‘Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child Of Fire’: Review

Dir: Zack Snyder. US. 2023. 134mins

Those impatient for a new Star Wars film may be excited about the prospect of Rebel Moon, in which director Zack Snyder echoes some of that franchise’s most memorable tropes — albeit without ever coming close to recapturing their magic. The first instalment of a two-part picture serves up Snyder’s usual operatic excess in the story of a ragtag gang of rebels trying to vanquish an evil empire. But nostalgia only takes this dreary space opera so far, and it lacks the indelible characters and riveting adventure that made George Lucas’s blockbusters so resonant.

 Serves up Snyder’s usual operatic excess

Netflix releases Rebel Moon, subtitled A Child Of Fire, in US and UK theatres on December 15, with the film coming to the streaming platform a week later. (The finale is expected next year.) The ensemble features Sofia Boutella, Charlie Hunnam, Michiel Huisman and Djimon Hounsou, but Snyder (300, Batman V Superman) is probably the biggest draw — with the film’s clear Star Wars homages coming a close second. Reviews will probably not be glowing, but genre fans seeking something this holiday season could be pleased.

On a faraway moon, a peaceful community of farmers lives off the land while trying not to attract the attention of the menacing galactic government The Motherworld. But when ruthless Admiral Noble (Ed Skrein) pays a visit, demanding that they surrender their crops, a resourceful, mysterious outsider named Kora (Boutella) dispatches Noble’s troops, showing off her incredible fighting skills. Alongside the meek farmer Gunnar (Huisman), she quickly gathers different warriors from across the universe — including the charming rogue Kai (Hunnam) and the disgraced General Titus (Hounsou) — to battle The Motherworld. 

Snyder has not hidden the fact that he unsuccessfully pitched an earlier version of Rebel Moon to Lucasfilm shortly after Disney acquired the company. Most will spot Star Wars’ clear influence, whether it is in the Han Solo-esque Kai, the lightsaber-like weapons wielded by Bae Doona’s accomplished swordswoman Nemesis or the design of the spaceships. The difference, however, is that Snyder applies his more flamboyant visual style and darker tone, which makes this project grimmer and more adult than Lucasfilm fare.

Unfortunately, there is not much ingenuity or inspiration to Snyder’s vision. Even its portrait of a cruel fascist government — Skrein plays Noble as a repugnant alt-right monster, complete with Nazi haircut — seems drawn more from older genre villains than it does from modern-day evils across the globe. It has been four years since The Rise Of Skywalker, but since then Disney has continued to produce streaming series built around the venerable franchise. Amidst that glut, Rebel Moon feels especially redundant — neither a radical rethinking of this narrative terrain nor a dazzling illustration of why the original films remain beloved. 

Instead, Snyder (who conceived the story and co-wrote the screenplay) mostly adheres to familiar sci-fi tenets, sending our heroes from planet to planet to collect crusty outcasts to take on Noble. Production designers Stephen Swain and Stefan Dechant fail to come up with much that’s imaginative in these different realms, and the effects work is often underwhelming – especially for anyone who watches Rebel Moon on the big screen, where the unconvincing digital backgrounds are especially noticeable. With its nods to The Dirty Dozen and Seven Samurai, the film needs to lure us in with colourful characters coming together for a common cause, but there is little spark between the protagonists. 

Boutella can be a formidable force, and she is balletic and muscular during the action sequences, but Kora is a dull cipher for the actor to work with. As Kora’s hunky, sensitive love interest, Huisman has not been given enough to play with, while Hunnam and Hounsou are trapped in cliched roles. Snyder has never shown much interest in nuanced individuals — serving as his own cinematographer, he prefers to drape them in mythologising slow-motion rather than exploring their inner lives — which works better when he is making movies about Superman and other fictional icons. But in Rebel Moon, the purportedly epic tussle between good and evil is waged by non-entities who look cool shooting guns but suffer whenever they have to talk. (“Kindness is a virtue worth dying for” is but one of the many clunky lines of dialogue expressed with utter solemnity.) 

Rebel Moon ends with a cliffhanger, promising a Part Two that might be more action-packed as the stakes rise and the final showdown looms on the horizon. It does seem doubtful, though, that Snyder’s threadbare ideas and predictable visual onslaught will reap greater rewards in the next chapter. The richness and awe of Star Wars feels like a long time ago, indeed.