We’ll get to everything wrong with “Rebel Moon Part 1: A Child of Fire” in a minute, but we need to have a very serious conversation about Zack Snyder. I can’t recall a filmmaker who’s fans rally with unabashed fervor and hold Snyder in such untouchable regard his is viewed as above reproach. The first negative word uttered his way and his followers viciously attack without question as if those words are a personal attack on everything they hold dear. I know this is hard to hear, but you can actually be critical of artists, even ones you like. For example, I love Scorsese, best director working today. But “The Irishman” is trash and I don’t care if Marty knows. That doesn’t negate the 7 other films I hold in the highest regard of filmmaking, just that one of his works I don’t care for. Snyder fans have an all or nothing approach that removes nuance and makes it impossible to critique his work. Well, get your pitchforks out, because I’m not afraid and it’s time to really talk about it. “Rebel Moon” exposes the worst of his indulgences and demonstrates his lack of storytelling capabilities, and it needs to be discussed at length to paint a picture of just how big of a misfire this new sci-fi adventure actually ends up being.
Snyder’s best work has always come from adaptions, particularly ones who’s narrative is already barebones at best. Take “300,” his big breakout both critically and commercially (which I absolutely adore, for the record.) The story itself is as basic as it can get with little need for deep character development. Ripped soldiers fight off an entire army in a narrow corridor and sacrifice themselves in the end for their people. Snyder thrives here because the story is already written for him. He can style on everything, and it works. For all his flaws, Snyder is a stellar visionary and knows how to bring panels to life. “The Watchmen” is another example of success (though that’s more of recent turn and one I’ve recently revisited more fondly) in which his 0 risk approach to the rich text essentially treats the graphic novel itself as both the script and storyboard.
Bringing panels to life is what Snyder is best at. But things fall apart quickly when he’s tasked to create the same level of success without the crutch of prewritten material. All of his other works have required him to dive deeper into the lore than he ever had before and create something from almost nothing, and that is reflected in his time at DC. Story driven pieces like “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Justice League” (both cuts) all require a level of narrative construction and understanding that go beyond visual style, which is largely why these films are maligned. (sidenote: I’d include “Man of Steel” in that same boat, but I think I’ve incited enough riots already and we don’t need to go there). Every true failing in his career has come by way of giving him command over story, allowing him to shape and tell fully fleshed out stories from the ground up. “Rebel Moon” demonstrates universe building is not his strong suit.
And before we start getting into the whole “Release the Rebel Snyder Cut!” rabbit hole, it’s important to state the facts: “Rebel Moon” is wholly Snyder, completely unencumbered by anything or anyone. He was literally given a blank check from Netflix and a carte blanche canvas to make anything his heart desired. There’s no studio meddling, no magical version hidden in a vault somewhere, no need for an extra $70 million to remake a cut you promised was already made but was actually only barely storyboarded. No, there is no Snyder Cut. “Rebel Moon” IS the pinnacle Snyder Cut. It is Snyder unleashed. It is everything he could ever want or think to do, and instead of actually pursuing something unique or original or inspired he creates the most borrowed sci-fi hodgepodge of better works…egregiously so, too. “Rebel Moon” is diet “Dune,” sugar-free “Star Wars,” splenda “Seven Samurai,” the “Jupiter Ascending” for Snyderbros.
And it’s here where both “Rebel Moon” and Synder’s limited talents collide. I’ve danced around it as we examined his filmography and highlighted his strengths and weaknesses, but I’m going to say the quiet part out loud. Snyder is not a good director and even worse storyteller. As both Noah Kinsey and Film Express said and I echo, he is a DP pretending to be a director. Any time he takes on more than just visual creation, you end up with a derivative slog like “Rebel Moon.” He is a cinematographer that fancies himself a storyteller. He’s a storyboard artist who doesn’t actually know how to put the pieces together at the helm. Snyder is great at creating memorable visuals with nothing else attached to them. He is a bad director, a worse storyteller, and “Rebel Moon” exposes the true colors of all of these failures in one, long, dull swoop.
Written and directed by Snyder with co-writers Kurt Johnstad and Shay Hatten, “Rebel Moon Part 1: A Child of Fire” is a new sci-fi adventure story that tells a rather convoluted story I’ll do my best to sum up here. A fictional galaxy is run by an empire called The Motherworld, who’s military goes from planet to planet to extort resources and quell rebellions. Ex solider Kora (Sofia Boutella) is hiding on a moon called Vedlt, living amongst a humble farming village. When the military comes demanding resources they don’t have, Kora decides to travel the galaxy recruiting warriors to take a stand against the empire and save the village. Word of this new rebellion reaches the ears of Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein), a ruthless admiral dead set on viciously erradicating any and all rebels. Naturally, he pursues them across the galaxy, and it is a race against time to assemble the team and get back to Vedlt to make their stand. That’s the gist of it. There’s a million other things that happen, a web of incomprehensible subplots all directly ripped off from better sci-fi films but it’s impossible to name all of the pieces. Essentially, the entire part 1 of “Rebel Moon” is the assembly, in which we whisk from unmemorable place to unmemorable place to recruit forgettable warrior after forgettable warrior. The film also stars Charlie Hunnam, Ray Fisher, Michiel Huisman (which is very funny watching him square off against Skrein, both of whom played Daario in “Game of Thrones” with Huisman replacing Skrein after one season) Djimon Hounsou, Bae Doona, Staz Nair and Anthony Hopkins.
“Rebel Moon” is truly Snyder at his worst, praying that his visuals and singular character introductions will make up for their own lack of character development and existing in a world we’ve already seen done significantly better. I’m perfectly fine with finding inspiration from other works. Hell, a friend of mine literally has a podcast called “Piecing it Together” in which we examine films by the puzzle pieces and other works that create them. But there is a stark difference between inspiration and outright plagiarism, and “Rebel Moon” is far more the latter. It is astounding at how brazenly copycat this film is. There isn’t a single original piece of storytelling here, and it doesn’t have the technological marveling of say “Avatar” to help you forget that it’s just a very expensive “Fern Gully.” The film isn’t even that good visually to help you overlook its glaring flaws, feeling very much like a Netflix film instead of a visual auteurs masterpiece. And yes, while that was a slight dig at the blue alien people, “Rebel Moon” literally has its own “jump on the back of a winged creature no one has ever ridden before” moment that once again shows the film’s inability to be even remotely original. There is simply no shielding Snyder this time. He can’t hide behind his rabid fans and claims that his actual creation is much better to jumpstart another campaign. No, this is his world built on the backs of better directors and storytellers glossed over with a tired slo-mo styling and nothing else.
And in the end, “Rebel Moon” doesn’t even achieve anything once it concludes. It takes nearly 2 hours to assemble a 5 person team, none of which are interesting in their own right and with a gun to my head I couldn’t name a single character without googling it first. For all the time we spend with these characters, we learn nothing about them. All we get is more style in the form of terrible exposition, with Boutella’s Kora using every single quiet moment to fill in the gaps as to why we’re here in the first place. I feel bad for her because I really like Boutella as a performer and love her in leading roles. But again, Snyder has no idea how to extrapolate any kind of purpose or meaning from his characters, and therefore relegates Kora to exposition dumps and uninspiring action sequences. The rest of the crew might as well arrive at the end of the film, because that’s about as much as we’re given about any of them. Huisman is a wooden statue compared to those around him at least trying to make some sense of “Rebel Moon” themselves, unable to make himself even remotely interesting despite being the deemed love interest.
Of course Huisman and Boutella have absolutely 0 chemistry, with it feeling more like Snyder just arbitrarily added a love story because “Dune” and “Star Wars” did it so we kind of have to as well. The only person going all in is Skrein, who’s having an absolute blast as the evil admiral. He’s not even doing anything all that unique or out of his own wheelhouse, but he seems to be the only one who understood the assignment and just goes balls to the wall dispicable militant. He’s the only interesting piece of “Rebel Moon,” and the only character you miss when he’s not chewing through scenery. Sure, one can make the excuse that we’ll get to know them more in Part 2, but we should only care about seeing more of them if we enjoy them in Part 1. If you can’t tell me anything about your characters in 2 hours, why in the world would I stick around for 2 more in HOPES that you finally do? An entire film is not a teaser trailer for what’s to come. It’s simply a lack of storytelling and script failings that does nothing for anyone.
I don’t think we need to beleaguer the point. “Rebel Moon Part 1: A Child of Fire” is bad filmmaking and a bad film, one inextricably tied to its better renditions and unable to find a voice of its own. It’s not even style over substance because there would have to be the latter for the style to overtake something. “Rebel Moon” is a hollow iteration of sci-fi tropes and better works posing as a complete film when it is merely a recreation of genre greatest hits poorly rendered.
“Rebel Moon” is what happens when you order “Star Wars” from Temu. If this is what happens when Snyder is left to his own devices, then count me out. I’ve got “Dune” at home, thanks.
Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars
“Rebel Moon Part 1: A Child of Fire” is now streaming on Netflix. You can watch the trailer below.
