Rebel Moon | Netflix

Hahaha there’s going to be a part 3 of this trash. One of the worse things I’ve watched in some time. Netflix must love burning money.
 
I have probably typed it before on here but Zack Snyder is only good at making films he has a drawn out plan for. Like Dawn of the Dead (remake), 300 and Watchmen (Graphic Novel) etc any completely original by him are mid to just plain bad.

Saying that I will still probably watch this - found the first entertaining enough, not good, but watchable.
 
Avathar77 said:
Watched it with great difficulty. Feels like there has been a lot of effort to make it rating 12. Maybe a directors cut coming to this as well with a higher rating.
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Let’s be fair nothing will overcome the awful acting. Imagine having to endure more of it with the extra runtime on the directors cut.
 
Well, the second one was an improvement, I guess. Some nice visuals, a lot of pointless lens flare mucking everything up and making it look a smeary mess, poor writing, thinks it's some kind of epic when it's clearly not, a story that makes little sense, incoherent visual design, characters no-one cares about, appallingly badly choreographed fight scenes, and ponderously slow at times. But, overall, it rises to the level of an ordinary quality sci-fi movie. Kind of watchable if you like that kind of thing.

I think what struck me most was how completely pointless it made the first movie. With a couple of edits, and about five minutes of extra stuff, you could skip the whole first movie entirely. Almost nothing it set up was worth a dime: Magic Indian never used his animal charming powers again, why waste time on them? Why set up drunk, broken General Titus if you're not even going to use? Honestly, I can't even remember the plots for the other generic, uninteresting characters so they clearly weren't worth it either. And the whole kill the general plot was rendered meaningless before the first film had even finished.

The Seven Samurai is a strong plot to rob, but it works because after you've killed the bandits there aren't more bandits coming after them and other bandits know you're not a soft target. What happens when you give an empire a bloody nose? They burn your villages to the ground, enslave your women and children, and crucify your elders as a warning to the rest. Never mind the idea that they're going to care so much about a single harvest of grain on some poxy moon that they wouldn't just nuke the place from orbit is a pretty thin lampshade no matter how many times you repeat it.

And now the princess isn't dead because I guess in this universe people only die if there's someone there to be sad about it or something. Jesus.
 
Well I don't know what film you guys where watching, and I can't help but feel its "hating it just because every else is" from most rather than an honest appraisal, but I thought it was good! Easily a 6/10 for me (on the old fashioned scale rather than the modern "anything less than an 8/10 is trash" scale), so much lore and back story being added in the films rapidly expanding universe, so much action (like 1/2 the film is combat scenes), so much love and tragedy wrapped together in the story with some absolutely stunning visuals, if a little too much slow-mo yet again.

I mean this is literally Star Wars/Dune and The Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven all wrapped together! I think some people just don't "get" that imagery can have an additional meaning outside of just "God, are they still bringing in the harvest in slow-mo - God, why is the battle taking so long", its showing two very different groups working together for a common goal (hello, foreshadowing!), a level of trust and bonding being formed between characters within these two groups which (again) will pay off later in the film, it shows that as these different groups start to bond the "mercenaries" start to find reasons that they'd give their lives for the locals rather than this simply being a cash job, it shows the locals starting to believe in themselves and forcing themselves to act, as scared as they are, and to find the courage to sacrifice themselves where necessary in an ultimate act to protect the ones the love and so on and so on etc - but yeah "its Clarkson season 3" is probably right for those unable to understand how to tell a visual story, or how to build empathy between characters I suppose.

Now, I'm not blind to the films flaws and @Mr Jack brings up some very valid points for criticism. I kind of agree with the "it makes the first film pointless" issue to a small degree, only I would suggest that if you remove the first "getting the team together" film then you'd have to massively expand this film for it to make sense (i.e. where did these people come from? etc), and remember this isn't just a small film, Snyder is trying to create something like the Star Wars EU but in just a few films, so I agree that he's definitely over-reaching which does dilute certain aspects of the film for the sake of "if I tell you a small bit of this now, in the next film it'll be important" - just like the much complained about combat robot with the antlers 'disappearing' in the first film and then "oh look, he's now extremely important in the next film, what a surprise" which shows that you can't look at these as single, stand-alone films - and, like the first, its expecting a 3rd film to flesh out the titbits he's dropping now which might seem unrelated to anything so far. I also kind of agree with the Seven Samurai idea, only in the 3rd film they're going to find the Daughter to create a new "Rebellion" to fight against the "Empire" by, rather than expecting the planet to be left alone and the "Empire" to forget about them (probably won't see much of the planet in the 3rd Film)- Hmmmm, does that sound familiar to anyone yet?

Again, I'm aware that I'm a huge Snyder fan so I 100% know I'm not being absolutely objective about this, but I also think people are being overly harsh just to join in the dog-pile - watched 30mins and stopped - and I think my 6/10 score is probably closer in reality to its objective worth (between 4-6/10) even though the dog-pile will continue to drive all the scores down past a pint which would be fair.

So, now I've told the OcUK Hivemind that they're being overly negative - Come at me Bro! :D
 
Watching it now and can't help but see Dumb & Dumber every time.....

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Lols.


I liked the first movie, I'm liking this one too.
 
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ianh said:
Well I don't know what film you guys where watching, and I can't help but feel its "hating it just because every else is" from most rather than an honest appraisal
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Many of the people who've commented on this post watched these movies the day they came out or a day or two after. I find it a pretty bad faith accusation to say that people aren't giving their honest opinions.

but I thought it was good! Easily a 6/10 for me (on the old fashioned scale rather than the modern "anything less than an 8/10 is trash" scale), so much lore and back story being added in the films rapidly expanding universe, so much action (like 1/2 the film is combat scenes), so much love and tragedy wrapped together in the story with some absolutely stunning visuals, if a little too much slow-mo yet again.
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I rated the second one 6/10 as well, although it suffers for the sheer badness of the first movie. I don't think the lore building has been good, at all. What there is, is thin, derivative, or frankly kinda stupid. And while the plot may be the love child of Seven Samurai and Star Wars; simply borrowing ideas from two good sources doesn't make something a great movie. It's watchable, if you love sci-fi, and certainly not a turd of the genre - of which there have been many.

I didn't think the farming scenes were too bad, although they could have been better shot and scripted. To me, they came across as schmaltzy rather than particularly feeling earned or compelling. Star Wars does the odd mixes of technology levels as well, but it comes across rather better there perhaps because it has a more coherent visual language. When Star Wars has clunky switches, crude read-outs, etc. it's because that was actually how technology was when it was first made and it's followed through from there; when Rebel Moon does it, it feels derivative and off-kilter, perhaps because it's layered with another level of even higher tech so you have glowy healing cables and 3d projections on the same device as switchgear from the 70s or 80s. Given that they showed how General Titus doesn't know how to use a scythe properly, I thought it'd have been nice to see one of the weakling farmers showing him up, but I'm not sure they actually intended to show that he doesn't know how to use a scythe.

The fight scenes were the weakest to me. It just looked like someone strolling around with CGI shots added in post-process rather than looking like the characters were being shot at with any intent to kill, now you expect some of that. There's a level of "can none of these fools aim?" that's normal for film and we've come to accept but this felt like it had gone beyond that.

Now, I'm not blind to the films flaws and @Mr Jack brings up some very valid points for criticism. I kind of agree with the "it makes the first film pointless" issue to a small degree, only I would suggest that if you remove the first "getting the team together" film then you'd have to massively expand this film for it to make sense (i.e. where did these people come from? etc)
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I don't think you would, because this film did a better job of setting up the characters than the first. What's more, a lot of the characterisation in the first had no pay-off on this film: General Titus went from being a broken drunk to an inspiring leader with barely a pause for breath, the introduction for Magic Indian (side note: genuinely, I do not remember the character names from these films, which is not a point in their favour) in the first film is all about his magic animal tower powers/skills but that never comes up at all. There's no pay-off for it. Getting the team together could work; it didn't here.

A few things would need explaining - e.g. the robot, who the rebels were, the outline of the plot - but the rest was explained pretty well by the second movie and with a couple of minor tweaks could have been brought up to scratch. It's not like the robot got a lot of explanation in the first film, either.

...and remember this isn't just a small film, Snyder is trying to create something like the Star Wars EU but in just a few films, so I agree that he's definitely over-reaching...
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Yeah, this doesn't read as a defence to me. I couldn't give a stuff what Snyder's plans are. Make the movie you are making and make it good. If you want to do setup, then you need to work it into the story in an organic way that doesn't detract from the film you're currently making. Just as Star Wars was a complete, stand-alone movie that would have stood on it's own merits if nothing came after it, Snyder needed to make something good enough to deserve more movies not just something he might get to make more movies of because he's Zack Snyder and is one of the few directors with enough of a name to bring an audience.
 
I don't think part 2 was as bad as the internet have collectively decided it is, especially the usual Youtubers. It was a little slow in parts and I don't think anyone wants to see a slow motion farming montage to pad the time out.

One thing I did dislike about this and part 1 was the choice to use the lenses that blur the top and bottom of the screen, it starts to get distracting after a while.
 
TonTom said:
Let’s be fair nothing will overcome the awful acting. Imagine having to endure more of it with the extra runtime on the directors cut.
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For me, it's all down to the writing.

Such lazy stuff.


ianh said:
Well I don't know what film you guys where watching, and I can't help but feel its "hating it just because every else is" from most rather than an honest appraisal, but I thought it was good! Easily a 6/10 for me (on the old fashioned scale rather than the modern "anything less than an 8/10 is trash" scale), so much lore and back story being added in the films rapidly expanding universe, so much action (like 1/2 the film is combat scenes), so much love and tragedy wrapped together in the story with some absolutely stunning visuals, if a little too much slow-mo yet again.

I mean this is literally Star Wars/Dune and The Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven all wrapped together! I think some people just don't "get" that imagery can have an additional meaning outside of just "God, are they still bringing in the harvest in slow-mo - God, why is the battle taking so long", its showing two very different groups working together for a common goal (hello, foreshadowing!), a level of trust and bonding being formed between characters within these two groups which (again) will pay off later in the film, it shows that as these different groups start to bond the "mercenaries" start to find reasons that they'd give their lives for the locals rather than this simply being a cash job, it shows the locals starting to believe in themselves and forcing themselves to act, as scared as they are, and to find the courage to sacrifice themselves where necessary in an ultimate act to protect the ones the love and so on and so on etc - but yeah "its Clarkson season 3" is probably right for those unable to understand how to tell a visual story, or how to build empathy between characters I suppose.

Now, I'm not blind to the films flaws and @Mr Jack brings up some very valid points for criticism. I kind of agree with the "it makes the first film pointless" issue to a small degree, only I would suggest that if you remove the first "getting the team together" film then you'd have to massively expand this film for it to make sense (i.e. where did these people come from? etc), and remember this isn't just a small film, Snyder is trying to create something like the Star Wars EU but in just a few films, so I agree that he's definitely over-reaching which does dilute certain aspects of the film for the sake of "if I tell you a small bit of this now, in the next film it'll be important" - just like the much complained about combat robot with the antlers 'disappearing' in the first film and then "oh look, he's now extremely important in the next film, what a surprise" which shows that you can't look at these as single, stand-alone films - and, like the first, its expecting a 3rd film to flesh out the titbits he's dropping now which might seem unrelated to anything so far. I also kind of agree with the Seven Samurai idea, only in the 3rd film they're going to find the Daughter to create a new "Rebellion" to fight against the "Empire" by, rather than expecting the planet to be left alone and the "Empire" to forget about them (probably won't see much of the planet in the 3rd Film)- Hmmmm, does that sound familiar to anyone yet?

Again, I'm aware that I'm a huge Snyder fan so I 100% know I'm not being absolutely objective about this, but I also think people are being overly harsh just to join in the dog-pile - watched 30mins and stopped - and I think my 6/10 score is probably closer in reality to its objective worth (between 4-6/10) even though the dog-pile will continue to drive all the scores down past a pint which would be fair.

So, now I've told the OcUK Hivemind that they're being overly negative - Come at me Bro! :D
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I saw the ads for the 2nd film, tried to remember the original, and then saw on Netflix that I'd stopped halfway through. That's rare for me - I can normally find some reason to keep watching. I don't talk about films online really.

Watched the 1st one through and then the 2nd over 2 nights, and thought they were so bad I was interested to see how funding was agreed/structured and to see what reviews were like online. So it's definitely not the case of jumping on the band wagon.

I don't mind bad films but I do get frustrated by bad films that have squandered resources.

I thought the films had potential, but the writing was so pitiful. No intelligence in the dialogue. No character arcs. No story pacing. All the elements you've listed as strengths were delivered with such clunking hamfistedness. There was never even a hint of anything I'd describe as deft or efficient.

Ugh.
 
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