Picture: Netflix
Releasing 5 months after its predecessor Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire, Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver hopes to breathe life into a franchise that got off to a rocky start critically along with subpar total viewership on the platform. Part One saw not only a 2 out of 5 from this critic but also a 31 Metacritic score, 21% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a mediocre week one launch that saw it come in 9th of the year despite its holiday release date and famous director.
Shot back to back with the original for a reported $90 million budget, the sequel brings back Snyder (Army of the Dead, Zack Snyder’s Justice League) as director and co-writer alongside his writing partners Shay Hatten (John Wick 3 & 4) and Kurt Johnstad (300, Atomic Blonde) to continue the heavily Kurosawa/Star Wars cribbed tale centered on Kora (Sofia Boutella), a mysterious stranger living in a small village who becomes their best hope for survival as the tyrannical Mother World forces have tasked them to give them their harvest for their soldiers or face dire consequences.
The Scargiver opens where the first film leaves off with Kora and her band of surviving warriors – Michiel Huisman as Gunnar, Djimon Hounsou as General Titus, Bae Doona as Nemesis, Staz Nair as Tarak, & Elise Duffy as Milius – preparing the villagers on Veldt for the battle of a lifetime as the impending arrival of Atticus Noble and the Imperium army grows closer. The warriors face their pasts, revealing their motivations before the Realm’s forces arrive to crush the growing rebellion.
Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver. (L-R) Staz Nair as Tarak and Djimon Hounsou as General Titus in Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver. Cr. Netflix © 2024.
Described as the “war movie” sequel to the first film’s “set-up”, The Scargiver is a step above the previous entry as a paired-down, back-to-basics film that gets back to Snyder’s better attributes. While the first film gets mired in fruitless world-building, extraneous characters, & forced exposition, the sequel brings no new characters, no new worlds, and focuses itself on the mission at hand: survive the battle for the village and take down Noble and his forces. This allows much of the film’s runtime to be spent on Snyder’s finer skills as an action director and battle-tested cinematographer. From the arrival of Noble’s forces to the final stages of the battle for Veldt, The Scargiver gives us a reason to watch.
However, that segment of the film doesn’t take place until about halfway through the less than two-hour runtime. The first half of the film feels more like a slog as it bands its rag-tag team of warriors from across the universe to … checks notes … harvest grain and make flour. Don’t worry; it’s in trademark Snyder slo-mo as well. Sheesh. “He who controls the GRAIN controls the universe?” Sorry, but I still have a better sci-fi sequel on the brain.
And when we aren’t taking to the fields, we are treated to additional, largely meaningless, backstory in a roundtable discussion that feels incredibly put on in an attempt to humanize & flesh out the characters that Snyder failed to connect with the audience in Part One. In fact, after Noble’s reveal in the first film that Nemesis killed 16 high-ranking officers out of revenge for her slaughtered children, it becomes almost comical to see her CUT OFF HER OWN ARMS and replace them with robot arms in this film’s flashback sequence.
The first half also gives us more scenes, reminding the audience that the warriors were not developed well in the first film. For example, we are given a scene where each warrior is given a gift from a village woman to recognize who they are and why they mean so much to them. When each gift is fully explained complete with character attributes, it was hard to swallow what they were selling and did nothing to endear me to those characters.
Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver. Sky Yang as Aris in Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver. Cr. Netflix © 2024.
For all the positives that can be drawn from the 2nd half of the film and the overall improvement upon the first film, the ending brings us back to pure Snyder decision-making as we are reminded that there are more characters to find and more battles to be fought in this universe. Does one half of a decent movie justify another $90 million for a 3rd installment? Will the viewing numbers increase with the sequel to help Snyder force Netflix’s hand? I truly can’t see that happening and I’m not sure that I care enough to continue, but, if it does, I can imagine the 3rd film being closer in focus & form to this film rather than the first, which is good news for us franchise completionists out there.
Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver. Jimmy (Performed by Dustin Ceithamer/Voiced by Anthony Hopkins) in Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver. Cr. Netflix © 2024.
Overall, Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver gives us a simpler, punchier war film that strips away a lot of Part One’s flaws. The film’s extended battle sequences and character-focused combat remind us why Snyder has been given blockbuster after blockbuster in his career; However, forced appearances from unnecessary supporting characters, poor dialogue, a substantial amount of slow-motion farming, & a lackluster romantic subplot bring this sequel down to only a tick above its predecessor. Strong efforts from Ed Skrein & Djimon Hounsou help give this film a boost, but I doubt Snyder and his team will band back together for Part Three anytime soon.
Watch Rebel Moon – Part 2: The Scargiver If You Liked
- Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire
- Star Wars
- Seven Samurai
- Dune (2021)
- Army of the Dead
MVP of Rebel Moon – Part 2: The Scargiver
The Action Set Pieces
With an extensive list of Visual Effects artists & Stunt coordinators, director/cinematographer Zack Snyder gets to finally get back to what his fans love to see: wide-scale, balletic action set pieces filled with big explosions and well-choreographed fight sequences.
From the arrival of Noble on Veldt to his final showdown with Kora, the movie is filled with solo warrior missions, laser sword battles, ground warfare, warship spycraft, and death-defying escapes. Snyder even tones down his trademark slow-motion combat just enough to make it pop when used as opposed to the eye-rolling use of it in the first half of the film. These set pieces are the reason to watch this film even if you didn’t enjoy much of what the first film had to offer.
While the first half is tough to plow through (purposeful farming pun), the second half grabs its audience with high-powered battle scenes that give way to an engaging showdown between Boutella’s Kora & Skrein’s Admiral Noble. While you will wonder why they didn’t just condense things to make one tighter, action-packed film, at least this sequel is a step up from its predecessor.