Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire

I like Zack Snyder, I consider his comic book movies to be the best ever made in the genre (yes, I'm talking about the recent ones), and I like him as a person for his passion for the cause. However, what the hell was this supposed to be? I don't mind that the film rips off/draws from wherever it can, the trailer had already prepared me for that, but why on earth is it so... Empty? Stupid? Bloated? Boring? If the opening shot makes you giggle like a teenager and the following monologue, which is supposed to explain what kind of world we're in, doesn't explain anything, let me tell you that it doesn't get any better in the next minutes, tens of minutes, two hours. Perhaps only the desire to mock will pass you by, because Rebel Moon isn't worth that either. In This is the kind of film that would have ended up on videotape at best in the 1980s or 1990s, even though its creators were convinced they had made a masterpiece. It didn't work this time, Zack, and I don't think the second part will fix it. (12/25/2023)

Zack Snyder really needs to stop directing his own scripts. It's not doing him any favors, and it's certainly not doing any favors for those of us who, fifteen years ago, thought he was an up-and-coming filmmaker whose work we’d always want to see. Now, I know I don't want to see any more. Rebel Moon should never have been made. The producers of Star Wars, who Snyder originally pitched this to, knew exactly why they didn't want to turn this idea into another story episode. And others also sensed that this was going to be a mess. But then Netflix stepped in, knowing they could draw in viewers based on the names attached to the project, regardless of the film’s actual quality. People might watch it once, but many will struggle to finish it. This film is an absolute disaster. It has all the hallmarks of a decent sci-fi flick, but all the good elements are things we've seen before — and enjoyed more elsewhere. Here, it’s just an embarrassment. If only Zack could accept that screenwriting isn't his forte and instead adapt a well-regarded sci-fi novel. That, I believe, he could pull off — provided he doesn’t meddle with the story. As it stands, this film is a complete mess. How am I supposed to get excited about this universe after such a poor start? Maybe Zack will clear things up in the second part, but I’m not holding my breath. (12/27/2023)

Zack Snyder used to be a director whose films I alternately rated very high or very low until about 2013, but in the last decade or so my acceptance of his films has settled more on the lower star numbers, with Rebel Moon clearly being the culmination of that trend. It basically can't go any lower than that, everything here is wrong except that it roughly keeps the technical parameters of a Hollywood blockbuster. Good luck trying to build a new cinematic universe around this shit, because I can't imagine who will realistically care about these characters and their world. (12/23/2023)

I really didn't expect it to be that shit, but I've been trying to find something that would be at least a little bit good for Rebel Moon for about an hour now. Well, let's just say the make-up effects and Ed Skrein's overacting bad guy are pretty cool, other than that, though, it's a complete monstrosity. If anyone was living in hope until recently that Zack Snyder was a lousy writer but could still be at least a decent director, they'll lose that hope here, because almost nothing in Rebel Moon was good. The questionable quality of the visual effects would be the least of the problems, as would the shoddy rip-offs of just about every major sci-fi film from Star Wars to The Fifth Element, Flash Gordon to The Matrix to Jupiter Ascending. The bigger problem is that, audiovisually, the whole thing is uglier than the fifteen-year-old Mutant Chronicles, and you can't see a damn thing in the action scenes. Snyder as a cameraman keeps relying on the already pretty annoying slow-motion effect, but most of all he can't even get a proper picture of the characters who are currently fighting, and that none of the heroes have any personality or motivation. And I don’t mean a believable motivation, but any motivation whatsoever, because recruiting galactic badasses usually goes along the lines of "Can you help us? - I don't know, more like no. - How about revenge? - Ah, okay" . The result is two hours of boring characters running around the screen, bossed around by a perfectly bland Sofia Boutella, all set in an ugly world that looks like a twenty year old sci-fi flick that was already bad back then. Considering Snyder got a blank check from Netflix and could do whatever he wanted and he made this, it's obvious he's completely useless as a filmmaker. (12/22/2023)

There’s one rather unexpected twist, other than that, it's a compilation of situations seen elsewhere, nonsensical statements and hacked scenes. I'll admit I considered looking up the Snyder cut, since Snyder didn't bother to edit this film and I probably would have done better. There's a lot of stuff I don't understand why it's even there... like the unnecessary flight on Klofan. WTF? Maybe the ridiculous persuasion of that disparate bunch with the ear-splitting dialogue and odd behavior of most of the characters goes away in the edits. Maybe. I'm sorry about the weaker ship and weapon design and the sloppiness of the visual effects, an edit won't fix that. Sofia Boutella tries her best, Ed Skrein enjoys his sturmbannführer and nobody has much to show for it apart from the traditionally fine Charlie Hunnam. Hopefully the second part will be all about the slow motion action. Zack Snyder should leave the screenwriting to someone more capable. P.S: The best character is actually Anthony Hopkins's Jimmy, but they don't really take him on a road trip. (12/24/2023)