Well, Madame Web actually has a competitor for the worse film of 2024. That would be Rebel Moon, Part Two: The Scargiver for those fortunate enough to not have seen it.
Director Zack Snyder’s hardcore fans keep insisting that Snyder should be allowed to do whatever he wants with his films. They claim that his vision for the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) was stymied by idiotic studio heads who then ruined his films and the rest of the DCEU. However, Snyder’s latest film is a textbook cautionary example of what happens when a director is given carte blanche creative control over a film.
Rebel Moon, Part Two: The Scargiver, which streamed last week on Netflix, is the sequel to Rebel Moon, Part One: A Child of Fire that streamed last December. The storyline is based on a failed pitch for a Star Wars film and it is about a young woman named Kora (Sofia Boutella) who lives in a quiet farming colony on a moon that has to recruit a team to help her colony fend off an invasion by the evil Imperium. It’s essentially a sci-fi remake of Seven Samurai (which has been done before with Battle Beyond the Stars), as she recruits eccentric warriors to defend her colony. The first film was OK with excellent production values and cinematography although the script was derivative of other sci-fi tropes, and man, it was full of slow-mo shots. It was hoped by critics that part two would be a huge payoff for the setup, but that did not turn out as expected.
Instead of giving a satisfying and coherent conclusion, Snyder goes all out and indulges in the worst aspects of his cinematic bag of tricks. The film just oozes needless slow-mo shots of people farming, walking, or making any kind of motion. It was slow-mo porn! The film also boasted too many exposition dumps that brought the film’s story into a screeching halt. The scenes were the characters stopped in their tracks to give us extended back stories were clumsily done and were too long thanks to…slow-mo shots. What was worse is that these character expositions did little to endear us to Kora and her team of misfit warriors. The decisions made by the characters in their back stories often did not make sense and in the end none of the stories made the characters memorable. This was clear when not only was there no sympathy for any heroic characters when they died but it was hard to tell who they were during the well-staged battle scenes.
To its credit, Rebel Moon, Part Two: The Scargiver, had great special effects and design that evoked Warhammer 40,000 and of course Star Wars. The final boss battle between Kora and Admiral Noble (Ed Skrein) was well choreographed as they fought with their lightsabres, or whatever the swords are called in the Rebel Moon universe (help us but more films are planned) and Anthony Hopkins was brilliant as the voice of the Jimmy the rebel robot. But logic of the epic battles in the final act did not make sense. How could an advanced intergalactic force fail to detect simple farmers hiding out with weapons? How is it the main heroes are able to take out scores of armored enemy soldiers armed with axes and clubs? This was worse than when the Ewoks defeated the Empire’s forces in Return of the Jedi. All these flaws would have been forgivable if 1) we cared about the characters and 2) the battles engaged us. In other words, the battles were boring, the worst possible insult for action scenes.
While derivative from the start, Rebel Moon, Part Two: The Scargiver had the potential to be a rousing action film that would have been Zack Snyder’s answer to Star Wars. Instead we have to give credit to Lucasfilm for having the wisdom to turn down Snyder’s pitch.
The problem with the two Rebel Moon films boils down to the fact that Zack Snyder was given too much creative freedom and he overindulged his worst cinematic impulses. Yes, Snyder is a very talented director but he needs firm guidance when executing his films. So, if there are more Rebel Moon films, Snyder will have to either control himself or allow himself to be guided by objective partners.
Well, no one can say Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire can be compared to Godzilla Minus One, but it was still fun.
The latest film installment in the Monsterverse cinematic universe reunites everyone’s favorite kaijus Godzilla and King Kong, who last faced each other in Godzilla vs. Kong. That film left the two titans living in two different worlds: Kong in an underground realm called Hollow Earth while Godzilla remained on the surface and as the undisputed king of the monsters. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire takes place a few years later where Godzilla starts stomping around the world, destroying cities while battling other kaijus, and absorbing radiation to charge himself up. This catches the attention of the Monarch Organization, which monitors the behemoth kaijus throughout the world that have made their presences known in the Monsterverse.
Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) is a linguist at Monarch with an adopted daughter Jia (Kaylee Hottle), who is the sole remaining member of her tribe that lived on Skull Island. Jia has been having visions that serve as a warning and Ilene recruits a podcaster, Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry), to decipher Jia’s visions, He figures out that the visions are a distress signal from Hollow Earth. Meanwhile, down below on Hollow Earth, Kong is trying to find other giant apes like him and eventually discovers a tribe of such apes, but they are hostile and ruled by a giant, red-furred tyrant called the Skar King.
After King Kong comes up to the surface world to get his tooth infection taken care of by a free-spirited veterinarian called Trapper (Dan Stevens)—yes, that actually happened, Ilene, Jia, Bernie and Trapper voyage to Hollow Earth to find the source of the distress call. Once there, the four run into the last remaining members of Jia’s tribe who are telepaths and they learn that long ago, the Skar King and his ape tribe tried to conquer the surface world, fought Godzilla and were trapped in Hollow Earth.
During his encounter with the giant ape tribe, Kong is bested by the Skar King and is forced to flee with his new-found friend, Suko, a young, red-furred giant ape that is patterned after Grogu or Baby Groot. The human quartet from the surface world run into Kong who was badly injured during his fight with the Skar King and his forces. As Trapper treats Kong, the rest have to find a way to get Godzilla back to Hollow Earth to help Kong fight the Skar King, who plans to escape to the surface to conquer it.
Yes, this admittedly sounds goofy, and it is. But Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is so damn entertaining and it’s simply a fun watch that is fast paced and exciting. Basically, this is the quintessential film for you to turn off your brain, not question the film’s logic and just go with it. By the end of the film, anyone will be rooting for our heroes during the climatic battle with the Skar King and his minions. That battle was actually pretty epic and the film is a throwback to the more juvenile Godzilla films from the ‘60s and ‘70s that we all enjoyed as kids. The script is obviously the weakest part of the film, but everything else was well done. Who cares about collateral damage as famous landmarks and cites are destroyed as these giants tussle? How many people were killed as King Kong and Godzilla faced off in Cairo? Never mind that the Pyramids of Giza were destroyed! Or that the film copies elements from popular films and TV shows like The Avengers or The Mandalorian. Leave those concerns home and keep munching your popcorn as the film makes you feel like a little kid again. This is the kind of film to not think too deeply about and have a laugh-filled blast.
The actors give it their all with their limited character development, while King Kong is the clear star of the film. His dialogue-free scenes give him a lot of pathos as the lonely giant gorilla tries to find others of his kind and dealing with the fact that when he does so it was not what he expected. Godzilla’s screen time was not as prominent as in other Monsterverse films, but that’s okay. His scenes are awesome to watch, although some of them were silly like when he uses the Roman Coliseum as his resting place to get some shuteye. Yet, he and Kong still inspire much respect whenever they display the full might of their power.
While Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is just goofy, surface-level fun, it is unfortunate that the film came out after the more serious Godzilla Minus One and even Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, the TV show set in the Monsterverse and is required viewing for fans of the film franchise. It can be too easy to dismiss these kaiju films especially the ones from the Monsterverse as silly nonsense, but they can achieve a more mature and thoughtful tone, which was seen with the first Monsterverse film, 2014’s Godzilla. Of course, many complained that that film was too serious and didn’t feature enough monster destruction. Fair enough, but it seems as if the recent offerings have swung too hard in the other direction to the point that they cannot be taken seriously. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters struck a fine balance and if more Monsterverse films are made they should emulate the mood of the TV show. The filmmakers should aim for something higher instead of playing it safe and reveling in epic kaiju battles. But enough of that griping, just go see Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and have some fun.
Visionary director Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, Part Two concludes his epic live-action adaptation of the sci-fi classic novel, Dune, with a sweeping flourish. At the same time, by splitting the adaptation into two films Villeneuve is able fully flesh out the scope of the novel, which was impossible to do with just one film, as we saw with David Lynch’s film from 1984.
Picking up immediately after the first film, Dune, Part Two, further develops the saga of young Paul “Muad’Dib” Atreides (Timothée Chamolet), the heir to House Atreides and future messiah to the Fremen people of the planet Arrakis. Now, it must be said that you need to have seen Dune, Part One, or be at least aware of the situations in the story. Basically, in the far future, humanity has spread throughout the universe with the aid of a substance called spice mélange that enables humans to perform complex intergalactic navigation. This spice can only be produced on the desert planet called Arrakis, which becomes the center of a dispute between two royal houses, House Atreides and House Harkonnen. In the first film, the Atreides were assigned by the emperor of the Known Universe to administer Arrakis and harvest the spice, but they were ambushed by the forces of the Harkonnens. This led to the death of Paul’s father, Duke Leto, and with the downfall of his House. By the end of the first film, Paul and his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) fled to the deep desert and were adopted by the nomadic Fremen.
If any of this sounds complex, then you are correct, and there is much more to the story. This complexity has made the novel nearly impossible to adapt in the past, yet Denis Villeneuve was able to pull it off while adding his own stamp to the story. It’s similar to what Peter Jackson was able to do with his adaptation of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Where the first Dune film was devoted to setting up the complex worldbuilding and multiple characters, the second film centers on Paul’s rise to power as the Kwisatz Haderach, the messianic savior of the Fremen who will liberate their world from outside forces. However, Paul is wracked with doubt because of prophetic visions he has that reveal that billions of people throughout the universe because of his followers. In Dune, Part Two, Paul ingratiates himself to the Fremen and rises to prominence among them as they fight the Harkonnen forces on Arrakis as many of them see him as the fulfillment of the Kwisatz Haderach prophecy. He also begins a romantic relationship with Chani (Zendaya), a brave and lethal Fremen fighter who is skeptical of the Fremen’s religious deference to Paul and even the Fremen religion. It is revealed that the religion was developed by Lady Jessica’s matriarchal order the Bene Gesserit in order to control the Fremen.
Like the novel, the films, especially Part Two, explore the perils of religious fanaticism as it blinds followers who will only see what they want to see. In this case, despite Paul’s early protestations that he is not their savior, many Fremen refuse to heed him and twist their logic to justify their beliefs. The analogies to today’s religious strife are quite obvious and damning but illuminating. Even more incredible is that how closely the film translates the same cautionary themes about religion from Frank Herbert’s novel which came out over 50 years ago, and demonstrates the timeless nature of the book.
There are a few distinct departures from the novel that won’t be spoiled but may upset Dune fans, but the basic plot structure of the novel remains, such as Paul’s development, and the intergalactic politics that turns its attention to the barren Arrakis that turns out to be the most important world in the universe. For non-fans who enjoy rich and intricate political storylines, Dune is basically Game of Thrones set in space, except that it should be the other way around since Dune novel came out decades before the fantasy epic.
While Villeneuve was able to successfully translate the dense story, what is even more impressive with Dune, Part Two is its epic nature that puts other adaptations to shame. Many of its visuals are clearly inspired by Lawrence of Arabia, which itself has many of the same themes as with Dune: an outsider who joins desert people and becomes their liberator.
The visuals and cinematography are just gorgeous to witness, as they engross you completely into the rich alien worlds. Also impressive were the performances by the actors who imbue their characters with complexity. Along with Chamalet and Zendaya, Javier Bardem as the Fremen leader Stilgar and Austin Butler as the psychotic Feyd-Rautha Harkonen were excellent in their roles. Many scenes were heart stopping and instantly iconic, like Paul’s first ride on a giant sandworm, the Fremen attack on the Harkonnens or Paul’s duel with Feyd-Rautha. Together, all these elements have been able to create a true cinematic experience that will be remembered for years to come and prove that serious sci-fi can be a vehicle for a complex and enriching film.
Summing up, Dune, PartTwo is one of the very best sci-fi films ever made thanks to its complex themes and visual richness that rivals the greats. Needless to say, it must be experienced on the biggest screen possible.
The fourth season of the alternate history TV series, For All Mankind, just concluded with a typical speculative flourish that defines the program.
Streaming on Apple TV +, For All Mankind was co-created by Ronald D. Moore and explores a reality where the Soviets reached the moon before the United States could. Instead of stagnating as in our reality, in this alternate world, the United States is inspired to keep pushing the boundaries in space exploration. In each subsequent season, the series jumps ahead roughly every decade and we see how much of an impact the Soviet moon landing has in the world. A lunar station is established in the 1970s, which further fuels the space race between the world powers of the Soviet Union and the United States. Naturally, this also fuels the Cold War which now extended into outer space as seen in season two when the two world powers nearly went to war on the moon during the 1980s.
By the third season, tensions cooled between the two powers in the 1990s. A new space race to reach Mars and the struggles of those who reached the red planet were the focus of the third season. This brings us to the fourth season which just concluded. Taking place in the early 2000s, the fourth season of For All Mankind presents a world where Al Gore is the U.S. president, the Soviet Union continues to exist, John Lennon is still alive and there are only three Star Trek TV shows (!), but as with the previous seasons, the TV show focuses on several characters affected by the alternate space race.
The heart of For All Mankind is the aging astronaut Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman). In the first season, Baldwin had the opportunity to land on the moon on Apollo 10 before the Soviets, but never took it, much to his regret as Alexei Leonov landed on the moon shortly after Baldwin’s mission. Baldwin winds up involved in crititcal points in NASA’s space exploratory efforts such as being commander of the Jamestown lunar station, helping to defuse tensions with the Soviets in the second season during a space shuttle flight, and as the commander of the commercial mission to land on Mars and establish a colony there in the third and fourth season. Despite his many achievements, Baldwin struggles to find meaning in his life, to adapt to a quickly changing world and he does not even want to return to Earth after spending many years on Mars. By the fourth season, Baldwin is facing his twilight years and determined to make a difference. He does this by latching onto the quest to keep the human Martian colony from withering out.
In the fourth season, a large asteroid, called Goldilocks, is discovered drifting towards Mars that is rich in iridium. After a lot of deliberation, the M-7, a conglomeration of seven world powers, including the U.S. and the Soviets, decided to have the asteroid diverted into Earth orbit for immediate rewards and riches. Dev Ayesa (Edi Gathegi), an Elon Musk-type and owner of the corporation Helios Aerospace, has a vision of humanity expanding into the solar system and beyond. He realizes that if the Goldilocks asteroid is diverted to Earth that any interest in developing Mars and exploring space will wither and die as the world powers will be busy enriching themselves with the asteroid in Earth orbit. He comes up with a plan to essentially hijack the asteroid and have it orbit Mars instead in order to force Earth to keep investing in the red planet.
As this is going on, there is a labor struggle in the Martian colony best represented by Miles Dale (Tobey Kebbel), a former oil platform worker turned Martian laborer. In the reality of the TV show, fossil fuels have been phased out of use in the world as new energy technologies made them obsolete. While this may be great for the environment, many workers in the fossil fuel field had to find new means of employment. Dale relocated to Mars for a new opportunity, but the realities and frugality of Helios forced him to run a black market operation in the colony. Underlining these labor struggles is the fact that many of the laborers including Baldwin see Mars as their home not Earth, which means this could be the beginning of Mars eventually becoming an independent world.
Trying to keep the Martian colony running smoothly is Commander Danielle Poole (Krys Marshall), a Black woman who was one of the first woman astronauts for NASA in the 1970s. As Baldwin is the rebellious heart of For All Mankind, Poole is the soul of the show as we see from her POV how radically different this reality is from our own since women and people of color were able to advance in society much more quickly compared to our own. Like Baldwin, Poole is very relatable but for different reasons. While Baldwin is a sympathetic relic struggling to fit into the new order, Poole is an empathic and level-headed, by-the-book leader who is the moral center of the show. As these situations go, Poole is brought out of retirement to command the Martian colony and becomes embroiled in the labor struggle that morphs into a revolution of sorts on Mars.
In the backdrop of the fomenting Martian revolution, we also follow the stories of several NASA personnel. The most interesting is Margo Madison (Wrenn Schmidt), the first woman to be mission controller of NASA. During the TV show she was forced to work for the Soviets and commit treason by providing them with the secrets of American space technology. In the just-concluded season, Margo, who was believed to have been killed in a domestic terrorist bombing, comes out of hiding from the Soviet Union and has to decide what she will do with her life and how she can contribute to humanity’s space efforts. Her situation brings her into conflict with her protogee, Aleida Rosales (Coral Peña), who also is a woman of prominence in NASA.
What makes For All Mankind so captivating to watch is how it balances interesting personal stories with wider geopolical developments in this world that is distinctly different than ours. We see the impact of how a Soviet moon landing further accelerates society and technology. It’s obvious that we have the capability to have advanced in space exploration but our society lacks the drive to take us there. It’s disheartening that while there is a thriving colony on Mars in the TV show, real-life efforts show how far behind we are. We cannot even manage to return to the moon as we learned recently when the Artemis mission was delayed, yet again.
In some ways, even though we see that this is not a perfect society, it seems to be a better world than our own. Many issues have been addressed much earlier in this timeline such as the struggles of people of color , women, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Advances in techonolgy are casually noted such as the use of the Internet and cell phones which began in the 1980s, and the rapid development of alternatives to fossil fuels. On the other hand, this altered world has its own problems such as it seems as if socialism/communism has spread throughout the world thanks to the continued exitence of a despotic Soviet Union (in the fourth season of the TV show, Gorbachev was overthrown by hard-line communists). One simple but intriguing tool the TV show uses is that of the montage. At the start of each season, a montage quickly brings viewers up to date on developments of the world, such as the results of presidential elections and pop culture news.
These developments would be meaningless if For All Mankind never presented how these events affected its characters. We see the wonders and struggles of this altered world through their eyes and react accordingly. One of the show’s strengths is that is able to smoothly introduce new characters while moving away from older characters as the show jumps ahead in time. It’s unknown if Baldwin and some other older characters like Poole will continue to be a part of the series though it’s unlikely. In a flashforward tease shown in the season finale, we find ourselves in 2012 without any indication if Baldwin and the others are still alive or active. With regards to the fourth season, For All Mankind continued to soar with its look at a past that is more futuristic than our own. Many episodes and plot lines were fascinating and built up to an intense and cathartic season finale.
At this time, it is unknown if For All Mankind has been renewed for a fifth season, though it is one of the more popular TV shows on Apple TV +. Not only would it be great if we’re given a fifth season taking place in the 2010s but a sixth season that takes place in this decade and beyond. Who knows, maybe we’ll see the Jovian system being colonized or perhaps of the first steps to faster-than-light travel as humanity begins to contemplate traveling to other star systems. If all goes well Ronald D. Moore and his colleagues will be able to conclude this captivating look at an alternate world of true space exploration.
Some may scoff the latest Godzilla film, Godzilla Minus One, as just another kaiju flick with battling monsters, goofy plots, and bad acting. But they will be very surprised by what Godzilla Minus One offers since it is one of the greatest Godzilla films ever made.
Evoking the serious and somber tone of the original Godzilla from 1954, Godzilla Minus One is much more than a giant kaiju film about rampaging monsters standing in for deadly forces of nature. It is also a film that studies the impact of war on former soldiers and civilians. With that in mind, the film takes the time to get viewers to become involved with the storyline of its human characters who have a surprising amount of depth and story arcs.
The film opens in the last days of World War II on a Japanese island that serves as repair depot for kamikaze planes. Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is a kamikaze pilot who lost his nerve and sets down on the island and pretends his plane needs repairs. During nightfall, the depot is attacked by a dinosaur-like monster called Godzilla by the locals. This version of Godzilla is considerably shorter than the giant walking skyscraper we’re used to seeing. This one is about the size of a large t-rex, but is quite deadly. Shikishima cannot bring himself to attack the rampaging beast that soon kills nearly everyone at the depot. Carrying this guilt with him, Shikishima struggles to adapt to civilian life in the midst of a decimated Japan after the war ends. A couple of years later, he meets Noriko Oishi (Minami Hamabe), who struggling to survive with her adopted child Akiko, who was orphaned during the war. The three form a fragile family that soon begin to strive after both adults find jobs and meaning. Shikishima works on a minesweeper boat and bonds with his shipmates. He is compelled to accept his new family and to marry Noriko, but his wartime past still haunts him. At this time a U.S. nuclear test in Bikini Atoll mutates Godzilla, who soon appears in Japan’s waters as a gigantic destructive force that emits radiation through its breath and is able to quickly heal itself from deadly injuries.
After a terrifying encounter with the creature, Shikishima’s surivor guilt and post-traumatic stress disorder kick into overdrive as he is plagued by inner demons over his inability to act in the past. Before long Godzilla makes landfall and decimates the Japanese city of Ginza before disappearing into the ocean. But everyone knows the behemoth will return and take all measures to destroy the kaiju before it returns. This also provides Shikishima with the drive to earn a measure of self redemption by confronting the monster once and for all.
Godzilla Minus One is full of drama and tension as we witness Shikishima’s story and the terrifying might of the monster. Obviously, Godzilla is a metaphor for the destructive force of war and this is done so well in the film. His rampages are very terriying and humbling as humanity and society are laid to waste by the kaiju. The scenes of mass destruction are also anchored by the compelling human stories as the survivors of World War II struggle to rebuild their lives and society. That is why it is disheatening to see the fragile peace created by Shikishima and his friends torn apart so easily by Godzilla. We actually care about these people, they are not random background characters who we casually dismiss when the monster stomps about a city. At the same time, the film also evokes Jaws in its depiction of the casual banter of shipmates who then confront a terrifying underwater beast that functions a colossal prehistoric shark.
The only quibble with the film is that it takes great lengths to explain why the American or even the remnants of the Japanese military did not try to confront the monster more openly. Despite shoutouts about Cold War fears, this does not seem realistic, especially if the behemoth that destroys a city is breathing out deadly radioactive fire. You can bet the U.S. military would have gotten involved when this was discovered. It is also implausible that the Japanese military would have a hands off attitude when it came to fighting Godzilla. Instead, the final confrontation is left up to “private citizens” who take matters into their own hands. This just seems unrealistic.
Unlike most Godzilla films, Godzilla Minus One boasts excellent production values from special effects that easily rivals what comes out of Hollywood to engaging performances from the actors. Much of the credit has to go to its director and screenwriter Takashi Yamazaki, who also supervised the stunning special effects. Yamazaki has a great eye for filmmaking and other kaiju productions should emulate what he has accomplished. It is clear that the Monsterverse films could use the talent of Takashi Yamazaki, who would bring levity and depth to their films. As much fun as the Monsterverse films are Godzilla Minus One elevates the kaiju genre to a much higher level. Then again Hollywood being the way it is would dilute the talent of this director.
It is stunning to know that after 70 years, it is still possible to create an excellent Godzilla film. Godzilla Minus One has set a new standard for Godzilla films that will be difficult to match, but it could inspire other equally impressive kaiju films.
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