Directed By Zack Snyder

Starring – Sofia Boutella, Anthony Hopkins, Ed Skrein

The Plot – Kora (Boutella) and surviving warriors prepare to defend Veldt, their new home, alongside its people against the Realm. The warriors face their pasts, revealing their motivations before the Realm’s forces arrive to crush the growing rebellion.

Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, brief strong adult language and suicide.

Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver | Official Trailer | Netflix (youtube.com)

POSITIVES

Truthfully, there’s very little about “The Scargiver” that properly earns audience intrigue, but in many ways where Snyder is his own worst enemy, he’s also responsible for vividly bringing this world to life in ways that feel not only lived-in with sociological depth, but also immense in scope and scale. While the scope is condensed this time around to feeling in and around this one doomed community, it doesn’t sacrifice the intoxicating backdrops and corresponding visuals that spring as a result of Snyder steering his own cinematography. Like his other films, “The Scargiver” is nothing short of a visual siesta that frequently immerses audiences to the three-dimensional definition of its vast world-building, and as a result never loses sight of the deep space exploration that only further emphasizes the extent of the scope and scale that feel immense for such a straight-to-streaming property. In addition, the single greatest aspect of this film is easily the boisterously invigorating series of compositions from the iconic Tom Holkenborg, who endearingly crafts tension and stakes in ways that the storytelling never capably pulls off. His efforts involving thunderous 808 drums and elevated orchestral volumes leave a lasting imprint to the investment that I sincerely wish adorned a better movie that was willing to meet him halfway, in turn solidifying such an irreplacable value that should hopefully earn him a better gig than what an inevitable third chapter of this franchise could possibly offer.

NEGATIVES

Considering the colossal waste of ambition and talent assembled for the first movie, the second is somehow miraculously much worse, with careless exubberance that can be found in nearly every avenue of measurement to the movie’s development, leading to what will undoubtedly be one of the worst films of the year, by year’s end. The first half of this movie is terribly boring, with long-winded exposition dumps and stalled storytelling that makes it clear how this franchise will inevitably reach six films to its capacity, with prolonged and unnecessary scenes that are only meant to pad the run time further. Keep in mind that we’ve now experienced nearly four and a half hours of storytelling alongside this world-building, and the film is still supplanting first step backstory to the entirety of its characters, answering back the audience critique of the first film being almost entirely without characterization, and now doubling down on it during moments that don’t feel naturally earned or remotely compelling. In fact, the first moments of this film basically summarize the entirety of the first film with a somber exposition dump littered by Anthony Hopkins, who fortunately doesn’t have to show his face in this mess, all for the purpose of reminding those who were unfortunate enough to see it, who have since forgotten it, as well as inform those fortunate enough who didn’t see it, to catch them up to speed. The film is so desparate to fill its run time that it literally halts progression dead in its tracks to appraise meaning and motivation to each of the six main characters, at a time that is literally hours before this gruesome war is about to take shape. It grows tedious after two or three of them, but by the point we get to six, I was practically screaming out “GET TO THE POINT”, though it is a refreshing change of pace from the barrage of farming montages that are strangely shot and edited like action sequences, despite these characters simply just pulling grain or digging ditches. This unnatural progression obviously follows over to the pacing of the engagement, which is grinding so heavily and involuntarily that it rips up the building blocks of its foundation that audiences will inevitably miss as a result of battling narcolepsy, all the while supplanting itself further as the uninspired and inferior product to the movies that it shamelessly rips off. The obvious offender once more is certainly “Star Wars”, this time not only in the galactic warfare that bares more than a striking resemblance with its visuals, but also with actual lightsabers littered to the physical conflicts that I couldn’t keep from laughing throughout. In fact, so little of this film screams originality that it eventually plagues the whole experience by the wayside of soulless, which is only magnified tenfold by the immensity of the aforementioned scope and scale that emphasizes so much time and effort was utilized in vividly bringing this world to life, but never with the kind of thematic dimensions required to bring it depth. The performances are also noticeably inferior this time around, with little in the way of emotional resonance or believability to the respective portrayals that at the very least could’ve wielded compelling charisma where characterization failed. While I didn’t properly invest in any single character during the first film, as a result of underscored stakes and obscured humanity that remains present in this sequel, I did at least find interests in the physical energy of Boutella, especially in that she’s an action-first heroine in the duration of her career. However, even Sofia’s range phones the occasion in, with coldly clammy deliveries that constantly feel like questions rather than statements, enveloped by one undercooked and underdeveloped love relationship with absolutely zero chemistry between its cohorts. Boutella is the face that runs the place, but nobody here feels remotely memorable even five minutes after the film concludes, and as a result you’re given the daunting task of following around people for two agonizing hours that you couldn’t care less about, especially with even more added to the fold, as a result of these warriors defending a village from a raiding invasion. With no urgency or tension to their arrival, this obviously undermines the antagonist army’s influence to the proceedings, but with so little time of development donated to their cause, I practically forgot of their existing influence on the efforts of this story, especially with such a one-dimensional character from Skrein never attaining anything but conventionalism in his outline. As for inferior technical components that counteract the aforementioned rare benefits that this movie springs forth, the editing is quite sloppy and inconsistent, especially during the climatic action sequence, and the slow-motion captivity that has persisted throughout Snyder’s career is unfortunately prominent here, but never in ways that add any dimension of artistic flare or merited complexity to the capture. Because Snyder is his own cinematographer once more on the project, he goes unopposed in tapping into these indulgences that have unfortunately plagued the entirety of his career as a storyteller, and in the instance of this dejected second installment to the series, made it a frustrating aspect to a film that doesn’t supress the alienating emphasis that effortlessly feels palpable in the engagement, with scenes so close to the finish line quite literally playing in slow motion that felt like they were begging me to abandon my first movie ever before its resolution. Finally, on the subject of that ending, the film unsurprisingly does leave things open for a third chapter to a rumored six, but with little in the way of cliff-hanging enticement to fool the audience into thinking that the next movie will fare any better than the previous two. Without spoiling anything, the war for wheat does conclude without an abrupt or inconsequential resolution, but the film’s final five minutes after such only sell the next chapter with the promise of an unknown twist to a character whom we have learned absolutely nothing about to this point, instead of a forboding cloud of doom and gloom that could’ve solidified uncertainty to the well-being of these characters, and in the case of selling or outlining as many as four more films to this franchise, doesn’t feel like it leaves audiences yearning for more in what little is left unresolved.

OVERALL
“Rebel Moon Part Two: The Scargiver” is a frustratingly dull and underdeveloped sequel to an awful movie that somehow, despite its experiences, aims even lower on the entertaining value scale. While Netflix is known for building a library of mediocrity among its original films, Snyder’s latest orbits new territory entirely, condemning this franchise dead on arrival with two lackluster efforts that should serve as a litmus test to gauge anyones dedication to this once prosperous storyteller.

My Grade: 2/10 or F-