Director Zack Snyder has made enough of my favorite films (Man of Steel, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the Dawn of the Dead remake) that I genuinely look forward to his latest project. Of course, he’s also made some real stinkers (Sucker Punch, Batman Vs Superman), but everybody has a bad day at the office, right? And I was brightened up considerably when I saw that his latest film, the star-spanning space saga Rebel Moon: Part One: A Child of Fire, would be premiering on my birthday on Netflix.
And then I saw the frigging movie. Seriously, WTF did I do to deserve this on my birthday?
Rebel Moon first started out life as a pitch for an R-rated Star Wars film that Lucasfilm, the producers of SW, had turned down. Undaunted, Snyder then brought the project to Netflix, and traces of its Star Wars inspiration still remain: the space Nazis, a scene in a cantina, the laser swords that one of the characters uses. But even if a film is derivative--which Rebel Moon certainly is--it can still be great fun. Unfortunately, Rebel Moon isn’t much fun at all.
There’s virtually no humor in the film, which also borrows its main plot from The Seven Samurai, as well as Battle Beyond the Stars (which still remains the better SF adaptation of Seven Samurai). Sofia Boutella stars as a farm girl whose farming village gets paid a visit by the aforementioned space Nazis, who set up a “deal” to take all of the villagers’ grain at the end of harvest season, leaving them with nothing to eat. And so Boutella (a very good actress who was a standout in movies like Kingsman: The Secret Service, Star Trek Beyond, and Atomic Blonde) goes off to find herself a group of warriors who will help her protect the village.
In addition to a lack of humor, Rebel Moon also has no characterization to speak of. The characters are so one-dimensional, with no intimate moments between them at all, that they are merely science fiction archetypes who go through the motions of being super-duper action heroes. Many of the settings in the film also feel so familiar that they give you the impression that you’ve seen this movie already, even when you’re watching it for the first time. One character in Rebel Moon must ride a winged creature in a scene that’s straight out of one of the Harry Potter films. Rebel Moon kept imitating so many better films that it made me want to shut it off and watch them throughout its run time.
Synder has promised a director’s cut of this film, which doesn’t make sense. A director’s cut comes out on video right after a theatrical release, but since he’s already releasing this on Netflix, why not just put the director’s cut out right now? That’s because it’s just part of a cynical ploy to generate hype in launching what Snyder and Netflix hope to be their own Star Wars-type franchise, complete with action figures already in the stores. There’s nothing wrong with starting a new SF franchise. I’m all for it. But Snyder, and Netflix, are forgetting that all of the big science fiction franchises began with one great film, and with Rebel Moon falling flat on its face right out of the gate, their hoped-for franchise may not even take flight.
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