3 min to read
Rebel Moon - Parts 1 and 2
Does Zack Snyder have another homerun, or do these movies strike out?
The Good: One of the main things I like about Zack Snyder films is that the fight choreography in his movies are genuinely pretty good. While none of the fight scenes in here are as memorable as (for example) the warehouse scene in Batman v. Superman, but there are some great scenes in here, especially near the end of the second movie. When Kora and Atticus are fighting in the ship while it is falling down out of the sky, the way that scene plays out is genuinely pretty awesome.
One other part of Zack Snyder films that I enjoy is the way the visuals look. He always knows exactly what he wants visually, and it is able to be brought to screen very well. He may at times over rely on VFX to make/create things that should have been done practically, but the vision for what is there is definitely unique, which I greatly appreciate.
The Meh: When it comes to this movie, both films could have and should have been combined. After watching them both, it really felt that Snyder had an idea for a movie and wanted to make it as in depth and in detail as possible. The issue is, there wasn’t much to do to fill up the time of the movies. Because of that, there is a lot of slow mo that is used and storytelling that really has no direct purpose for the films at hand. I think he should have kept it to one movie so both movies separately don’t feel drawn out and long just for the purpose of “world building” that never paid off.
The Bad: Slow motion in movies doesn’t bother me, but I think it was used a little too much in these movies. It really stood out to me when I was watching Part 2. There was slow motion used for farming, yikes. What the slow motion didn’t help with the movie was the pacing. There would be times where I was getting into the movie, with the action, the story development, etc., but then I would get thrown a curveball with slow motion and boring plot that would just crush the pacing of the movie. I watched Part 1 in the airport during a layover, and I found myself super engaged at times, and at other times I just wanted to turn it off and watch another movie. That’s how bad the pacing was. It was a rollercoaster (not in a good way), and it definitely should have been tamed. The fact that there are apparently director’s cuts (Snyder Cuts) of each of these movies really tells me that there was definitely too much to tell and that the stories should have been simplified more to be able to release in film format. If there is so much you want to tell, try to make a very good TV show with 6-10 hours of content instead of 5 hours of movies.
Overall: While I don’t hate this movie more than most, I also don’t think it’s super great either. I wouldn’t care if I had to watch it again, but it’s definitely not one I’d actively seek out to rewatch. While the visuals and the fight choreography were well done, I just think that this movie and Part 1 should have been 1 combined film. If Snyder could have found a way to make the story more concise or into a TV show, I think it could have been significantly more enjoyable and memorable.
Rating: 3/5
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