BY ELLIOT LINES APRIL 21, 2024
Zack Snyder has certainly had more hits than misses in the directorial chair, however no matter what he is attached too there is always a stench surrounding it. With films such as Dawn of the Dead and Watchmen in his early days, and even the one of his more recent Army of the Dead was enjoyable, the SnyderCut rebellion seems to hang over him, like he has something to prove.
Rebel Moon-Part One bombed, and there's no way around it, critics didn't like it and even the audience criticised the outcome, this was meant to be his big budget sci-fi baby (but apparently the directors cut is a totally different movie, we won't discuss that further). Rebel Moon-Part Two: The Scargiver was a chance to turn this idea around, unfortunately the continuation of this story felt like it was attempting to be grande but provided something small in stature.
SYNOPSIS
A colony on the edge of the galaxy fights for survival against a tyrannical ruling force, relying on the efforts of a small group of rebels.
REVIEW
Lets start with some good, it won't take too long however. Towards the back end of the film, a fair chunk of the latter half is set aside to showcase the fight between the rebels and the rulers of this universe. There were some pretty well choreographed action scenes (minus the slow mo) and a large variety of things happening that made you question the direction it was taking.
Now lets return to the start of the film, and work from there. Basically, nothing happens for a long long while, it's as simple as that. In it's attempt to make us care about these characters, the film decides to come to a grinding halt. There is a moment where the "warriors" are sat round a table giving us the same back story. I'm guessing in an attempt at fleshing these characters out however when you're one and half movies down, this probably should've been achieved by this point. The rest of the time was spent showing us montages (in slow-mo) of the farmers harvesting, and not a lot else to be quite frank.
Where the final scenes did have a little more grandeur in their ideas, they were severly let down by Snyder's insistence in the use of slow motion. In all seriousness, this film without it may fall under the hour mark. Feeling like the button was pushed on every other scene, and that's not just during the final fight scenes but the whole duration. That's a choice, and it doesn't work for every film, nor does it need to be incorporated into every film.
This was simply a chore to get through, but I have to express this wasn't down to the actors. I can't help but feel this world played out differently in Synder's head, surely this wasn't his vision. In Part One we jumped from world to world without a thought, this time was confined to a small village. Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver is a confused chaotic mess. The characters are hollow, the script stale and the use of slow-mo tiresome.
It looks like there is to be more of these, but I think it's best to leave them behind to sink deep into the Netflix library.
STAR RATING
