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

Director – Zac Snyder (Watchmen) 

Cast – Sofia Boutella, Michiel Huisman, Djimon Hounsou, Cary Elwes, Ed Skrein

Plot – Freedom fighter Kora (Boutella) and her band of of warriors get ready to defend the planet of Veldt against the bloodthirsty and grain-hungry Realm lead by a back from deaths door Atticus Noble (Skrein). 

“Protect each other and show them no mercy!”

Review by Eddie on 22/04/2024

There have been reports that maligned filmmaker Zac Snyder has plans to make six Rebel Moon films. Reports that should send shivers down the spine of anyone that appreciates feature films of quality if they have any validity. 

The unwanted follow-on from last December’s non-event that ended up being the much hyped and big budgeted Netflix original Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire, The Scargiver somehow manages to be much worse than its terrible forefather, making one truly question if Snyder will ever be able to get back to the quality of films he use to deliver with the likes of Dawn of the Dead, Watchmen and 300?

Proclaimed to be Netflix’s answer to the Star Wars cinematic universe, Rebel Moon has the bones of what might be an interesting and entertaining feature film world but as was the case with Part One, Scargiver is devoid of any spark or imagination to make it worth your time, with one even beginning to wonder whether or not Snyder just wanted to showcase the joys of harvesting? With most of Scargiver’s first 30 – 40 minutes mostly made up of slow-motion crop work, making one beg for the end of the slow torture, that if removed, would have made this two hour “event” more like a 30 minute addition to the first outing. 

Doing very little that justifies the decision to cut the two Rebel Moon films into separate parts, Scargiver repeats all the same mistakes as Snyder’s first offering as we once more follow Sofia Boutella’s Kora and her merry band of freedom fighters protecting some grain from Ed Skrein’s seemingly inept Atticus Noble, promising an epic Lord of the Rings like siege battle that instead becomes merely a procession of loud noises and pedestrian fight segments, that are welcomed in by one of the years most cringe-worthy scenes that acts like an amateur hour Dungeons and Dragons night where Kora and her comrades tell each other their backstories. 

There’s not a single character here we can really get behind, perhaps other than Anthony Hopkins woods loving robot Jimmy, there’s no performance that appears to be having any fun in the whole po-faced event and the action space that Synder once owned early in his career has here become a sad self-parody of his best works, that would be at home in the bargain basement bin offerings of long gone Blockbuster Video stores. 

In many ways The Scargiver is both the worst example of Netflix’s big-budget failures and original IP’s that every now and then strike gold but for the most part flop like this and also the sad state of Snyder’s current career, a career that looks like it’s destined to be stuck in the doldrums for the long-haul from here on out.

While there’s no doubt the Rebel Moon films were not supposed to re-write the rulebook and were designed with entertainment in mind, there’s zero excuse for a film to be as bland and painful to endure as The Scargiver is, making it an undeniable disaster and a new career low for a filmmaker who once promised to be one of the most enjoyable blockbuster voices in Hollywood. 

Final Say –

If you thought Rebel Moon: Part One was bad you haven’t seen anything yet! A slow-motion filled train wreck whose flying wheat is as interesting as its one-dimensional characters and yawn-inducing action scenes, Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver gives us very little to enjoy no matter where you look. 

1/2 a backstory powwow out of 5