Posted by Greeted by an almost deafening silence Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver, the sequel to the hokey and derivative Rebel Moon, is upon us. Kora (Sofia Boutella) and the gang, thinking they have thwarted the preening villain with the dodgy barnet Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein), have fled to Kora’s home world Veldt to help prepare them for Motherworlds arrival. Little do they know that after much fantastical prodding, poking and jiggery pokery, Motherworld has resurrected Atticus and he is hell bent on revenge. So will Veldt be saved from the might of the empire the Motherworld or will it meet its maker?
This is a more streamlined and focused film, our attention is on Veldt and how they prepare to defend themselves from the might of the Motherworld. It is just as pretty as the first instalment as well, with its panoramic vistas and lush special effects. That is about as positive as I can be though as it continues all of the sins of the first film, the derivative and predictable plot, the clunky dialogue and the one dimensional characters.
Our rag tag bunch of heroes are helping prepare and fortify Veldt from the space nasties incoming invasion. Some rousing speeches here, montages of work and training there and some contrived, background building chats in-between. It tries to create pathos, to get you caring for the characters but they are onto a hiding to nothing there. The big skirmish at the end livens things up a tad but if you have seen one big CGI battle you have seen them all – lots of screaming, slo-mo and pained faces. There is even a highly choreographed lightsaber style fight for good measure. A sequel enabling ending ties this big shiny mess up in a neat little bow.
Another garbled, copy and paste sci-fi space opera which is big in scale but small in delivery. Just to warn you Snyder wants to make 6 of these blasted things!
4/10
Lofty Music and Film 