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Some movies stun you with their ineptitude, but others, like Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver, beat you into submission. Within the first minute of the Netflix epic, an overcommitted Anthony Hopkins mentions places like ‘The Mines of Daggus’ and ‘The Colosseum of Pollux’. He also talks about the planet of Sharaan, a spaceship named the Dreadnought, and someone — possibly a man — called The Mighty Tarak. No, nobody does the “Naatu Naatu” in this movie, but God knows it could’ve done with some levity.
Directed by Zack Snyder (and also, unfortunately, co-written by him), Rebel Moon 2 is the unnecessary sequel to Rebel Moon — Part One: The Child of Fire. It unfolds essentially like the third act of a larger story, but stretched to feature length — although, thankfully, it’s a few minutes shorter than its equally interminable predecessor. Having borrowed liberally from films such as Seven Samurai, Snyder seems to have confused himself into thinking that both Rebel Moon movies must be just as serious. And to achieve this self-imposed goal, he conducts the piece with such a heavy hand that it becomes overwhelming after a point. Rebel Moon 2 is the sort of film in which words aren’t spoken, they’re declared; the sort of film where archetypal characters don’t converse, they make speeches. It’s no wonder, then, that even when the climax beckons enticingly, you simply can’t bring yourself to care about anybody on screen.
Also read – Rebel Moon movie review: Zack Snyder’s spectacularly dull sci-fi epic is the worst film of his career
Rebel Moon 2 picks up almost immediately where the first film left off, although it would be cruel to expect anybody to remember the slightest detail about it. But that’s where Hopkins comes in. For everybody’s convenience, he provides a basic gist of what happened in The Child of Fire, but renders the recap worthless because of all the nonsensical mumbo-jumbo that Snyder insists on including. It shouldn’t have to be this difficult, because Rebel Moon is essentially about a ragtag group of warriors who band together to take down a mighty intergalactic enemy. If you’ve seen one of these movies, you’ve seen them all. Including the last one, which had the same exact premise.
Sofia Boutella reprises her role as Kora, the titular Scargiver, or as we’d first been introduced to her, the Child of Fire. She has about as many aliases as a goon from Dongri. Kora also goes by Arthelais, which is what she used to be called when she served as a soldier in the fascist villain-king’s army. She was forced to flee after seemingly killing an innocent child. This child, a princess, was briefly mentioned in the first film as well. Snyder strongly threatens to bring her back in a possible third movie. But before such a thing is birthed, the filmmaker’s legions of fans will have to slog through the extended cuts of Rebel Moon 1 and 2. It is a positively terrifying scenario to comprehend, considering how lifeless they are in their current state.
Almost the entirety of Rebel Moon 2 takes place on a farm, as the central team prepares for an assault orchestrated by the resurrected villain from the first film, Atticus Noble. Why he had to die at all is baffling, because Snyder had the option of elevating an even bigger bad guy – the tyrannical Balisariusis – to the role of primary antagonist. Atticus is essentially a henchman, and his return was confirmed at the end of the first movie itself, effectively robbing it of all stakes. But despite being ripped out of what looks like a used condom in the opening scene — no, really — Atticus is largely absent from the first half of this movie. While they wait for him to show up, the central characters kill time by taking turns to deliver monotonous speeches about themselves, which gives Snyder an excuse to launch into wasteful flashbacks. This is also effectively the only time we leave the farm. It’s a barren movie in more ways than one.
Even post-coital conversations in Snyder’s films, it turns out, consist of exposition about battles, betrayals, and back stories. No wonder Kora’s boyfriend doesn’t propose a second date. But who watches a Snyder movie for the plot, you might rightfully ask. And you’d be correct, of course. Snyder’s knack for creating memorable images is often used as an excuse by his fans for his noticeably poor writing. But for some reason, the filmmaker has also been shooting all his Netflix-era movies himself. And while Army of the Dead often looked like it was out of focus (because the entire thing was shot with some sort of prototype lens that Snyder obviously overused), Rebel Moon — on an aesthetic level — is indistinguishable from a marginally expensive television show.
Read more – Damsel movie review: A dismal drag of a fantasy film from Millie Bobby Brown and Netflix
The biggest problem with Rebel Moon 2, ironically a movie about fantasy lands and colourful space tribes, is the utter lack of imagination in the writing. Even though Snyder reportedly created physical farmland for the movie, the tactile quality of the main set is instantly undermined by the odd choice to ‘enhance’ the environments using shoddy CGI. The handful of other locations are all either cramped, or oddly pristine. For a movie that cribs from Star Wars, not a single set has the sort of lived-in quality that, say, Tattooine did. It would also be unreasonable to fault the actors for this mess, although not a single one of them even appears to be trying. If you shut your eyes, you could be fooled into thinking that you’re listening to a particularly passionless script reading session. But that would imply that there was a script.
Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver
Director – Zack Snyder
Cast – Sofia Boutella, Michiel Huisman, Djimon Hounsou, Ed Skrein, Doona Bae, Ray Fisher, Anthony Hopkins
Rating – 1/5
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