Ryan Shoots First: Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver
You can’t deny that Zack Snyder gives the people what they want. Slow-motion wheat harvesting. That’s right you may be surprised to know that the second chapter of the massive Zack Snyder Netflix Sci-Fi epic Rebel Moon came out this weekend. The first chapter had big TV spots, product tie-ins and a massive campaign. This one just kinda came out. I’m not sure if it was in response to the reception of the first or just Netflix thinking they’re usual “put the thing at the top of the page” strategy would work but here we are.
If you didn’t catch my review of Chapter One (go check it out) mainly I enjoyed the film. Is it lacking depth for many of the extra character party members? Sure but maybe I just knew what I was getting into. For me, it’s very comparable to the foreign Indian films on Netflix. Spectacle, and maybe a little light on the story. For a Netflix exclusive, it had a cool aesthetic, and enough potential lore and world-building to hold my attention. I mean who doesn’t want to see some oppressive fascists get theirs right?
Not much has changed with part two. I will say the side characters when treated as one kinda character flow better. I would love to know more about the crew and the movie does make an attempt to give us a campfire-like confession, last-ditch attempt to give us some motivation but the movie just isn’t interested in it as it has other things to do. Maybe in a TV series, you can dive in deeper but in Seven Samurai did you really ever get an in-depth back story on all seven? Not really there is a reason they all match an archetype so well, so you can fill in the gaps. Silent warrior, disgraced former captain, reluctant prince, former baddie, noble townsperson. You know the types just go with it. And James the android thing is super cool. I’m also gonna give the movie this, it may have the best “pretend to be the enemy ship to get access to the big ship” scene I’ve ever seen. It’s thought out and executed, maybe more than anything else in both movies. Well done movie! I mentioned this earlier but I really feel this whole premise could have really worked as a series. Some of the relationships and payoffs would have really hit how they wanted if just given some longer scenes here and there over a 10-episode series. But again you know the tropes so just write the parts in yourself!
The music, coloring, and action are enough to keep your mind occupied for 2 hours and the final battle much like in chapter one is a ton of fun. A common theme around the site has become “if I had paid money to see it…” We have to put many of these straight-to-streaming movies in context. I’m sitting here on a Saturday night, my daughter is having a sleepover and I’m just trying to escape the destruction going on. Seeing a slick Warhmer 40k, Dune, Star Wars love child of a film with some budget behind it is more than enough to keep me satisfied. I watched a ton of YouTube breakdowns of part one and every criticism they made was valid, every point of the leaps in logic was right, much of it was silly and somewhat hollow. But hell I didn’t pay for it. I would argue this was always where Snyder belonged. Making cool extended shorts for streaming services.
