And we’re back, as quickly as the Wachowski’s sent us into Revolutions after being Reloaded, we are once again sent back into whatever universe Rebel Moon is set in. It can’t be the Snyderverse, because fans already used that name for something else. It is hard to say that this is a disappointing sequel, because that would indicate that the first one was good. No, rather it is a continuation of disappointment, and grandstanding by a director who is exploiting his fan base for his own personal gain. Promising more Rebel moon, and teasing that all these versions have longer “Snyder Cuts” waiting in the wings, running at 3 hours, and supposedly R Rated, we have done enough to inflate his ego. Continuing to worry about Snyder fans while he continues to use his talents on gimmicks, is not helping anyone. Rebel Moon is disappointing for anyone who was excited about Zach Snyder coming out of Dawn Of The Dead and 300.
Unless Netflix is forcing him into two hour PG-13 cuts, which I doubt because that doesn’t support their model, then there is no “Snyder Cut”. If no one is imposing upon him but himself, then there is no director’s cut. I don’t know why there would ever be a suggestion that this is OK. This film suffers still from a weak derivative script, with underdeveloped characters, and an incomplete narrative.The film is just a retread of better science fiction films, confusing exposition for character development. There’s actually an annoying round table type sequence where the group of heroes goes around and tells “their story”. It’s a lazy way to introduce us to otherwise forgettable faces, because instead of spending the first film, and the film up to that point inserting this stuff into the dialogue, building the story like good writers, they just blow it in a data dump.
Everyone remains a one-dimensional character, indistinguishable from the next, aside from the franchise star, who also isn’t exciting fans. They have forced brotherhood instead of naturally occurring, and considering the length, it feels so odd that we know so little. Part of this is the fault of the first film, but regardless, it makes it hard to care about anyone in this film.
Even though I’m a blind film critic, I assume that he’s sacrificed this all for his visuals, except I see and hear everyone complaining about excessive use of slow motion. So I’m not really sure what the upside is. Perhaps there is a stronger version of this film, and he should have always done a three hour cut. But making his fans sit through inferior cuts that are unnecessary is absurd and nihilistic at the very least. It shows a lack of care in how you are represented by the quality of your own work, and how you view your audience. He had plenty of time after the first one to re-edit this, but he kept it at a trim 2 hours, and left it feeling like cinematic Swiss cheese.
Admittedly, as a blind film critic, this film is already a bit harder to follow, as it relies so much on its visual prowess, but the first film was moderately incoherent, and the second film didn’t do anything to fix that. He still is more interested in blowing things up and making it look cool, than finding out who is blowing who up, and making us care why.
I usually praise at length the work of the audio description company here, but the film is not coherent. It’s not a fault of the audio description team, International Digital Center, or writer Dakota Green (who is consistently writing tremendous description), and narrator frankie Corzo, are not the reason I struggle following this.
It’s original science-fiction, not some extension of the Star Wars universe, even if it feels like Zack just wants to make a Star Wars film. It is a tough challenge, but for the director of Dawn Of The Dead, 300, Watchmen, and man of Steel, it shouldn’t be a problem. Unless, Snyder really isn’t capable producing original content. His Netflix output is by far his worst, unless you are one of those people who really didn’t like Sucker Punch. With Army Of The Dead, he had experience doing zombie action before, but here is a space saga, which is new territory for him. it is territory he should get out of fast, and find something else to do.
Thanks to the audio description, which did make some action sequences sound really cool, as well as Anthony Hopkins and Djimon Honsou are consistently good in everything, and Ed Skrein’s commitment to his bizarre and poorly written villain is commendable, this isn’t the worst thing I’ve seen this year. there are these little chunks, but chunks do not make a movie. If anything, these edits of the rebel moon franchise prove that chunks do not make a movie. A cohesive story with a plot that goes somewhere and well developed characters does.
Final Grade: D+
