I’m here to talk about Zack Snyder’s latest escapade Rebel Moon Part 2 The Scargiver. The first installment of a sci-fi epic arrived on Netflix in 2023 and was met with overall negative reception. In my opinion, a visually and narratively blotted mess. While the film’s special effects can be admired Snyder’s signature slow-motion cinematography becomes stale pretty fast. That’s what we witnessed in Part 1.
Other critics also lamented the underdeveloped characters, derivative plot, and an overreliance on drawn-out action sequences. You can see Snyder taking a lot of inspiration from ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ and ‘Seven Samurai’. Yet he marvellously fails to capture anything that made those films so beloved. Netflix has been successful recently with live actions like – One Piece, Avatar, and Parasyte. However, it falls short on film adaptations.
Rebel Moon Part 2, titled ‘The Scargiver’ had the potential to address these issues, offering a tighter narrative focus and a chance to flesh out the ragtag rebel crew led by Kora (Sofia Boutella). Unfortunately, The Scargiver falls short on almost every level. While I admit Zack Snyder is capable of making good movies like – 300, Dawn of The Dead, and Watchmen. But the reality is that the majority of his work is either mediocre or downright horrible.
Sucker Punch, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, 300: Rise of an Empire and now the Rebel Moon Series joins his catalogue of cinematic train wrecks. The common problem for his adaptations turning out like this is his complete misunderstanding of the source material. His own teenage angst-filled obsession with his style and inability to write tight narratives is what makes movies like Rebel Moon movies a disaster.
Snyder Doubles Down On Style In Rebel Moon Part 2
Rebel Moon Part 2 The Scargiver somehow manages to exceed the previous installment in all the mistakes it made in its narrative, characters and visuals. The mind-numbing slow-motion shots return, particularly in battle sequences featuring Kora and Nemesis (Doona Bae). While visually impressive at times, these sequences feel like a retread of the first film, offering little in the way of innovation.
Dialogue as Empty as Space Itself
The dialogue in Rebel Moon Part 2 is forgettable and derivative. Characters like Gunnar (Michiel Huisman) and Tarak (Staz Nair) spout exposition with robotic delivery, and their lines feel interchangeable. Reviews from outlets like Engadget went as far as saying the dialogue could have been “written by AI models.” The movie even lacks the amount of quality action or visuals we generally get from Snyder movies.
A Pacing Train Wreck
Rebel Moon Part 2’s pacing is also mind-numbing for the same reasons mentioned before, overuse of slow-mo and derivative narrative. Expository dumps delivered by characters like General Titus (Jonathan Pryce) bog down the narrative, and the story takes an eternity to get to the next action sequence. The film lacks any charm or personality in its moments of genuine emotional connection, making it a slog to sit through.
Rebel Moon Part 2 Sleeping Performances, Unwanted Fillers & Over-reliant Inspirations
Sleeping Performances
The acting in Rebel Moon Part 2 is uneven, with some performances feeling like the actors were slogging through their dialogue and scenes. While Boutella delivers a stoic and determined Kora, others struggle to bring their characters to life. I’d like to point out that this inconsistency, really adds to the film’s overall sense of disjointedness. The characters all come off as lifeless husks that inspire nothing in the audience.
Filler Faster Than Light
A significant portion of Rebel Moon’s runtime is dedicated to tedious filler content. Slow-motion sequences of characters harvesting crops, or staring pensively into the distance do little to advance the plot or develop the characters. This is the key thing Snyder fails to understand about filmmaking and writing characters is the human aspect. His robotic approach may have worked for a few films but it’s not working anymore.
Inspiration From Other Works
The Rebel Moon movies are Snyder’s attempt at making his own ‘Star Wars Universe’. Taking inspiration and narrative elements straight from it. It also takes great inspiration from ‘Seven Samurai’ but the main issue is that he is completely ignorant of what made those works such generational masterpieces mostly in Rebel Moon Part 2. Stripping all the emotion, character and personality those works had.
A Blind Cult & An Abomination
Finally, I’d like to talk about Zack Snyder’s cult of fans. Similar to flat-earthers they’ve propagated over the years the delusion that Zack Snyder is one of the greatest filmmakers to be born. Writing long-form essays and attacks on forums, social media sites and comment sections of reviewers on how his movies are not cinematic messes. This in turn has caused Snyder to build a belief that any criticism he takes isn’t valid.
Snyder now believes he should continue to feed that niche group of people who spend every day debating with others on the Internet. Ultimately, Rebel Moon Part 2 is the culmination of all the faults Snyder is known for in his filmmaking. A mind-numbing slow-mo abomination that exceeds the previous installment in its flaws. It completely fails to understand the genre it is trying to imitate and visualize, just becoming a pale lifeless imitation.
So, to all who are contemplating watching Rebel Moon Part 2 The Scargiver, I suggest watching the original Star Wars trilogy and Seven Samurai. They are cinematic masterpieces that forever will be timeless. The movie’s end did tease a 3rd installment. I hope Netflix finds better things to invest in rather than that.
