Titus keeps reaching out, celebrating the harvest by singing in the actor’s native Beninese Fon, as heard by the robot Jimmy—watching the activities in the village from a distance. It recalls the cross-cultural communication between Hounsou’s Cinque and Hopkins’ John Quincy Adams in the Spielberg film. Jimmy listens to Titus’ song while ruminating on the galactic sky above, the perspective of which Snyder orients through Jimmy’s crown of antlers—searching for meaning in the wake of the slain king of the universe.
Remember the young Clark Kent wearing a makeshift cape at the end of Man of Steel (2013)? Snyder’s postmodern deconstruction of a universal flight of childhood imagination cuts deeper here. Kids may play at light sabers from George Lucas’ Star Wars (1977) with household objects or conjure them out of thin air with beatbox sound effects. The conductive energy swords in Snyder’s space opera, however, burn to the exposed touch. The final battle demands the boy act with a lighting flash of action, while Nemesis pours out a maternal gesture of comfort along with her tears: “You did good.”
This first cut of Scargiver, on the other hand, is the film Return Of The Jedi should’ve been, and feels like one of the best action movies ever made. Snyder filters the enduring power of Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai through his own genius sense of visual synthesis. FINALLY, a real battle epic after years if not decades of tepid, family friendly substitutes from the various Hollywood franchises. Access Media Gatekeepers will whine about character development even as they praise things like Sasquatch Sunset, Skinamarink, and Zone Of Interest. But how many years and movies worth of “character development” did we suffer through in Harry Potter, The Matrix, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Star Wars, only for them to fail to deliver any kind of satisfying climax, either audiovisually or emotionally?
It is hard to pick a favorite among the images presented in the movie. Some are Djimon Hounsou's General Titus spitting out the alcohol and drinking in the fresh spring water. Life renewed. Jimmy, or to call him by his Christian name: James, lying down looking up at the night sky contemplating his existence and purpose all the while Titus is singing. How about every shot of Donna Bae's heartbreaking Nemesis with the young boy. The sword Excalibur, wield by Kora and Gunnar, shows up once again in a Snyder film since Batman v Superman. And the ending points towards the quest for the Grail.