What Is the Story About?
Netflix and Zack Snyder’s ‘Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver’ is the sequel to the first Rebel Moon movie, titled ‘Rebel Moon – Part 1: A Child Of Fire’. The film picks up from where the first one ends. Evil admiral Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein) is back from the almost dead. He wants to destroy the peaceful planet of Veldt on behalf of the tyrannical Imperium regent Balisarius (Fra Free).
Kora, aka Scargiver (Sofia Boutella), and her allies General Titus (Djimon Hounsou), Nemesis (Doona Bae), Tarak (Staz Nair), Milius (E. Duffy), farmer Gunnar (Michiel Huisman), must mobilise the simple farmer folk of the planet to fight the evil regime.
Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver is written and directed by Zack Snyder, and co-written by Kurt Johnstad and Shay Hatten.
Performances?
Sofia Boutella uses her physicality to excellent effect in her role as highly-skilled warrior Kora. Her performance is on point too. Ed Skrein is suitably evil as Atticus Noble. Michiel Huisman impresses as Veldt farmer, Gunnar. Staz Nair as Tarak, Doona Bae as Nemesis, Djimon Hounsou as General Titus, E. Duffy as Millius, among others, lend great support in their limited roles. Anthony Hopkins’ voice role as the robot Jimmy is a pleasant addition to the cast.
Analysis
Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver goes exactly the way of its predecessor, Rebel Moon Part One—too much talk, too little action. Too much of the two-hour runtime of the movie is spent on talking, talking… and then more talking. The movie slumbers along for one and a half hours, rambly and meandering, until the constant retelling and repetition of the same plot points begin to irk by the end of the first half an hour itself.
In the last half hour, it dawns on the writers that their characters have a battle to fight and villains to defeat; and so all the action is crammed into that final act. To their credit, the action sequences are good, though not extraordinarily so. The action is certainly not worth plodding through the tedious first half of the movie. It’s a poor payoff for trying viewers’ patience to an annoying level.
Most of the runtime of Rebel Moon – Part 2: The Scargiver is wasted in redundant sequences. Dreary flashbacks repeat much of what we already about the back stories of Kora’s gang. An entire 15-minute sequence is spent on picturing them and the villagers harvest the all-important grain—all in slow motion, at that.
Another tiresome sequence wastes viewers’ time during which Sam (Charlotte Maggi) presents Kora’s warriors with symbolic gifts, with flowery dialogues that mimic the flourish of the bombastic writing of over-enthusiastic tenth-graders
The best bits in the movie are too few and far between, and too short to make an impact. The training montages could have been longer, and more fun, for instance. Yes, even though they’re a direct lift from Seven Samurai. We also wouldn’t mind watching more of Jimmy’s (Anthony Hopkins) daredevilry. The action sequence featuring him is one of the best in the movie.
At the end, one can only think that making the Kora vs Nobel saga in two parts has proven to be an excercise in futility, not to say tedium—too long, too slow and a waste of 4+ hours. Making the movie as a single cohesive one, keeping the fast-paced bits while trimming out the humdrum slow-paced ones, would have worked wonders for the final product.
Music and Other Departments?
Tom Holkenborg’s musical score is suitably rousing, with enough change in tone and tempo to suit the different elements of the film. It is at different times sinister and sad, melancholic and mournful, upbeat and euphoric. Zack Snyder’s cinematography reinforces his trademark style – slo-mo shots, billowing dust, stark frames leached of colour, and more. Dody Dorn’s editing is fluid and precise.
Highlights?
A few action sequences
Drawbacks?
Too much talk, too little action
Slow and tedious storytelling
Did I Enjoy It?
Not much
Will You Recommend It?
Only as a one-time watch, for die-hard Zack Snyder fans.
Rebel Moon Part Two Review by Binged Bureau
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