Went last weekend Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver live on Netflix. After the lousy first part, fans hoped for revenge from Zack Snyder. What we got is lame Star Wars fan fiction at best, but with Michiel Huisman.
Justice League director Zack Snyder is a huge Star Wars fan. The man has had the desire for decades to tell a story within the universe of George Lucas. In fact, he even had a pitch for one Seven Samurai-like epic, which Lucasfilm was actually interested in. Until Disney threw a spanner in the works.
Rebel Moon: Netflix’s Star Wars
After the takeover of Lucasfilm by the entertainment giant, many current projects were canceled because Disney wanted to go back to the drawing board. Snyder’s ambitious plans also ended up in the trash. What we got in return was not very nice, but in the end there was good news for Snyder fans: his Star Wars pitch was released last year, in a new guise.
Then we’ll talk about it Rebel Moon, a sci-fi film from Netflix. Zack Snyder’s story still came to life, but without a Star Wars layer. However, the Star Wars factor was still evident on all sides. From the not-quite-lightsabers to the George Lucas-like ones lore; pure Star Wars fanfiction, with other names stuck on it.
Conflicting performance
Unfortunately it fell Rebel Moon very against. In a way that is unfortunately beginning to characterize Snyder’s oeuvre, the film was mainly convincing in terms of visual spectacle, but in terms of story, dialogues and character development, the adventure was as empty as anything. This was also reflected in the reviews from both critics and fans, as we showed in this article: the low scores were overwhelming at the end of last year.
Yet Netflix will not have worried about that for too long. You guessed it: the Star Wars clone did extremely well on the streaming service. The sci-fi film was in first place for days, making it Netflix’s Christmas holiday film. Mission accomplishedyou could say, but as the ambitious kick-off of a mega franchise that the company hoped for Rebel Moon nevertheless definitely disappoints.
Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver
Now, just five months later, you can Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver streaming, the second part in what Snyder believes will eventually be five or even films. Provided, of course, that Netflix continues to pull its wallet. Michiel Huisman again plays Gunnar, the sidekick of main character Kora.
Let’s get straight to the point: The Scargiver is not suddenly miraculously a good film. The reviews don’t lie: where the first film scored 21 percent and 58 percent with critics and the general public respectively on Rotten Tomatoes, the second film scores 17 and 53 percent. Just as lousy, then. While you can normally expect a huge difference between the scores of critics and consumers for these types of spectacle films, the average Netflix subscriber does not really seem to be happy about it. The Scargiver.
Even lower Rotten Tomatoes scores
The second scores on average Rebel Moonfilm received a 4.1 rating from critics. “Marginally better than part one, but still a strange, messy and humorless sci-fi that gives you little reason to cheer about the possible continuation of this Snyderverse,” Empire Magazine mercilessly concludes.
Film critic Eric Langberg: “Somehow it is Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver even worse than the first. It’s even weaker structurally and even more superficial in how it handles its characters. It also looks significantly worse, and the first film didn’t have a grand vision to begin with.”
John Serba of Decider has the best summary of what seems to be the consensus among critics with his conclusion: “Perfectly suited for this age of utterly forgettable Netflix shows that seem made to be forgotten at lightning speed.” Ouch.
‘Wait until summer!’
No, you have to go out of your way to find a positive review. Even the most forgivable reviews, at best, only manage to conclude that Rebel Moon is somewhat acceptable mindless viewing material. But yes, a recognizable picture emerges again on Netflix itself: Rebel Moon – Part Two is back at the top of the top ten most viewed films on the service. In that sense, it is Netflix’s Star Wars: a guarantee of success.
And Snyder himself? He’s not too concerned about all the criticism. He keeps pointing to the upcoming Director’s Cuts of both A Child of Fire as The Scargiver, which will be released in the summer. He promises “even more insane” versions that go into more depth, including more character development and lore.
Oh yeah, and: 18+ gore. Nice, but that ignores the underlying shortcomings Rebel Moon don’t fix. In the short term, Netflix is scoring viewing figures, but one thing is clear: Zack Snyder is not creating a decades-long franchise like Star Wars. For this it is better to contact these books.
