Review of the movie Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver

Zack Snyder continues to be one of the brightest, but also one of the most controversial directors in contemporary Hollywood. He makes incredibly beautiful and pretentious films, but the beauty and pretentiousness seem to be trying to distract you from the lack of ideas in many of his stories. Snyder is considered a master of visual language, it’s not for nothing that he started out shooting music videos, but for some reason he wants to tell stories that are much more modest than they try to appear. Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver is Snyder’s next attempt at a similar plan. It’s just as beautiful, pretentious, and completely meaningless.

The story of the second part directly continues the first, there are no experiments with the pace of the narrative. In other words, Snyder simply made an epic film that lasts more than four hours, but divided it into two more acceptable pieces. However, this is yet another indication that this director has no sense of proportion. And no amount of passion for “director’s cut” can justify this fact.

The conflict on the Veldt satellite has escalated. Cora (Sofia Boutella), who has rebelled against the way the world works, and other survivors of past battles are preparing to fight back against the vanguard of the Mother World’s forces. To do this, they need to gather the most prominent warriors of Veldt, but even in an ideal case, the balance of power still turns out to be not in favor of the rebels. Only heroism, faith in their rightness, and a few miracles can help them win.

Snyder doesn’t seem to hide the fact that he is trying to make his own Star Wars. Some of the designs and concepts are copied too literally, and there is even his own version of lightsabers. However, the director has not decided which part of Star Wars he wants to recreate. Because of this, “Rebel Moon” resembles “The Empire Strikes Back”, “Rogue One”, “The Force Awakens” and the Star Wars Holiday Special. Unfortunately, the latter’s stupidity is too much.

However, let’s talk about the pros first. “Rebel Moon. Part 2: The One That Leaves Scars is a very beautiful movie. This applies to both the technical performance and Snyder’s directorial style. Of course, it will not be to everyone’s taste, because watching large-scale camera shots of pastoral settlements and fields in an epic space opera is a specific pleasure. However, the movie cannot be denied its mystical beauty.

The problems begin when you realize that all local landscapes are beauty for beauty’s sake. If we recall the recent Dune, then Villeneuve used color and shapes to convey the mood of the characters and the overall development of the plot. Rebel Moon is devoid of this. Because of this, the movie looks absolutely stunning in trailers, screenshots, and individual cuts. But when you watch it, it leaves nothing but disappointment.

Retelling the plot of The Seven Samurai in 2024 seems like a cliché, but this is exactly what the second part of Rebel Moon does. Brave heroes fight against an incomparably stronger enemy. We have seen this scenario many times before. The irony is that it works because it appeals to our inner sense of justice and our desire for good characters to do well.

But this scenario only works if the film manages to establish an emotional connection between the audience and the characters. “Rebel Moon fails completely here. It would seem that even if the first part failed to present the main characters properly, the second part would be able to reveal them at least a little. But this doesn’t happen, and you can’t find any “favorites”.

At times, it seems that even the actors themselves were not interested in acting in this movie. This makes some of their emotions seem too unnatural. As a result, it turns out that the most charismatic character in the movie is the robot Jimmy, voiced by Anthony Hopkins. He looks much more alive and human than all the other characters.

No amount of visual beauty can save Rebel Moon, as the film is problematic even at the level of structure. It seems to be expanding uncontrollably, unable to bring all its storylines together, which is why it literally falls apart during the viewing. We have one of those rare cases when a movie is divided into two parts, but the second part does not seem more coherent and clear, quite the opposite – there is much more chaos in it than adequate moments.

However, all this could be forgiven if the movie had at least some original idea. But no, even little things like costume details have been spied on in dozens of other, much more interesting films. This gives the impression that Snyder has made something completely artificial. And judging by the interviews and the director’s general mood, he himself definitely enjoyed the process.

But this does not mean that the audience has to like the result. Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver is a climax without adequate stakes and a satisfying resolution. At the end, you just want to breathe out a sigh of relief because the movie is finally over. However, Snyder clearly wants to turn “Rebel Moon” into a franchise with many parts.

We hope it won’t come to that. Or at least another director will work on the potential series, who will be able to squeeze at least something expressive out of it.