Zack Snyder is back with Netflix’s biggest sci-fi blockbuster of the year. The 300 director may not deliver a highlight with Rebel Moon 2, but he surpasses its predecessor in several respects
Of all people, Zack Snyder, the director behind visually unique spectacles such as 300 and Sucker Punch, was given carte blanche by Netflix for his Rebel Moon films. Fans sensed the next Star Wars franchise on the horizon, but were in many cases in for a rude awakening: Rebel Moon – Part 1: Child of Fire was last year’s biggest sci-fi disappointment. Now Rebel Moon – Part 2: The Scarmaker is available to stream. Does anyone need to care?
The short answer is yes. Rebel Moon 2 delivers better action, a more focused story, and even avoids the biggest blunder of Part 1, but the sequel still can’t avoid two major weaknesses
Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon 2 has two main problems
Rebel Moon 2 doesn’t look particularly beautiful or warm. The first point mainly concerns the CGI spaceships and practical sets. The spaceships still remind me of cutscenes from 1990s video games. Is this what a movie looks like which, according to Vanity Fair gobbled up 166 million dollars with its predecessor?
Watch the latest trailer for Rebel Moon 2 here:
The lack of warmth is partly due to the way the characters are drawn. Ex-veteran Kora (Sofia Boutella), who put together a powerful force against the brutal empire in part 1, now has to protect her home village from a large-scale attack with her comrades. But as in the predecessor, I don’t empathize much with these heroes.
Their stories and conversations simply seem too interchangeable for any great emotion. Only Kora’s dastardly murder, which she confesses to her lover Gunnar in an intimate moment, triggers deeper feelings. The scene is a bold and unusual building block for a main character’s backstory.
Truly painful emotions have never been Zack Snyder’s forte. Do we really feel Leonidas’ (Gerard Butler’s) dilemma between love and duty? Snyder conveys emotions through big images. But when the Empire executes General Titus’ (Djimon Hounsou) comrades in front of his eyes, the moment falls short of its potential in purely visual terms. No comparison with the flashbacks of the Spartan king, whose childhood was defined by terrible hardship.
Rebel Moon 2 avoids the big mistake of its sci-fi predecessor
But Rebel Moon 2 will still please 300 fans. Because Snyder and his team stage the action much more skillfully than in its predecessor. When Kora shoots her way through the imperial henchmen of a spaceship, the moment develops the kind of motoric force we know from martial arts films. Or from the typical Snyder frozen side views from 300.
(Sofia Boutella as Kora)
Like its predecessor, Rebel Moon 2 feels like a shortened version of a longer movie in many places. In the end, only Zack Snyder’s harder versions, which are due to be released later this year, can remedy this. But the staging and choreography alone significantly diminish the impression of missing moments in the action scenes of The Scarred One.
The biggest mistake of the first part, however, was an inflated expectation that was fueled by its own dramaturgy. Why introduce General Titus as a gladiator in poetic images and then relegate him to the background as a flesh-and-blood decoration?
Rebel Moon 2 repairs this mistake through pure straightforwardness. To put it bluntly, the movie knows what it is: a big battle with a prologue. Snyder delivers the second half of The Seven Samurai in sci-fi version: first the villagers fortify their home, then it must withstand the onslaught of brutal hordes.
If you look at Rebel Moon 2 as an adaptation – and given the plot, that’s exactly what the film is – many viewers will perhaps have a more conciliatory view of the sci-fi blockbuster. It’s not a brilliant adaptation like Blade Runner. The Scar-Maker is an adaptation in the same way that Where the Lie Falls or Romeo Must Die are adaptations of Shakespeare plays. Certainly not masterpieces. But entertaining popcorn cinema that may yet achieve cult status as the years go by.
