Rebel Moon - Netflix - Zack Snyder

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121370732#Comment_121370732

Yeah, think Dawn of the Dead is his best all round movie, and I think he has James Gunn to thank for that for giving him a decent script to work with. He has an interesting visual style, but really needs to accept that he needs storytelling help to put that style on top of a worthwhile project.

Brief_Lives

Dawn of the Dead and the Zack Snyder version of Justice League, would be my favourites of his.

TheIrishGrover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121368304#Comment_121368304

Wait, her name it Kora?

FFS, he's not even TRYING now:

(I know it's Korra but....)

pixelburp

In fairness @TheIrishGrover this film's derivative DNA was blatant the moment I saw the Space Nazis in their very obvious Space Nazi costumes. If the main bad guy's name isn't ... I dunno, Garth Raider, I'll be somewhat surprised.

eightieschewbaccy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121370764#Comment_121370764

I think he would thrive if he was simply worked in the area of visual style etc. Then have somebody else handle overall direction, story etc. Cause I'm pretty sure I'd enjoy a movie with his style overall provided he had limited overall control.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121395282#Comment_121395282

Synder's collaborators were themselves part of the "problem" but I see with this and his more recent films he has credits on the writing; so that in of itself is a bit of a warning bell, for me anyway. So I'm not sure who could guide him given he has worked where others built the scripts - it's just that they themselves have been pretty bad lol. Except dawn of the dead which was notable in having none other than James Gunn penning the script.

Oh and on my snark earlier about the bad guy, I should share in case it was missed, followed by the obligatory video for situations like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToKcmnrE5oY

MisterAnarchy

First trailer looked promising, the second one looks like utter shite.

The White Wolf

Reviews are out and it's being absolutely murdered by critics. What a shame as I was really routing for Zack.

Having said that I'll judge for myself.9

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121499976#Comment_121499976

It's out at Christmas on Netflix so TBH I'd be shocked enough if it didn't do gangbusters for them. Assuming it's ok for the wee uns it might get a lot of looks over the holidays. Not surprised it's getting a critical kicking cos it has looked decidedly ... Zack Synder.

~Rebel~

Yeah, I'm sure everyone's gonna watch it - I definitely will - but he's just an awful writer, so it was always hard to see it working well. He's a 57 year old who writes like an over-enthusiastic 14 year old. I'll always support original sci-fi though, even if its a bit crap, so that hopefully the interest is perceived to be there when someone with a good script comes along.

The one bit of hope here is that there are 2 other half decent writers on board too - but with this being a project so close to his heart for decades, it's hard to imagine they'll be given any more freedom than polishing bad ideas.

pixelburp

Shots fired; David Ehrlich with the most scarhing review I've see so far

The result is (the first half of) a singularly torturous slog that tries — and fails, and fails, and fails again for 134 minutes of agonizing tedium that are only interrupted by the occasional jolt of sadness for the wasted talent of everyone involved — to distill an iota of creative value from pre-existing images that never seemed worthless until Snyder tried to make them unique. It’s the cinematic equivalent of an NFT.

Jaysus, that's a harsh thing to say about anything.

Man Vs ManUre

Rebel Moon vs Killers of the Flower Moon, who will win this lunar battle??

The White Wolf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121500547#Comment_121500547

From what I've seen they're all generally going for the jugular. I'll be very curious to see if it's bad as they say. In a year that's had its fair share of failures, I haven't seen vitriol like this for any of them.

Agent Coulson

If it’s that bad it will be well worth a drunken afternoon watch over Christmas.

~Rebel~

Oof, it's sounding like a bit of a similar deal to his awful Army of the Dead.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121500601#Comment_121500601

Synder is possibly the singular Known Quantity director ( with a noted visual aesthetic) outside of someone like Wes Anderson; so far the reviews sound like the trailer looked and what it looked like was a Zack Synder movie. As I've restarted my Netflix sub I'll probably check it out, if only out of idle curiosity, assuming the runtime isn't something insane.

Edit, ah. 134 minutes; that's actually quite reasonable.

The White Wolf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121500697#Comment_121500697

Army of the Dead did ok compared to this critically. This is more like Sucker Punch....which I actually liked in an odd way for the pure spectacle and world he created. Oscar Issac had a really good performance in it.

johnny_ultimate

Sounds like it was a mistake to cut the film in two, as well. Apparently this just covers the ‘getting the gang together’ stuff - that’s not exactly the sort of narrative drive that justifies forcing the audience to wait another month or two. There’s a reason Seven Samurai is one long movie rather than two shorter ones.

But between this and Army of the Dead, one of Snyder’s most infuriating recent characteristics is to repeatedly insist on trying to start franchises. Alas, his ideas are too rote and boring to manage that.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121501263#Comment_121501263

Well, looks like Synder is threatening promising a 3 hour director's cut of the first film; so I'm guessing overall it's a 6+ hour thing? I'd have thought given the freedom afforded to him by Netflix, this cut already was be the directors cut?

silverharp

this is a decent (spolier free) review , one of the themes is Snyder makes great visuals but isnt so hot on story telling and characters , Snyder would make the best music video director on the planet. Hell of a flaw to have in your director unless he was playing second fiddle to someone else?

https://youtu.be/38UdhIUrYqI?si=2EP-IRDdChfFwkMv

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121502297#Comment_121502297

He just really needs to stop trying to do these auteur projects, cause he's really bad at it. Plenty of directors only work on projects that someone else has developed and written. Scripts are important and should ideally be left to people who can write them.

The White Wolf

To be fair to Snyder this seems to be a labour of love for him, so why would he hand over the writing to someone else? He's dying on the sword he believes in which is fair enough to me.

I'd say after these Rebel Moon films he's just going to step away from directing and be full on producing with his wife.

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121503467#Comment_121503467

i mean, anyone can do whatever they want, but if you want a project to be good, then ideally you get the best people suited to work on each part of it. That's sorta the point of filmmaking. Sometimes to make the idea you love be the best version of itself, you have to be open to delegating on areas you're weak in - which is pretty undeniably the case with Snyder and screenwriting.

And it's just a bit of a shame for this much effort from so many people (actors, costumers, H&MU, cinematography, VFX staff, production designers etc etc) to go into something that ends up bad because of a reason like that. Everyone still gets their paycheck, but it's always so much more rewarding to be a part of something good.

I'm just a bit disappointed to hear how much of a slog this seems to be, as it's exactly the sort of thing I want to see made, and every bad end product makes life harder for the next persons pitch.

TheIrishGrover

Most of the reviews seem to say exactly what most here have been saying: Style over substance and totally derivative. I mean, we all gave examples purely from the trailer and the couple of clips I've seen are just as shallow: The rich-looking merc/gent who is secretly dead inside (queue going out in a blaze of glory saving some kids or numble maiden who rook a shine to him) to the mystical Not-native-American taming a flying beast. No doubt later referred to as a mythical "Sky-Rider".

I don't have a problem with material referencing itself. For God's sake, how many other riffs on Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven/... Battle Beyond The Stars are there. The problem I have is with his, aptly-described-above, strangely obsessive and cine-illiterate fan base. They seem to think that he invented every trope that he trots out and that he is bringing something radically new and game-changing to cinema.

It's a bit sad really

TheIrishGrover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121500547#Comment_121500547

That "It's the cinematic equivalent of an NFT" is a savage burn. Jesus. Remember those tens of thousands of jpgs that were supposedly worth tens of thousands EACH? Rings a bell, right? But that's it.

Ouch

pixelburp

Well, Part 1 is out today for those curious to see how Syndery it all is.

mewso

It's meh. Derivative McDerivative. It was suitable hangover material for me today. If you can forgive the total lack of any originality then you may be mildly entertained. For me another to add to Netflix's panteon of bang average films and yes it is about as Snyder as things can get.

The White Wolf

I've watched an hour so far and will probably finish it tonight....it's actually decent from what I've seen, and one of Snyder's more subdued films (I know how mental that sounds).

If being derivative is its worst crime, I could point to a certain other studio that could be accused of that for the last decade plus yet get a far easier ride from critics.

gmisk

Well this was poor....very poor. I think even the Snyder fanboys will struggle to hype it up. Worst of all it is boring. Stupid slow mo scenes, clunkily directed, badly acted and with trite lumpen dialogue. Another netflix dud to add to the growing pile.

I think I read it was failed Star wars universe film pitch it feels like it.

A special shout out to Charlie Hunnam and his northern Ireland accent at least I think that's what he was going for....brutal.

nachouser

It's about 9/10 Snyders on the Snyder-scale. I'm deducting 1 Snyder for using Hopkins as purely a voice-actor. Cos that is a great call.