Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire

I finally got around to watching Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire by Zack Snyder. Partly because Rebel Moon Part Two: The Scargiver is coming out in a month, but mostly because it popped up on my Netflix recommendations when I was bored.

Snyder’s latest foray into the cinematic universe is a lot like you’d suspect – pretty to look at, kinda fun, and incredibly divisive. Snyder delivers a visual spectacle and a decent, if slightly shallow tale woven with threads of rebellion, honour, and a middle finger to tyranny. But does it deliver? Should you wait for the better Snyder cut?

This review is just about part one – Rebel Moon. You can read the review of part two – The Scargiver here.

The good things about Rebel Moon

Let’s start with the good. Snyder is a maestro of the visual, and Rebel Moon is no exception. Every frame of this film could be hung in the Louvre (if the Louvre had a wing dedicated to space operas – which it should). Lots of sloooow moooow. As you’d you’d expect. The cinematography is great, with landscapes that stretch from the gritty, terraformed trenches of alien worlds to the ethereal beauty of space itself. The special effects are a great and the whole thing looks damned pretty. And the action? It’s like a slow-motion choreographed ballet of violence – it’s kinetic, visceral, and utterly captivating.

A lot of people have compared it to Star Wars, and I did read that this was originally pitched as a Star Wars film—one that was rejected. It is pretty clear that this could have existed in a Star Wars setting. It is believably dirty, and everyone could do with a bath. The good guys fly around in spaceships best described as ramshackle. The baddies are essentially a different brand of space Nazis. And it turns out the Mos Eisley Cantina is a franchise. Snyder fans get kind of annoyed by this comparison but it is pretty undeniably true.

Besides, I am not saying this is a bad thing. I love epic space operas, and the more the merrier.

The not so great

The characters are all a bit flat and don’t really have any arcs or development. Essentially, the characters go somewhere to recruit someone cool and dangerous. The recruitee does something awesome in slow mo – like killing a spider woman with a laser sword or taming a hippogriff. They are then asked if they want to go and defend a small village of farmers against the Empire – or whatever the baddies are called. If the cool and dangerous person can’t be arsed, the lead character gives them a speech until they say, yeah all right, bollocks, why not. That person is then told to be quiet and stand around in the background from then on.

This is a shame, as some of the characters seem pretty cool and hint at having a potentially interesting backstory. Hopefully, they will be fleshed out in the sequel, as they don’t really have much to do.

For example, one is a brilliant military strategist who never gets the chance to do anything beyond shooting a gun at the enemy. Another is a guy who can talk to animals—which he does at the start, then never again. And so on. There is even a robot, inexplicably voiced by Antony Hopkins, that seems like it is about to launch an interesting story arc. But then it runs off, and you don’t see it again until right at the end. It is all a bit frustrating.

As many have said, the plot is essentially The Seven Samurai / The Magnificent Seven. The always watchable Sofia Boutella is recruiting a gang and, hopefully, an army to defeat a huge spaceship sent to destroy any rebel types. In the end, she manages to get a sizable group together, but nothing huge. Fortunately, the enemy troop numbers are also surprisingly low.

I don’t know, the whole thing feels a little flat, like it could have been fleshed out a little more. Fortunately, that looks like it might happen. Bear with me.

Final thoughts and looking to the future

There are a few things that might redeem my issues with Rebel Moon. The first is that Part Two is coming out, and it may tie things together a bit more. It’s a shame that two and a half hours wasn’t enough time for character development, but there is still hope.

The second is that, utterly predictably, an R-rated Snyder Cut will be released. This is how the guy operates these days. Bring out an ok film that looks pretty but is somewhat shallow. Then, bring out a long and more epic version that is a lot better.

Which is fine by me, I guess. I should just skip the first release. As I said, more epic Star Wars-like space opera shenanigans are fine with me. A longer and more violent version of the somewhat shallow Rebel Moon, might just be what’s needed. Bring it on.

If you haven’t watched Rebel Moon Part One yet, maybe you should just wait. It might get better.