a massive exposition dump! You’re still given no reason to care about these warriors, and aside from Titus (Djimon Hounsou) none of them have anything to do in this film. Titus is seemingly the only one training these farmers to fight as the others seem to join in on his sessions rather than running their own, he’s also the only person with a plan, and I know his background is a former Imperial commander, but it makes it seem like these other warriors are completely inept and it seems pointless having them there.
There’s also a decent chunk of the first twenty minutes or so spent recapping Kora’s story, seemingly for the benefit of people that didn’t watch the first film, and it’s totally pointless.
The first half of the film is spent exclusively to set up a massive battle which is the entire second half of the film. Close to an hour is dedicated to this battle sequence and whilst it’s definitely better than anything the first film had, it’s still very dull. Part of this is likely because you never leave the confines of the farming community, it’s just a series of brown huts and a big wheat field.
There’s one moment that ruins the whole sequence and that’s the sudden arrival of Jimmy (Anthony Hopkins & Dustin Ceithammer). He just blows through an entire battalion of troops and a walking tank without even trying and you are left wondering why he didn’t show up earlier and why he doesn’t go on to take out any other troops after that. Like clearly this robot is capable of decimating the entire army single-handedly because he’s apparently bulletproof, so why does he not just do everything?
This battle sequence did contain a few visual Snyderisms which was nice considering how bad the first film looked at times, but it’s still nowhere near the grandiose standards of the DCEU films or Watchmen & 300.
I’ve seen a few sequels that have retroactively made the first film better, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a sequel that makes the first film worse. The Scargiver doesn’t utilise anything the first film set up, the universe is traded for a single farm, and the one-dimensional characters that were made out to be super important don’t really do anything.
This is bad with a capital B, it’s genuinely awful at times. I’d be surprised if this gains enough traction from audiences for Netflix to finance future Rebel Moon films, because it certainly won’t be getting the critical praise.
Zack, I love your films man, but what the hell is this shit?