While I was hopeful and cautiously optimistic about the sequel to Rebel Moon, The Scargiver, I have to admit I was very disappointed. Despite really liking the science fiction genre this was just hard to watch. I found the story weak and unbelievable even for a make believe story.
Spoiler Alert. Don’t read any further if you don’t want to be exposed to spoilers.
First, and my biggest complaint, is that the technology presented doesn’t make sense. There is a giant installer warship that runs on coal furnaces? Seriously, this ship that goes through space runs on the same boiler technology that powered ships from the Titanic era? Also, they move their massive cannons on that ship with two manual spin wheels like WWI artillery. They can literally bring people back from the dead, build super strength humanoid robots that are self aware, but they can’t automate the movement of the big cannons? That is just stupid.
Along, with that, during the ground battle, one of the main heroes fights with two hatches/axes in the frontline of the battle against armored soldiers with laser machine guns and totally survives without ever getting hit. That was just hard to watch as that guy would have been shot down in his first three steps when he exposed himself. Same with the other main general who was picking up guys he was fighting while standing directly in front of other soldiers while never getting hit.
They were also crushing me with the main antagonist. So the guy literally dies in the first movie but they manage after some amount of time to bring him back to life fully and in the span of five days he has basically superhuman strength and speed and all his faculties like he never died in the first place. So dumb. Why bother killing him in the first place? Also, he was crushing everyone in the first part of the battle and then leaves the battlefield. Why was he retreating as he was totally faster and stronger than everyone else?
Another just dumb plot point I rolled my eyes at was using the grain from the farmers as a deterrent. Why in the world would that be a deterrent? In a whole universe, not to mention this completely habitable moon, this 2-3 tons of grain makes some sort of difference? That couldn’t possibly have been the only farming community on that moon. Additionally, they made a big deal with them harvesting the grain by hand. Again, seriously, they can literally fly through space but they don’t have any technology beyond what preindustrial farmers had? Dumb. And why didn’t the robot help? Even if he couldn’t bring himself to fight yet why didn’t he help with the harvest. He could have worked at night while they rested and slept.
Finally, it was totally predictable that the other rebels would show up at the end. The real surprise was why the general in charge of the defenses didn’t coordinate that earlier. They knew the time the warship would arrive and knew that it would be distracted with them making it a perfect target for a rebel surprise attack. Everyone knew that. Why, as a storyteller, make it look like they arrived out of the blue to save the day without anyone knowing anything? That is the first thing you would have started coordinating if you were in charge of defense.
There are other things that annoyed me but I’m going to stop here. I don’t get Zach Synder. These two movies were garbage. I appreciate that the actors tried their best but what was this really supposed to be about. An underdog story? A vast space opera like Star Wars? It was dumb and while they set up for additional movies, I’m definitely going to skip watching them. It is simply not worth the time. I can see why the folks in charge of Star Wars passed on this project when it was pitched to them.
Disappointed overall.
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