Last December, Rebel Moon – Part 1: A Child of Fire was released on Netflix. A passion project of Zack Snyder’s which he retooled into an ‘original’ science fiction story from a potential Star Wars idea of his. Zack Snyder is one of those polarising and divisive directors working today. I always kind of link him to Michael Bay. They’ve both made some good and entertaining films, but they’ve also made some not so good films and ones that could be classed as cinematic turkeys. I like both directors despite their obvious faults and film styles that don’t always mesh well with other film lovers. Rebel Moon – Part 1: A Child of Fire was not warmly received and did not set the world on fire. Critics and other film fans who can either take or leave a Zack Snyder film were not kind to this heavy metal space opera. If you read my last review on it, I thought it was disappointing and derivative of other science fiction material and just a bit boring. Scenes in both Rebel Moons made me want to watch the better science fiction films that Snyder was obviously copying. You could tell where he was getting his influence and inspirations from, and he didn’t quite do anything innovative with them. So, there was not a lot of fist pumping in the air from my side when going into Part 2: The Scargiver. It is potentially the final film in this franchise, but it does leave things in a place that Snyder could easily pick up. If Netflix has the money and his core and dedicated fandom/cult following want more out of Rebel Moon. I did not go into this movie with the intent to dump on it. This was not a hate watch. I was kind of watching it out of necessity just to see where it would end up, even if I wasn’t entirely enthused about what came before. And given the fact this was also a Seven Samurai/The Magnificent Seven sci fi mash up/tribute act, I had some ideas about what would happen. Despite the lack of enthusiasm going into this and with my expectations very low, I was slightly surprised that I enjoyed this more than Part 1. Just a bit more enjoyable.
The Scargiver is literally more of the same that came before in A Child of Fire. Because of Rebel Moon being similar to films like Dune and Star Wars, it almost feels pastiche. Of George Lucas was inspired by Kurosawa & Flash Gordon for example, but he took those influences and made them his own. Snyder just literally gives it a medieval/steam punk vibe, however he doesn’t, (and like I said before) make it his own. This has all the stylings of a Zack Snyder film: slow-motion scenes/shots, striking visuals, strong and physically capable characters that will make you go to the gym. That stuff is something you come to expect with him and it’s funny how he really doubles down on the slow-mo with each film he makes. While Rebel Moon has decent world building, the visuals are amazing and the action is pretty good (there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that Zack Snyder doesn’t know how to choreograph or direct an action sequence), the storyline and characters were one dimensional and bland once more. The narrative and the writing are weak. The characters are stock and surface level and there’s not much development with them. Charlie Hunnam who was in Part 1 was just basically Han Solo.
Part 1 was a lot of set up and build up to the action extravaganza that is The Scargiver. A repetitive and episodic putting the team together film, with some good world building and action scattered throughout. But before The Scargiver gets to the hand-to-hand fighting, explosions and laser gun battles, there is a lot of expositional heavy dialogue from the one dimensional characters and also some gloriously shot scenes of grain farming. There is one heavy scene of exposition dumping where each character sit around a table and each kind of explains their similar backstories and why they are fighting for this tiny village and their grain. It’s weak storytelling and this might not be Snyder’s strong suit. A different screenwriter channelling his many ideas would have been ideal. Having said that, The Scargiver is a small improvement over A Child of Fire. Part 2 makes up for the previous film’s faults and shortcomings with some cool visuals and exciting action scenes. I mean the whole cast do well with what they are given, and what they are given is quite pedestrian and surface level. It’s nice to see Sofia Boutella leading a film like this and actors like Michiel Huisman, Djimon Honsou and Ed Skrein do well to back her up. They do well in the action scenes and some dramatic moments. But I just wanted more from their characters. Some characters do fall in the big battle in the last hour of the film, but you never really care for them and at a few moments I didn’t really care which side would win or lose. The characters look cool and look the part. Though there’s nothing there to make them fully standout in a sea of memorable characters that you find in any other science fiction story. Despite Snyder’s well-meaning and ambitious intentions.
With the film concluding the Seven Samurai/ Magnificent Seven side of things that started in Part One, it feels like there is more story to be told. It ends with a tease of what is to come and that for me sounds a little bit more interesting than what the storyline for Parts One and Two were. Despite this not being my cup of tea and this being not what I wanted given the people involved with this, there’s still a part of me that wants to see where Zack Snyder takes us. I am curious to see if he has other ideas that may elevate and be better than what we have seen already. Like really dig deep into the world and its characters.
In the ending of The Scargiver, there is a set up for a future Part 3 and apparently Snyder’s got ideas for at least 4 or 6 films. I don’t know and maybe I am being a bit foolish here, but I think strangely there is potential for this franchise to go in a direction that might prove to be satisfactory. It could be redeemable for Snyder given the response these two films had. It should do less of that piggybacking off other and much better sci fi films & go its own way. I’d like to see more of the mythology and the lore of the world explored. It is in my opinion rich and well lived in. I’ll give Zack Snyder that much. But with many big cinematic properties like this and with the film industry changing every day, we’ll see. But overall, Rebel Moon – Part 2: The Scargiver was fine. To quote HBO’s Chernobyl: not great, but not terrible either.
Here’s hoping to see if the mythic and supposed longer R-rated cuts of Parts 1 and 2 are an improvement over these. Cause it has been historically proven that the director’s cuts of Zack Snyder’s films are slightly better than the versions that were originally released first to the public.
- Anders
3/5
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