I don’t know why I had my hoped built up for this, the first one disappointed me, and this one didn’t do much better. The main plot still follows the group of fighters that have been recruited by Kora (Sofia Boutella) to protect the people of Veldt from the evil imperial forces that are returning for the harvest, and to continue the subjugation of the planet in the name of Balisarius (Fra Fee).

It’s a familiar riff on the Seven Samurai one that has served a number of incarnations throughout the years so I don’t begrudge Snyder that. He also continues to paint very lovely visual images that are very arresting, he knows how to compose an image, but the story lacks punch and feels smaller after the world-building that went on in the first film.

Ed Skrein returns as the villainous admiral, Atticus Noble who leads the attacking force on Veldt, and knows who Kora really is – she was used as a pawn in the assassination of the royal family and was young Princess Issa (Stella Grace Fitzgerald) killer.

In fact, this installment takes brief glances at the personal motivation of the recruited characters before trying to deliver a blockbuster battle to close out the film, which runs shorter than the first film.

It feels smaller, and there are some bothersome choices about killing off a couple of the interesting characters. Obviously, there are going to be characters killed off, they go for the heroic ending after some redemptive action, but it annoyed me about one of the choices in particular.

To be clear, I did not hate-watch this one, I keep hoping that Snyder will deliver something really engaging, but despite its big budget trappings, this one just feels like all style (?) and no substance. There are no real surprises in the way the story plays out, no surprising third-act twists that set up the final film. It’s all basic, no matter how decent it looks.

And it does look decent. The production design is impressive, I like the look of a lot of the tech. It definitely has a lived-in and used look to it. It’s not all clean and shiny, but dirty and dinged up. And the cast is solid as well, with Michiel Huisman, and Djimon Hounsou returning to their characters, and Anthony Hopkins continuing to lend his voice to the robotic Jimmy.

They haven’t set a date for the third film, and it hasn’t begun production yet, so who knows, maybe if it does get greenlit, and maybe, we can hope for a stronger script. I won’t say the universe is interesting, it’s all composed of familiar archetypes and stereotypes, none of it is original, but maybe with a really good script, they could do something really fun with it.

Right now, it just looks good but is also completely forgettable.