Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire Review

Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon began as a rejected pitch to Lucasfilm over a decade ago; what if Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai was remade within the Star Wars universe? In the years since, he tinkered and toyed with the idea which finally found a home at Netflix but now set in his own original universe. In theory, Snyder, now freed from the shackles of the Star Wars IP, could go full Snyder and indulge his every whim, but the Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire is very much not that. Leading up to its release, Snyder announced that both parts would have a PG-13 “mainstream” cut and then a longer R rated Snyder cut “for the hardcore fans” (the former is now playing in a limited 70mm theatrical run and will be available on Netflix this Friday). Seemingly, this appears to be a compromise made with Netflix to keep the runtime down and potentially launch a new franchise for the streamer, while also aiming to replicate the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut hype. Zack Snyder, like Ridley Scott has a reputation for their director’s cuts becoming their films’ definitive versions, with butchered theatrical cuts shortened to create more showtimes. But those issues, on paper, are irrelevant to streaming, this choice may very well be one of the most ill-sighted studio decisions in quite some time. It has never been more obvious that a full hour is missing here, it just feels like an unfinished movie.

Rebel Moon follows Kora (Boutella), a former general in the Imperium who now lives a peaceful life on the farming planet of Veldt. When evil Imperium forces led by Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein) threaten the colony, Kora searches the galaxy for fellow warriors to join in her rebellion against the Motherworld. Assembling a smorgasbord of sci-fi fantasy tropes on her quest, the universe of Rebel Moon is like Snyder took every pulp, sci-fi and fantasy property he loves and put it in a blender. From Star Wars to Warhammer 40k with characters and images ripped straight from Frank Frazetta paintings and the covers of Heavy Metal magazines, it’s the ultimate nerdy shrine to the genre. Snyder has always been a very visual filmmaker, emphasizing style and mood above all else, with his trademark tableaus always being a highlight. Anticipating a fairly derivative story and archetypal characters and a simple narrative to make way for dense lore, world building, and cool visuals to allow audiences to soak in the vibes of Snyder’s vision, where it ultimately falters is that there’s nothing there in any of it, nothing. Everything compelling or cool on screen is either hinted at or noticeably cut from the film, the archetypal characters don’t even have enough depth to be archetypes, which renders much of this film unengaging.

The film starts quite promisingly with a slower, serene pace, establishing stakes through the lens of Kora’s backstory. After a shocking incident all but ensures the pending destruction of her planet, Kora sets off with Gunnar (Michiel Huisman) a fellow farmer in search of warriors. From here on, the film takes on a video game like structure that becomes terribly repetitive. There’s never any team interaction, character backstory or motivations laid out, never any drama or conflict, it’s just filling out a checklist to get to the next set piece. The film offers few respites where the story is given time to breathe, take a break from the plot, and just indulge in mythmaking and character building. It’s those moments when it can go off on weird asides but in this shortened cut, there is simply no time to ever get a sense of this universe. In isolated moments, this film can be quite engaging but as a whole, it lacks any connective tissue. It’s a problem when the first-time audiences learn half of the cast’s names and backstories is in the final 20 minutes. As mentioned, it has never been more evident that a full hour is missing while watching a film and this extends beyond narrative cohesion to rating downgrades. Rebel Moon is so obviously an R-rated film trimmed down, with a very dark tone, extremely brutal action and sexual violence all depicted, but it consistently cut away from it to ensure a PG-13, thus diminishing any and all impact on screen. If this was an attempt to bring in younger audiences, it will likely not go over well with families this holiday season, nor Snyder fans.

Yet, despite an overwhelming number of issues, they did not quite sink Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire. There are enough dorky pulp sci-fi fantasy elements to get a kick out of, and there’s enough promise in the world and characters that will hopefully comes through in the director’s cuts of Part One and the inevitable Part Two. With the promise of Snyder’s director’s cut, it becomes difficult to grade this version but as of right now, it is simply unfinished with less than one-dimensional characters, lukewarm spectacle, and a rote story that audiences have seen countless times over.

Outside of the most diehard Zack Snyder fans, it’s hard to recommend anyone interested in Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire to watch it in its current iteration, just wait for the director’s cut. As it stands, it is easily one of the biggest disappointments of the year so far.

still courtesy of Netflix

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Alex Josevski

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