Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver

I still remember the summer of 2004 for a very good reason. All of spring of 2004 i have been reading in movie magazines about director Zack Snyder´s remake of Dawn Of The Dead and i have always been a big fan of the 1978 original film from legendary director George A. Romero. I remember seeing big promotion posters all across the city of Gothenburgh and i talked to the owners of the movie shop Movieline ( the biggest Scandinavian movie shop that was located in Gothenburgh) about this film. The owners were curious about the remake but were still feeling some doubts, how do you remake such a classic and pull it off without being disrespectful? I was actually at the premiere weekend in Gothenburgh and wanted to experience the film on their biggest cinema screen with 2 male friends. I rememeber there were fans dressed up as zombies standing in line and i was really impressed with their make up. It turned out to be one of the best remakes we have seen of a horror film and director Zack Snyder proved that it is possible to do a remake of a classic. Not only is this one of my personal favourite zombie films but i also feel that this film have a lot of great characters, plenty of great action scenes and this film also have a good sense of humour in certain scenes. The 2004 remake of Dawn Of The Dead is one of those films i think all horror fans should at least watch at some point, no matter if you watch the film on streaming or on a physical copy. Speaking of director Zack Snyder i have followed his career for quite some time and pretty much seen all of the films that he have directed so far ( i have also seen his Rod Stewart music video Leave Virginia Alone, even though it's not a great video ). We could probably discuss what films that he directed are good or not but let´s talk about Rebel Moon for a while. Last year he released his film Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child Of Fire on Netflix that felt like a mixture of Star Wars and Blade Runner ( in certain scenes ) where the main character Kora ( Sofia Boutella) felt like a great character for a sci fi action film. I enjoyed Rebel Moon - Part One even if i felt a couple of things could have been fixed. So here we are with Rebel Moon - Part Two also out on Netflix. I was curious to see what this next chapter would bring to the story. Is this next chapter even better than the first film or is this one of the worst films i have seen from director Zach Snyder so far?

Kora ( Sofia Boutella ) and the surviving warriors return to Veldt, believing that Kora had killed Admiral Noble ( Ed Skrein ) in hand-to-hand combat and prevented the forthcoming assault on the planet to claim it´s food supplies. Admiral Noble was ressurected and is again causing chaos wherever he and his army goes, while the farm community finds out that the dreadnought ship will return to their home in 5 days. The farm community have no other option than harvest the entire grain supply in three days, so the flour can be used as leverage to prevent Motherworld  forces from simply bombing the village from orbit. Titus ( Djimon Hounsou ) intends to train the villagers to fight to make sure as many as possible will survive.

Since this film pick up right after the first chapter you should see the first film to understand what is going on. One of the things that this film does differently is bring out the importance of a society where everyone is being treated with respect, being able to do hard work and live a good life through farming. We did get a glimpse of this in the beginning of the first film but they take it even further in this chapter. I also feel that this film also bring up the subject of how important it is to maintain hope no matter how rough life seems to be. Especially everything the main character Kora is going through, it´s not hard to understand why it must be very difficult dealing with a lot of pain from her past. Another detail this film also does is give us more background stories on other characters in this universe where i feel the female character Nemesis ( played by actress Bae Donna ) give us the most interesting background story regarding herself. Speaking of the charactes i would pretty much say the same as i did in the first Rebel Moon chapter. Some actors does an ok performance while others don´t feel very motivated to act. What saves this film specifically when some of the acting feels very blend is the action scenes towards the end. We get plenty of shoot out scenes and other violence as well. Lead actress Sofia Boutella is even more tough in this film and does a lot more physical action scenes in this next chapter. Anything else positive to say? I do like the underground tunnels they make in this film at their farm community, it reminded me of Sylverster Stallone in Rambo - Last Blood when he fights the Mexican drug cartel from the undeground, they do something similar here as well. On the negative side i would probably say that the story itself isn´t that interesting or anything that you will remember. Overall i will still say that this is a film i enjoyed for what it is, a simple sci fi action film that may not be original or bring out anything fresh but knows what audience it was made for. Director Zack Snyder may not have made a future classic with Rebel Moon - Part Two but he sure knows how to entertain the audience who just want to have some fun. Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver is a film that will most likely be appreciated if you love science fiction in general and can accept a thin story. If you did enjoy the first chapter i would suggest you head over to Netflix and give this film a chance. Who doesn´t love laser swords and ass kicking farmers? I know i do.

Rating: DDD