Capsule Review: Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver (2024) – A Direct Follow-Up With More Action But Still Suffers From Banal Storytelling

After enduring the 134-minute epic misfire of Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire last December, this direct follow-up continues to bore me with an equally generic Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver. It may have been 12 minutes shorter but it’s hard to forgive Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad and Shay Hatten’s superficial screenplay, particularly during the protracted first half of the movie.

The story picks up immediately where we last left off with the supposedly dead Admiral Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein) being brought to life. Kora (Sofia Boutella) has since returned to the village of the farming planet, Veldt along with her lover, Gunnar (Michiel Huisman) and the remaining warriors they assembled from the first movie: Titus (Djimon Hounsou), Nemesis (Doona Bae), Darrian Bloodaxe (Ray Fisher), Tarak (Staz Nair) and Milius (Elise Duffy).

Upon learning that Noble was still alive and the ship would arrive in five days, they must have the crops ready and use them as leverage. In the meantime, the villagers need to prepare themselves for a necessary battle of life and death.

From here, the story plods along with gratuitous slow-motion shots of farmers harvesting their crops and even a scene of filling the canteen with water. There are respective flashbacks and backstories surrounding Kora and her warriors, all of which are depicted in a bite-sized manner. It’s all surface-level storytelling here and at one point, there’s an unintentionally laughable moment involving a murder scene and a dramatic violin performance.

The second half of the movie is where it starts to pick up the pace with a series of extended battle scenes. We get Seven Samurai/The Magnificent Seven-like all-hell-breaks-loose action set-piece with plenty of explosions, gunfights and noble sacrifices. They tend to be repetitive after a while, even though credit should be given to some of the well-staged fight moments, notably Nemesis’s lightsaber-like duel against the Imperium soldiers and the showdown between Kora and Noble as they slide down the floors inside a falling spaceship. Snyder’s penchant for slow-motion is still there but at least there’s a sense of propulsive fun and visceral flair during these action sequences.

But for all the impressive technical showcase, Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver remains an overall hollow cinematic experience. I find it hard to care who lives or dies throughout the movie since the attempted character development is sadly non-existent. Sofia Boutella’s Kora remains a wooden heroine. The rest of the supporting characters are just as forgettable, save for Anthony Hopkins who voices the mechanical robot Jimmy. He even has a cool moment here, showcasing his ability to take down the Imperium soldiers.

Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver doesn’t end here since there’s a hint for more stories to come with Snyder potentially wanting to make up to six movies. But given the sheer derivativeness seen in these first two movies, I don’t think it will get any better if such a storytelling method continues the same old path.

Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver is currently streaming on Netflix.