Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire is, without a doubt, one of the most anticipated films this year. Given the hype that surrounded the film, including several interviews with director Snyder, fans expected an epic space opera with incredible storytelling. While the team got the epic space opera part of the film right, they somehow flopped at telling an incredible story.
Before we get into the very exhaustive list of things I think Rebel Moon could have done better, let’s look at some of the things I think it did well.
Rebel Moon did not succeed at many things; however, it did a good job at creating a spectacle. The film had glossy special effects, bizarre scenes, and fighting against incredible odds – all the ingredients necessary for making a spectacular movie.
Apart from Michiel Huisman, who I thought looked lost for the most part, I thought Rebel Moon’s casting was great. I especially liked Anthony Hopkins casting as Jimmy, the intelligent, mechanized robot. At first, I couldn’t figure out who was speaking, but when I did, it was with a lot of excitement.
Despite its promise, Rebel Moon was more a flop than success. Here are the things it could have done differently, which would have led to a better film.
Rebel Moon’s opening scene shows Kora, played by the stunning Sofia Boutella, against a backdrop of a gas giant reminiscent of Saturn and its icy ring. What is the problem with that, you say? Well, the problem is that it is so picturesque it straight up looks fake.
The setting felt so surreal that it was like Boutella’s Kora was acting against a wallpaper planet. Then, the scene where Charlie Hunnam’s Kai was piloting his ship through an asteroid belt also felt out of place and fake.
Given Snyder’s pedigree as a director who also has several screenwriting credits under his belt, Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire’s dialogue was disappointing. The conversations between characters felt stilted and forced. It felt spoken, instead of delivered and performed. The actors and actresses seemed to be going through the motions without any conviction and this had me groaning in frustration several times.
I remember one scene in particular, when Boutella’s Kora met Djimon Hounsou’s General Titus for the first time. The ensuing conversation had me wanting to tear my hair out, especially since I knew they were capable of much more than the horrible words they hurled at each other under the guise of dialogue.
Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire’s story has massive holes and it leaves me highly disappointed with Snyder and his co-writer Kurt Johnstad.
In what world does it make sense, except a fantastical one, that you would assemble a ragtag band of rebels to fight against a regiment that is itself a part of an imperial army? It defies every logic known to man that Kora would even believe the village she called home stood a chance just because she gathered a small army of her own.
Surely, it would have made more sense if they had turned tail and ran. Because even if you do defeat the dreadnought, a world-destroying battleship, what would you do about the other ships that will surely show up to make an example of you?
Zack Snyder is touted as a genius director with a visionary style but it feels like he forgot to be that person for Rebel Moon. The film suffered from what I can only describe as piss-poor directing. Apart from the issues I have already raised, Snyder also failed to coax good performances from his actors, which is the most basic part of every director’s job.
As an example, I’ll once again point to the scene where Kora met General Titus for the first time. Apart from the dialogue, which I’ve already complained about, the acting was also suspect.
Hounsou is one of the most versatile actors in Hollywood and successful in his own right and his performance in this scene was shaky at best. Even worse was that he felt more like an appendage in the film than anything else. He didn’t say much over the course of the film or influence the events and this felt at odds with how his character was positioned in the trailer.
Rebel Moon’s issues were a dime a dozen. Apart from the above, the film also had poorly choreographed fight scenes and some incredulous scenes that, as much as I wanted to “suspend reality,” I couldn’t help but unsuspend it.
One was how easy it was for Kora, a woman who had seen it all, so easily put her trust and life in the hands of Kai, who she only recently just met. Another was how rebels, whose very lives depend on anonymity would so easily volunteer information about their shelter to a farmer from a backwater village they would probably never transact with again.
I almost forgot to mention the pacing. God, does Rebel Moon have horrible pacing? It felt like the characters were in a rush at all times. In a rush to speak, in a rush to fight, except when the fight scenes were slowed down for a dramatic effect that never happened, and in a rush to move on to the next meaningless location.
In short, Rebel Moon was unoriginal and lacking in inspiration. The movie felt like Snyder simply took a bunch of elements and threw them together without bothering to ensure they fit smoothly.
I watched Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire with my brother. At the end of the film, he declared that it is a “low-budget Star Wars” film. I didn’t initially agree with him but, after further research, he was right on the money.
Rebel Moon’s marketing was profound and talk of Netflix’s support for Snyder’s vision of a Star Wars-like franchise so rousing that I thought he was given an unlimited budget to bring it to life. However, I found out that was not the case. The film and its sequel titled Rebel Moon: Part Two – Scargiver, set for release next year, have a combined budget of $166 million, which is approximately $83 million for each title.
Compared with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Star Wars: The Return of Skywalker, with budgets of $447 million, $300 million, and $416 million respectively, Rebel Moon’s budget is relatively small.
On the back of this discovery, I’ve decided to cut the movie some slack. $83 million is a lot of money, don’t get me wrong, but when the films we can compare it with have budgets that are more than thrice its own, I feel it is somewhat wrong to demand the same standard from it. With that, I declare Rebel Moon a spectacular watch, even though it only succeeded in making a spectacle of nonsense. Nevertheless, it was a spectacle and that should satisfy people for the most part.
