Hands up, I'm copying some of my Rebel Moon Part 1 review, because much of it still applies here. Again, you can call me crazy, but I enjoyed Rebel Moon Part 2 as well. Sure, it's pretty mindless, but it's heart is the right place and there's a lot of fun to be had, if you can switch you brain off.
We keep hearing about how this was originally pitched as a Star Wars movie and you can feel that, however, I'm glad it's not. It is to Star Wars what The Orville is to Star Trek. A bit of an homage/love letter, without the burden of existing continuity and characters.
Most of the (reasonable) flaws I've read are justified, but I also think they're getting blown out of proportion. They're nothing compared to the average Superhero movie.
The most basic question is, why would a giant starship be so bothered about the grain crop from a single farming village on a backwater world? They even establish (in part 1) that there are more civilised towns elsewhere on the same planet! Which means there must be trading hubs of some sort. When deciding to do his 'Seven Samurai in Space' Snyder obviously took it a tad too literally. Battle Beyond the Stars, back in 1980, handled it far more sensibly by up-scaling from a small town to a planet trying to defend itself against invaders. That was already a re-imagining of 'Seven Samurai in Space', and itself made to cash in on the release of Star Wars.
As for other silly moments... There's a little too much Stormtrooper syndrome, where the enemies appear unable (in this case almost literally) to hit a barn door at point blank range. Too many of the characters survive by the grace of the enemy deciding not to shoot them when they clearly can.
One scene that was both good and bad, was the characters talking about their own back stories. Yes, it was nice to see learn about these, but it is presented in such a mechanical way that would have been much better dotted throughout the film, rather than a pre-battle info-dump (Again, Battle Beyond the Stars, Zack! You shouldn't need reminding to look at a Roger Corman B-movie that handles things far more fluidly and efficiently!)
The characters aren't the most memorable, either, but they're also not too bad, for the most part. At least they've had some effort put in, even if they're a little two dimensional.
But, as I said with part 1, beside a few 'facepalm' moments such as those described above (which are nothing in comparison to even many of the 'best' superhero movies), it was fun ride.
The production design and visuals are great fun, if you don't mind Snyder's style, and it even sets up the potential for a couple of interesting sequels (Although only Netflix will know if the two films performed well enough to warrant the next ones).
Too many people are comparing it to Dune, when they should just enjoy it for what it is. A big, dumb, fun, sci-fi action movie to enjoy on your home cinema (And to be honest, I don't think even the recent Dune was as great as many think, and pales in comparison to Lynch's version).
So to sum up, is it big and frequently daft and mindless? Yes, but don't overthink it. It's also just good fun, and at least it's not a sequel, reboot, franchise destroyer.
We keep hearing about how this was originally pitched as a Star Wars movie and you can feel that, however, I'm glad it's not. It is to Star Wars what The Orville is to Star Trek. A bit of an homage/love letter, without the burden of existing continuity and characters.
Most of the (reasonable) flaws I've read are justified, but I also think they're getting blown out of proportion. They're nothing compared to the average Superhero movie.
The most basic question is, why would a giant starship be so bothered about the grain crop from a single farming village on a backwater world? They even establish (in part 1) that there are more civilised towns elsewhere on the same planet! Which means there must be trading hubs of some sort. When deciding to do his 'Seven Samurai in Space' Snyder obviously took it a tad too literally. Battle Beyond the Stars, back in 1980, handled it far more sensibly by up-scaling from a small town to a planet trying to defend itself against invaders. That was already a re-imagining of 'Seven Samurai in Space', and itself made to cash in on the release of Star Wars.
As for other silly moments... There's a little too much Stormtrooper syndrome, where the enemies appear unable (in this case almost literally) to hit a barn door at point blank range. Too many of the characters survive by the grace of the enemy deciding not to shoot them when they clearly can.
One scene that was both good and bad, was the characters talking about their own back stories. Yes, it was nice to see learn about these, but it is presented in such a mechanical way that would have been much better dotted throughout the film, rather than a pre-battle info-dump (Again, Battle Beyond the Stars, Zack! You shouldn't need reminding to look at a Roger Corman B-movie that handles things far more fluidly and efficiently!)
The characters aren't the most memorable, either, but they're also not too bad, for the most part. At least they've had some effort put in, even if they're a little two dimensional.
But, as I said with part 1, beside a few 'facepalm' moments such as those described above (which are nothing in comparison to even many of the 'best' superhero movies), it was fun ride.
The production design and visuals are great fun, if you don't mind Snyder's style, and it even sets up the potential for a couple of interesting sequels (Although only Netflix will know if the two films performed well enough to warrant the next ones).
Too many people are comparing it to Dune, when they should just enjoy it for what it is. A big, dumb, fun, sci-fi action movie to enjoy on your home cinema (And to be honest, I don't think even the recent Dune was as great as many think, and pales in comparison to Lynch's version).
So to sum up, is it big and frequently daft and mindless? Yes, but don't overthink it. It's also just good fun, and at least it's not a sequel, reboot, franchise destroyer.