by Jake Hjort, contributing writer
Whenever I review a film, I try to make sure to steer clear of other people’s thoughts and impressions before I have a chance to see it myself and come to my own conclusions. Unfortunately, by the time I was able to see Zack Snyder’s new sci-fi epic Rebel Moon, it had become nigh impossible to avoid the online discourse. Although I can’t say for certain whether or not these preconceptions influenced my enjoyment of the film, they certainly waned my excitement to watch it. When I first heard of Rebel Moon a few months ago, I was fairly excited to see it. I wouldn’t call myself a huge fan of Snyder and his filmmaking sensibilities, but if nothing else, his movies are almost always pretty to look at and fun to watch.
As for Rebel Moon… well, at least I found it to be pretty to look at, because I sadly cannot say that it was terribly fun to watch. Initially devised as a darker installment of the Star Wars universe, the plot feels as though Snyder just swapped out the grasshoppers for space Nazis in A Bug’s Life (yes, I’m aware that this is just a reskin of Seven Samurai, but I’ve only seen that once, and A Bug’s Life a few dozen times, so it was the insects that came to mind). We mostly follow the fugitive, Kora (Sofia Boutella), once the adopted daughter of the tyrannical warlord Balisarius (Fra Fee), and now trying to save a small farming village on the planet Veldt from the exploitation of his right-hand man, Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein). To accomplish these ends, she travels around the galaxy with farmer, Gunnar (Michiel Huisman), collecting allies as they prepare to fight.
By far, the biggest indictment against Rebel Moon is that it’s dreadfully boring. The pacing is incredibly slow and like many other Part One films to come out in the past few years, it really feels like it’s only half of a story at best, primarily full of exposition, team-building, and a skirmish against a henchman in the “climax.” However, despite the wall-to-wall world building, I don’t feel as though I really understand the dynamics of the universe in which the story takes place. Heck, I couldn’t even confidently tell you who the eponymous “child of fire” is. This may have been fine if this was still a Star Wars film, and a lot of the groundwork had already been laid, but as the introduction to a new wannabe franchise, it completely falls flat.
Alongside the script failing to generate an interesting or memorable world, it fails to create realistic characters and motivations. The most notable such example of this is with Tarak (Staz Nair), an enslaved blacksmith who seemingly has the ability to communicate with animals. In order to free him and add him to their squad, Kora and Gunnar have to make a bet: If Tarak can tame a ferocious, hippogriff-like creature, then he can be freed, but if not, then they will join him in slavery. At this point, neither Kora nor the audience has any real idea of who Tarak is, or why he is so critical to their team, so her gambling her freedom on him feels completely nonsensical. Furthermore, when it comes to the climactic battle, Tarak acts as no more than a normal soldier with a gun, with neither his smithing nor animal skills coming into play. While this may play a larger role later on in the franchise, his character, and the lengths gone to in order to recruit him, feel out of place.
As far as performances are concerned, nothing stands out in any particularly positive or negative way. Boutella and Huisman are both perfectly serviceable in the lead roles, but neither quite have the gravitas you would want from the stars of a franchise. Skrein gives my favorite performance in the film as the primary antagonist, particularly when his is first introduced, and is genuinely an intimidating as a space Nazi bureaucrat, but even he feels to have dimmed by the end. The legendary Anthony Hopkins is also great as the voice of the robot, Jimmy, but unfortunately this character disappears after a few interesting scenes in the beginning, reappearing only in one of the final shots, likely setting up a larger role in the next part.
As with most Snyder films, the standouts are the action sequences and the visual design of the world. The visuals are certainly good, and the action is fun, but both are far from the best I’ve seen this year, and not nearly strong enough to be reason alone to watch the film. In fact, if you’re looking for a visually stunning sci-fi film with a subpar story that was released this year, I’d strongly recommend checking out The Creator instead, which is better than Rebel Moon on both accounts, and was made with half the budget.
As I near the end of this review, I find myself debating whether or not I feel passionately enough to say that I hated Rebel Moon, or if I merely just disliked it. Although it ultimately was a hollow experience and a waste of two hours of my time, there’s enough visual interest, competent acting, and missed potential to keep a small flicker of hope inside me that the director’s cut or second part — both releasing early next year — may be worth watching. I can’t in good conscience recommend that anyone watch this, but if you do, stay tuned for Part Two of this review next April.
Rating – Low Side of Didn’t Like It
Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire is currently streaming on Netflix
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