Will there ever be a version of \u201cRebel Moon\u2014Part 2: The Scargiver\u201d that makes the movie and its franchise seem essential? Director and co-writer Zack Snyder has already tried to whip up his fanbase by teasing \u201cR-rated\u201d versions of the first two entries in his ongoing \u201cStar Wars\u201d ripoff cycle, a lifeless homage to that other IPed-to-death sci-fi series. The well-covered struggle to release the Snyder cut of \u201cJustice League\u201d notably improved what was only ever a passable super-programmer. It\u2019s also established an unfortunate precedent for how \u201cRebel Moon\u201d is now being advertised, as a victim of its own release strategy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, while I can\u2019t review a version of \u201cRebel Moon\u2014Part 2: The Scargiver\u201d that I wasn\u2019t allowed to see, I can say that I doubt more (or just more extreme) violence and sex will improve this joyless expansion of the previous movie\u2019s Kurosawa-sploitation space opera. The shortcomings that kept the first \u201cRebel Moon\u201d from ever taking off are still apparent in its sequel, particularly Snyder\u2019s disinterest in his actors\u2019 performances as well as this movie\u2019s vast array of bland visuals and flavorless dialogue. Like the last one, the latest \u201cRebel Moon\u201d\u00a0looks like it was rushed through production to compete with whatever \u201cStar Wars\u201d series is now streaming on Disney+. The Snyder faithful may see something in \u201cRebel Moon\u2014Part 2: The Scargiver\u201d that the rest of us can\u2019t, but that doesn\u2019t make this tired sequel any less puny.<\/p>\n
Previously on \u201cRebel Moon\u201d: A group of misfit rebels banded together and seemingly defeated the Imperial Space Nazis, led by the goofily accented Regent Balisarius (Fra Fee) and the lanky rage-case fascist Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein). Noble was killed at the end of \u201cRebel Moon\u2014Part 1: A Child of Fire,\u201d but even the end of that movie hinted that he wouldn\u2019t be dead for long. Sure enough, he\u2019s back again and now angry enough to retaliate against the smalltown farmers of Veldt, an idyllic moon with Smallville-style fields of space-grain, Oshkosh B\u2019gosh catalog-ready space-farm children, and \u201cAsterix\u201d-type longhouses, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Who will save the people of Veldt, represented here by the young and ripped hunter Den (Stuart Martin) and the older but also chiseled Hagen (\u201cA White, White Day\u201d star Ingvar Sigurdsson)? The same motley crew as last time, still led by the scowling ex-general Titus (Djimon Hounsou, the generically mysterious Kora (Sofia Boutella), and her unconvincing love interest Gunnar (Michiel Huisman), the last of whom is also from Veldt. In case you\u2019re wondering what else has changed since the last \u201cRebel Moon\u201d: there\u2019s a scene where our heroes share what they\u2019re really<\/em> fighting for, which they emphasize through momentum-throttling, voiceover-smothered flashbacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Will there ever be a version of \u201cRebel Moon\u2014Part 2: The Scargiver\u201d that makes the movie and its franchise seem essential? Director and co-writer Zack Snyder has already tried to whip up his fanbase by teasing \u201cR-rated\u201d versions of the first two entries in his ongoing \u201cStar Wars\u201d ripoff cycle, a lifeless homage to that …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[36,45,51],"class_list":["post-1162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action-movies","tag-action","tag-drama","tag-science-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}