Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver is billed as a “continuation” of the Rebel Moon saga. This, of course, means that it’s both the end and not the end, depending on whether or not Netflix chooses to continue the series after the director’s cuts of the first two entries are released this summer. Don’t worry, the end of part two is indeed an ending, with any threads of continuation being mere suggestions of a larger world and of future battles within the war-torn galaxy in which the film is set. Basically, it’s Star Wars.
This is by design, as the original intentions of these movies were to be spin-offs of Star Wars proper, but when Lucasfilm declined, Zack Snyder, a man who never stops fighting to get his ideas onto a screen, pivoted away from the brand and reassembled his script into a new mythology. This is also why there are two cuts of each film right out of the gate: Netflix wanted them to be PG-13 and Snyder agreed in exchange for a release of his own preferred cuts at a later date (you all make fun, but the man fights for his vision, which is more than you ever did).
The Scargiver picks up where the first film left off. Fresh from her battle against the evil Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein), Kora (Sofia Boutella) has returned to the planet of Veldt with her new crew of badass warriors in tow. It’s her assumption that the evil entities of the Motherworld will leave these folksy farmers alone, but it soon becomes clear that Noble is alive, pissed, and en route to Veldt to wreak havoc on Kora’s found family. The people (and robots) of Veldt will have to fight, and it’s up to Kora and the gang (which would make a great name for a funk band) will have to prepare them all for battle.
It’s another in a long line of Seven Samurai riffs, and once some comically clunky exposition is out of the way, what follows is an above average sci-fi battler with gorgeous visuals and a relentless pace. Even the buildup to the battle is exciting, but it is rather sloppy in a lot of ways. Sure, one can blame the fact that this is a cut-down version of the “full” film, but that’s a bit of a cop out — it’s important to review the movie as it is (the director’s cuts can get their own reviews, and they will). The first Rebel Moon film barely introduced its characters at all, instead assembling them like so many unlockable skins in a video game and then hoping to distract us with visuals. Here, we have a scene where Admiral Titus (Djimon Hounsou) tells his cohorts that in order to fight beside someone, you must know them. This serves as an excuse for each of our main players to go around the table and give their whole backstory in flashback. It gets the job done in terms of exposition, but it has little poetry to it. It’s reminiscent of the scene in Batman v Superman where we meet the Justice League via a series of videos on Wonder Woman’s computer. Clunky as hell. It’s a small complaint, however, especially since the function it serves (giving us something emotional to hold on to for our main characters) is served well. Each individual backstory is gorgeous, compelling, and imaginative, and for every choice like this one that seems bizarre, there’s another that, had it been made by any other filmmaker, would be regarded as a delightful idiosyncracy. One great example involves a battle sequence in which the score is diegetic — the agents of the Motherworld have evidently employed masked slaves to play music during a scene of brutal betrayal. It’s so odd, and if you think about it it makes little sense that they can improvise the mood in real time and with bags in their heads, but if it happened in a movie directed by literally anyone else it would be considered imaginative and unique, which it very much is.
The back half of the film is pretty much all action, and every second of it is exciting and well paced. The fact of the matter is that Zack Snyder knows how to paint a picture and make it move. His tendency towards speed ramping and slow motion means that visual clarity, of which there’s a dearth these days, is a default. The way that multiple adjacent battles are staged and paced is masterful, keeping the tension high for each, and maximizing the excitement and intensity on both a grand and small scale. I haven’t seen it managed so well since the third act of The Phantom Menace (the movie that you all hated until you didn’t). By the end, I was ready for a third Rebel Moon. I hope we get it.
I know I sound like a real so-and-so with the way I talk about Zack Snyder, but it’s time someone point out the insane way that his movies are received. With the caveat that his most hardcore supporters can be annoying, their existence is a reaction to over a decade of legitimate film journalists and their sycophants treating him as a punching bag for the simple crime of…
::check notes::
…making a movie you didn’t like.
It’s as simple as that. And then everyone gets all uppity about a tree of toxicity grown from the very seeds of poison they themselves planted. It’s fucking bullshit and I’m tired of everything Zack Snyder says being turned into a news item. Meanwhile, he’s beloved by everyone he works with, he works extremely hard to make his vision a reality, and he’s more enthusiastic than just about every filmmaker on the planet (and while no one will admit it, his style has been wildly influential on cinema). Have a problem with guns on set? He helped pioneer an onscreen firearm that uses air pressure to create a believable kick with muzzle flares created by LED light and sweetened in post. Problematic cast member? He’ll seamlessly edit in a new performer, no questions asked, with the added bonus that his casts tend to be wildly diverse, and naturally so.
And when he lost a family member to suicide, he walked away from a passion project, gave the fill-in director his blessing, and then used his sway to later build his own cut while simultaneously using its release to raise an insane amount of money for suicide prevention. Whine all you want: Zach Snyder is the fucking man. And since movies remain optional, you never have to watch any of his movies ever again if you don’t want to. Didnt you all unsubscribe from Netflix anyway in protest of…something? Either way, egging on his fans and then acting incredulous when they respond in kind is weak shit. It’s like when we all gleefully hated on the Star Wars prequels like a bunch of rabid maniacs and then got all uppity when it was much later revealed that the fandom has a toxic element. Everyone did it, and now we all like the prequels anyway. All I’m asking is that we bring the volume down a bit. Slow motion never killed anyone, but the response to the prequels almost did.
Aaaaaanyway, my own whining aside, Rebel Moon is a flawed, but highly imaginative and exciting film, and the world it’s set in has boundless potential. It would be awesome to see Snyder expand upon it, and maybe even have other filmmakers play within this colorful universe. It will never happen, but a guy can dream.
At the very least, can we get Snyder’s next flick on the big screen where it belongs?
Directed by Zack Snyder
Written by Shay Hatten, Kurt Johnstad, Zack Snyder
Starring Sofia Boutella, Bae Doona, Michiel Huisman, Djimon Hounsou
Rated PG-13, 122 minutes.
