Review: Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver (2024)

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In my negative review of Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire, I said “It never amounts to more than a second-, and at times, third-rate space opera.” While I enjoyed some of the humorous and bizarre aspects, other aspects seemed like lifeless imitations of better space operas. I was left wondering if Part Two would fix and fully flesh out Zack Snyder’s vision.

Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver suggests that Snyder’s vision for the series is at the root of the problem. He has imagined a universe that we have seen before, in its broad strokes as well as in its assembled details. The only original thing is the exact combination, but that combination is never properly synthesized. Snyder’s universe remains intriguing in parts but never fully convincing.

Admittedly, the script for Part Two seems more cohesive and makes more sense than that for Part One, but while that means its lows are less low, its highs are also less high. The first film was erratic and unhinged at times, but that had its own strange appeal. Maybe I’m just settling more into Snyder’s universe, but everything felt more moderated this time around. The Scargiver may be a better, more comprehensible movie, but it is also less energetic than A Child of Fire. Most critically, it is unessential viewing, even more so than Part One, which at least had the attraction of kicking off Snyder’s new space opera project.

The narrative construction contributes to the film’s unimportance. Rebel Moon – Part Two is essentially the third act of the story stretched into a two-hour plus feature. (Apparently there are director’s cuts for both parts that are almost twice as long, which I’m curious to see for how they flesh out the subplots.) Much of The Scargiver feels redundant, such that I can’t even recall enough plotting to justify its feature length.

In Part One, Kora (Sofia Boutella)—who we learn is really the skilled Imperium soldier Arthelais hiding from her past—gathered other warriors to come defend the Mennonite-like community she had joined. You see, the rapacious Imperium of the Motherworld had sent a dreadnought to the moon of Veldt to steal their harvest. In Part Two, the newly formed band of warriors returns to the moon and defends it against the attacking Imperium forces, led by a resurrected Admiral Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein). Further subplots are present, some of them revealing more about Kora’s background and her involvement with the royal family, but little is advanced in terms of the larger galactic events other than filling in some narrative gaps and having the ending point to an emergent galaxy-wide rebellion against the Imperium. The thrust of things can be summed up as: they defend the village from raiders.

Obviously, Seven Samurai and Star Wars are the main narrative touchpoints for Snyder, but there’s another film that came to mind while watching this movie—another big action blockbuster that was similarly stretched and full of redundancy, but which also contained some similar strengths. Rebel Moon – Part Two reminds me of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) because, on the minus side, both films stretch what should be a final act into a feature-length film, and, on the plus, both demonstrate an exceptionally clear sense of space and geography on screen.

Back in early 2015, I wrote that, in The Battle of the Five Armies, “the valley of Dale before the Lonely Mountain is a wonderfully realized geography.” I could still travel through many of its locales in my mind right now. Jackson, in his use of digital special effects to create a setting, seemed influenced by third-person-style video games, with their roaming camera and freedom of movement. In Rebel Moon – Part Two, it is less a matter of the digital design, and more a matter of Snyder having a knack for establishing the setting and its particularized geography in great detail and coherence. This makes the final battle, which takes up most of the film, very easy to understand and consequently more enjoyable, as we know what the heroes are trying to achieve in terms of their goals and plans. As well, Snyder, like George Lucas, lays out some of the battle tactics by having characters discuss them in planning scenes.

However, if The Scargiver succeeds on the micro level of building a believable location on one planet, it doesn’t muster a pass on the macro level of world-building. Snyder’s universe remains a patchwork of familiar elements, many of which fit oddly together. For instance, I like that the evil Imperium’s costumes are even more directly fascist than those of the Imperials in Star Wars, but does it fit alongside the space robes and farmer overalls the other characters wear? I don’t quite understand why people use swords at times, lasers other times, and bullets too, unlike the clear nature of weapons and combat on display in the Dune movies. In one strange scene, we witness the king (Cary Elwes) murdered in a moment that recalls the conspiracy against Caesar, both for the plotting and the togas. I couldn’t help asking as I watched the important scene: are togas a thing in this universe? In short, Snyder achieves a comprehensible farm on a moon, but not a whole distinct galaxy with its own societies, politics, and cultures. Admittedly, that is a difficult task.

I also have to admit that, after two movies, I do truly love the space Mennonites. I love that Snyder spends time showing their old-fashioned harvest, old-school scythes cutting wheat in slow-motion, playing like Snyder’s version of Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven. Snyder seems to be tapping into aspects of the rightwing cultural moment, with folks who look like gym bros and gals returning to working the land, like yeoman farmers. I applaud such commitment to relocating Mennonites to space! 

But as much as I enjoy the Mennonite scenes, parts of the whole Veldt plot do not make sense. Why does the massive dreadnought and its Motherworld need the harvest of this one small community so badly? How is there space travel that is seemingly fueled by coal? I think I missed that in Part One. Neat ideas, but incoherent.

The main characters are still largely uncharismatic. Sofia Boutella’s Kora/Arthelais remains two-note (she’s either remorseful or fighting), and Ed Skrein’s Admiral Atticus Noble seems more like a sinister creep than an intimidating, powerful villain. (Snyder still seems confused about Noble’s role—is he the mastermind or the henchman?) However, I do give some credit to Michiel Huisman, who makes Gunnar regular-guy likable, and Djimon Hounsou’s General Titus finally gets to do something, being far and away the most enjoyable of the supporting characters. Anthony Hopkins’ warrior-robot with the antlers, who has abandoned humanity and taken to nature, is underused.

While Part Two does help flesh out Snyder’s universe, confirming aspects I like, it does little to correct the major flaws or synthesize the universe, confirming as well that Snyder’s Rebel Moon series seems destined to mediocrity. 

At the end of the day, though, this isn’t a disaster. A third-rate space opera can be pretty watchable for certain audiences, myself included. But coming from Zack Snyder, a talented visual filmmaker, who has made movies I consider some of the best blockbusters of recent history, it’s sad to see his personal passion projects becoming forgettable Netflix fare. Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver is the kind of movie you will enjoy at the end of a long work week. But for Snyder, that’s a fall from previous achievements. 

5 out of 10

Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver (2024, USA) 

Directed by Zack Snyder; written by Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad, and Shay Hatten; starring Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, Ed Skrein, Michiel Huisman, Doona Bae, Ray Fisher, Cary Elwes, and Anthony Hopkins.

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