Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon

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Deconstruction is fine if one doesn't forget to make both the story and its characters appealing to the viewer. So far RM has failed in that area, and I don't believe his alternate longer cut will magically fix that. And given how little screen time is actually spent IN SPACE I don't think anyone (besides you of course) would have made the Space Opera deconstruction connection if Snyder wasn't talking it up so such.

WRT BvS, I never had an issue with his approach to the characters but rather the premise and execution. Putting Gotham and Metropolis across a bay from one another was just jarring and made Clark the world's worst "investigative reporter" ever for not knowing or acknowledging Batman's heroic past. And anyway you spin it, the "Save Martha" moment was just painfully bad. How much of that lies at Snyder's feet vs. Goyer and Terrio (the writers) I don't know, but that's where the movie failed for me. Well, there was Eisenberg's performance too lol...

It kind of is, in a way! Indirectly…

Netflix insisted that he make the two hour PG13 cuts, he says. I liken this to putting a wild creature in a zoo. He had to take his crazy idea of applying a Heavy Metal/pulp/B movie vibe to “Star Wars” (the “wild animal” in my analogy) and try to turn it into something acceptable to mainstream tastes, and that is emotionally and psychologically comforting and soothing in that way.

Lol, but um… well, we saw what happens. I’m always sad when I see a wild creature in a zoo. I can still appreciate and admire it. But emotionally oof!

But on the other hand, I’ll be the first to admit that the director’s cuts… which presumably are the creature in the wild… and by this I mean the version of the story that sounds like it could take place in Rick and Morty (and indeed Snyder as an artist is basically a lot like Rick, lol)… that crazy-ass version is still probably not what the average viewer wants to see!

So I really don’t know how this is going to go. In past movies Snyder has had Larry Fong, Chris Terrio, Han Zimmer, Michael Wilkinson, and Patrick Tatopoulos to help him assemble some very impressive cinematic experiences. And with Rebel Moon most viewers were expecting Star Wars except with a sort of 300, Watchmen, Man of Steel, and Batman v Superman flair and quality level.

But by doing so much himself for this film including writing and DPing, using an anamorphic lens to save money (blurry background = no CGI required), it’s not wowing people visually in the way that those four films I mentioned did.

I think all Snyder can really do here is create a more intimate experience of the story with his director’s cut. But his experience is that of a mad scientist, basically!

 

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I'm telling you this as a friend: you sound desperate. You sound like a kid in high school that's been dumped, and dumped badly, and he's looking for any kind of sign or indication that his girlfriend is gonna come back some day.

"Did you see when she looked at me in the hall after lunch? She looked at me, not at the floor, like usual. I think that means she's ready to start things up again!"

No. She's not. It's all in your head.

If Snyder really set out to "deconstruct Star Wars in a pulp fiction/B-movie/Heavy Metal style" then he failed. Miserably. All he did and all he has ever been capable of doing, was making a movie based on dozens of other movies that came before, and trying to throw in "cool" or "edgy" stuff. He's not an auteur. He's not deep. And neither is Star Wars.

There's not enough material in Star Wars to make a "deconstruction" of or to make a "sleazy version" of. You can make it a parody, like "Spaceballs." You can make your own Heavy Metal-style space opera like "Fifth Element."

How do you apply a "pulp vibe" to something that already has a "pulp vibe?" You want a sleazy, "adult" Star Wars? Just add gratuitous blood and titties. Apparently that's the sum of Snyder's "genius" right there...add some blood and titties. There are probably projects where adding that to Star Wars would work for a small audience. A video game like GTA set in SW, maybe? But other than that, all you'd end up with is pure garbage like Rebel Moon.

The only people vulgarizing Star Wars are Disney themselves. They've been doing it for ten years now and I think most people have had just about enough of it. The Last Jedi was vulgar. Snyder's tentacle porn is just harmless and silly.

Well, what you’re saying is from the perspective that your experience of Rebel Moon is that’s it’s objectively terrible, truly awful in its execution. And it’s not that I don’t understand what you’re saying because I really do. I get why people see it that way.

But obviously I have a different experience of it than most people, apparently. I think it’s fascinating to look at, and interesting to think about what he’s attempting. Whether he fails or succeeds is a subjective matter at the end of the day.

He’s shared a lot about what he’s doing with Rebel Moon in interviews since Part 2 released:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Snyderverse/s/D4iJMkPfrM

https://www.reddit.com/r/Snyderverse/s/24qbJx005U

https://www.reddit.com/r/Snyderverse/s/FLsA7GXKrj

That forms the basis of my observations.

And I honestly have no idea how well Snyder will pull it off with the director’s cut. In fact I have consistently stated that I think he’s doing something there (applying Heavy Metal approach) that most viewers never asked for and don’t want.

To be fair, to really entertain what I’ve outlined is a huge ask, and not something that most viewers will feel inclined to do. In that sense from a business sense it’s probably incredibly poor judgment on Snyder’s part.

I’ll have to wait and see how much connects with me personally from the director’s cuts. If it helps validate in some way that I’m not simply a Snyder sycophant, I’m not keen on Sucker Punch, Owls of Ga’Hoole, and Army of the Dead. I appreciate the idea behind Sucker Punch and appreciate some aspects of it but it doesn’t resonate much with me deep down. And it’s an example of the “bloated-ness” that can ensue when Zack throws in the kitchen sink with an ambitious idea that he has. Owls is just not appealing to me in any way except visually (which is not enough!). I have no idea what he is trying to do with that movie but it doesn’t work at all for me. AotD is just kind of bland feeling to me. I don’t care a whole lot what is happening, unfortunately.

But I genuinely do kind of like the characters, story, and universe of Rebel Moon. It’s fun (for me). I’m not expecting it to be a masterpiece on the level of 2001: A Space Odyssey, lol. But as popcorn entertainment I can easily roll with it.