Previously on Rebel Moon Part One.... an interesting first act that very quickly descended into mediocre unoriginality.
...and now Part Two: THE SCARGIVER!!!!
WARNING: MINOR SPOILERS
Plodding and hollow.
One thing I always appreciated about Snyder movies, even if I did not enjoy the actual movie itself, was the casting. He always had solid, charismatic actors who could sell their characters and elevate the material. Not here. Part Two really emphasizes (with the exception of Hounsou) how utterly bland and forgettable the Samurai Seven wannabes truly are. It is not helped that the two key team character fleshing out moments are so poorly executed. In one, a villager describes all the wonderful virtues of our rebel heroes, even though the audience has never seen anything even remotely close to what she is describing. And second, there is an actual origin scene, where each of our magnificent seven tell their secret origin -- it is out of context tragedy stories, with no sense of who they actually were before or why I should care about them now.
In the end, I really did not really feel invested in any of the characters.
The plot is still wholly by the numbers and unoriginal. Right down to the predictable return of Hopkins the Robot and the larger Rebellion at the predestined key plot moments. The opening voice over recap is utterly bizarre and confusing. The internal universe logic of the story doesn't make sense to me. So they have scanners but can not see anyone with weapons??? How the heck did they conquer the universe? And being from farming stock, I found the whole harvesting portion hilarious.
And for so much build up, the "final" battle between Kora and Noble was very anti-climatic.
Yes, as expected, there are a few nice visuals. But again, it mostly feels like Snyder is recycling himself. He has always been a Style Over Substance director, but here, the style just felt tired to me.
Overall, very disappointing for me.
