‘Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver’ builds on the original without leaving much of a mark

Review by Brian Lowry, CNN

(CNN) — Zack Snyder has established himself as a gifted visual and action stylist, even in his less satisfying films. Yet the second half of his original space epic, “Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver,” primarily distinguishes the director’s recent knack for separating Netflix from lots of money, with relatively little, at least in terms of recommendable movies, to show for it.

Given Snyder’s loyal fan base, earned (and mostly deserved) for his work on the DC universe and before that “300,” the relationship surely possesses intangible value to a subscription streaming service. Moreover, Snyder has indicated that he’s not done with the “Rebel Moon” franchise, although given the expense and scale of these films, Netflix will likely need to have a long talk with its algorithm before signing up for more.

Accentuating the positive, after the long set-up that was “Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire,” the second movie moves faster, culminating with a sprawling battle. As it happens, the film’s connection to “The Seven Samurai” and its English-language variant “The Magnificent Seven” feels even more conspicuous and overt, including an extended sequence during which the recruited band of warriors train the village of farmers for the showdown to come.

Perhaps inevitably, those preliminaries become a trifle tedious – including a section devoted to farming in slow motion – a byproduct of having more than four hours to tell what’s ultimately a fairly simple story, other than keeping track of the space-opera-style names. The two-part format also allows time for the combatants to explain why they’re in this fight, outlining their motivations for revenge while bonding with the local residents, which adds a tad more narrative heft when they finally tackle those overwhelming odds.

Ultimately, “Rebel Moon’s” warriors remain more visually striking than emotionally engaging, starting with Kora (Sofia Boutella), who fled the evil empire to take refuge in this small farming outpost, burdened by guilt and a desire to atone for her past. She’s again flanked by the puppy-eyed Gunnar (Michiel Huisman) and the warriors they recruited, while given a chance for a rematch against Admiral Noble (Ed Skrein), who improbably survived their first encounter, bearing the scar to prove it.

Wearing a lot of hats, Snyder (who produced the movie, shares script credit with two others and serves as the cinematographer) gets to demonstrate what he does best thanks to the prolonged nature of the climactic fight, and its muscular in the execution. Alas, the characters and dialogue remain clunky, which shouldn’t be surprising given how derivative almost every beat of this is, down to the robot voiced by Anthony Hopkins.

Snyder has now delivered Netflix two genre mashups – the other being “Army of the Dead” – while capitalizing on the fan-driven demand for his “Snyder cut” of “Justice League” that elevated him to a sort-of cult-hero status.

Only Netflix can judge whether that avid following, and this opulent visit to “Rebel Moon,” warrants further exploration. Strictly on the merits, though, after “Part Two” it feels like time to move on to different, if not necessarily greener, pastures.

“Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver” premieres April 19 on Netflix.

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