"To stand and die for a place to call home."
Hello everyone!
I won't say these movies are the best that have ever been made, but they're definitely entertaining - although of course, if you know they were directed by Zack Snyder, there's a good chance there's some director cuts out there ...
Like with these.
I still need to watch THOSE, and I might just wrap up these blogs with thoughts on those two, but for the time being it's just the regular movies, and what I think about them.
Namely, however, my chief thought here is that these NEED to be watched literally one after another, otherwise you'll likely forget what's happened as the second picks up exactly where number one leaves off to begin with ...
So let's not dally, and have a look at The Scargiver.
After traipsing across the known galaxy and collecting misfits who can fight along the way to help them deal with a huge ass Dreadnought ship and the Motherworld army, Kora returns to the planet that took her in after she defected from the army herself, jubilant in thinking hey, they won't even HAVE to fight!
Joke's on her though, because Admiral Noble's just been resurrected, and while his brain isn't all there (I doubt it's been from the beginning), he's definitely set on capturing her and making an example of her while he rises into shining orbit.
If you're thinking the man's coocoo for cocoa puffs, you're thinking correctly. Alfonso Herrera of Rebelde and RBD fame is probably thinking the same thing, but he's smart enough not to say so out loud and therefore nods and barks out orders the way the admiral wants them barked.
Learning from the one lone soldier left alive after Kora decimated the unit on the ground prior to leaving in the first movie that the Dreadnought is arriving in five days' time, she's like EXCUSE ME, protocol demands that the ship returns home after the death of a senior officer!!
Titus, aka, the guy who can now fight without Russel Crowe just fine, says you know, death isn't really the definitive end for someone from the Motherworld.
Spoiler alert: he's not talking about Noble here, remember this for later.
Our group rallies the villagers so they harvest the grain in three days (which is, insanely fast), after which they'll spend the leftover two preparing them to fight and shoring up defenses. With Kora and Titus' inside knowledge of just how Noble will attack, they have an upper hand that Noble himself isn't anticipating, not really, so there's some finger crossing here.
There's also a hell of a lot to say how this movie echoes the story of 300, which is ANOTHER movie Snyder directed back in the day, so I'll just leave that here with you.
The villagers welcome our fighters with open arms, creating individualized banners for each of them, and it's obvious by now Kora and Gunnar (Huisman) are a thing, so, ya know. Gotta do the dot dot dot before the enemy comes!
Kora also retrieves her drop ship which might help turn the tide, speaking with the android Jimmy who's somehow just kind of existing there, and she tells him about what's happening; she also explains the Motherworld soldiers would shit their pants if they saw them fighting together, and that's what they're afraid of.
Leaving him to it, she goes to cut her hair off as a just-in-case, and then Noble arrives and postures and eventually promises to spare everyone if Kora agrees to come with him.
At this point, GUNNAR, of all people, is smarter than Kora, seeing through Noble's ploy which she can't, and sounds the alarm so that the fighting can begin in earnest.
Having learned our main characters' pasts (the swordswoman whose family was murdered and who took up ancient weapons to avenge them, the prince who was smuggled from his home world after it fell so he could survive, the general who turned himself in only to have his men killed in front of him, and the rebel who was a slave before she was freed), we can now follow them through the fighting as they stand side-by-side.
And the only way you can really appreciate these scenes is if you watch them yourself, because Snyder truly does shine in epic battle sequences.
Unfortunately, we say goodbye to a large number of characters, Nemesis included when she gives her life defending the women and children Noble thought would be "easy pickings" and sent a group of his elite soldiers after them. Truth be told, those soldiers would have gnawed rocks if you asked me, the women were ALL ready with guns and other weapons.
Kora's former lover also bites the dust after trying to go after Noble, who's evacuating on a dropship.
And Kora herself, with Gunnar's help, takes HER dropship to infiltrate the big kahuna in the sky, where she goes to set explosive charges and tells Gunnar to be ready to get them the hell out of there.
Only, it doesn't quite end like that as she and Noble have it out, Noble shoots Gunnar, and ends up decapitated for his trouble (the scary technicians probably can't bring him back from THAT ... don't look at me, Maul, you got dead eventually too).
On the ground, Jimmy joins the fight, single-handedly taking out the second wave of Noble's attack, and once the Dreadnought is down, it's game over, but unfortunately Gunnar doesn't make it. Who does, however, is the rebel group that finally shows up to mop up the rest, after saying NO so many times in the first movie it's hard to figure out why they even showed up.
Anyway, all's well that ends well, and the dead are given an honourable burial. Kora finally admits to everyone who she actually is: she was there the day the royal family was murdered, because her father figure persuaded her to do it, and she pulled the trigger on the princess purported to have magical healing powers (included in these is bringing things back to life ...).
Then the asshole pinned the murders on KORA, and instead of shooting him on the spot, she fled.
Titus tells her gravely that, yeah, he figured out who she was. He didn't really know about the full story, but he DOES know the princess isn't dead.
Remember what he said at the start of the movie ...
Kora - and through her, the audience - looks at him like he's crazy, but he just smiles and goes: yup you heard me, she's not dead, might as well take up the fight and find her so we can bring some peace to this shitty universe, amirite?
And with THAT, the movies comes to a close!
Definitely entertaining and with a heck of a lot of main characters biting it, something Snyder doesn't seem afraid of (Huisman seems to be the new-era Sean Bean in that he keeps dying in the roles he gets), Rebel Moon's second movie clears the path for potential future sequels, which I'm hoping might still happen.
There's no word on it yet, and Snyder himself has been busy with a different project, but I'd LOVE to at least get one more to conclude everything, finding the princess and all that. It would be fun!
Otherwise, the acting definitely evens out and becomes smoother in this one, the script finds its pace, and there's finally background music!
All in all, an improvement over the first, so here's hoping for more.
xx
*images and video not mine
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