Zack Snyder’s version of Star Wars is as messy as it is epic. Here’s our full review of Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child Of Fire.
Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child Of Fire started life as a rejected Star Wars pitch.
Snyder, a lifelong Star Wars fan, always imagined himself directing a major space opera, filled with curious creatures, epic action and fearless heroes. Rebel Moon doesn’t have the child-like curiosity and wonder that George Lucas’ career-defining franchise has, but it is a particularly handsome piece of action cinema.
Rebel Moon is Snyder’s first post-DC film. The director wrapped up his ‘Snyderverse’ with the four-hour cut of Justice League and claims to be done with that particular band of superheroes, who are now in the hands of James Gunn and Peter Safran. Yet the plot of Rebel Moon is eerily similar to the current, dominant superhero sagas, and it also fits neatly into Snyder’s own filmography.
It’s essentially about a small group of people, teaming up against a big bad. Sound familiar?
The film begins with a melancholic, but weirdly soothing voiceover from Anthony Hopkins, who voices Jimmy, a sympathetic robot. We begin our story on the moon of Veldt, a peaceful farming community. It’s also the new home of Kora (Sofia Boutella), a former soldier who is trying to put as much distance between her and her violent past as possible.
Kora’s peaceful new life is interrupted by the arrival of Admiral Noble and his troops, representing the Motherworld, ruled by the tyrannical Regent Balisarius.
So far, so Star Wars. Admiral Noble (played by a deliciously evil Ed Skrein) threatens the people of Veldt, who have sold their crops to the Bloodaxes (Cleopatra Coleman and Ray Fisher), freedom fighters who oppose the Motherworld. In order to secure her new life, Kora teams up with Gunnar (Michiel Huisman) and sets out to find a group of heroes to defend Veldt with her.
A Child Of Fire is mostly concerned with getting this ragtag group of heroes together and building the world surrounding them. Admittedly, it’s a beautiful and inherently violent world, a speciality of Snyder’s. Although there’s some dodgy green screen work in A Child Of Fire, Snyder manages to craft magnificent visuals and his camerawork is pleasingly dynamic. Action sequences are filmed with clarity and rhythm, but A Child Of Fire comes to a screeching halt whenever someone isn’t trying to shoot a space-Nazi in the face.
As with most of Snyder’s films, the script slightly lets A Child Of Fire down. A lot of seeds are planted for future instalments, including next year’s Part Two: The Scargiver, but it’s at the expense of character work.
Kora is a classic Snyder protagonist; impossibly powerful and righteous, but lost. Sofia Boutella does a fine job at portraying Kora’s physicality as well as her internal struggles as she is forced to rely on the skills she learned in another life. Arguably, there was more intricate character work to be done here, but the action-packed plot has no time for it.
It’s a very large ensemble cast and thanks to the film’s structure, each actor gets their moment to shine.
Staz Nair gets a fun introduction in a scene that feels, strangely, lifted from Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban. Djimon Hounsou portrays a strong and silent former General and Charlie Hunnam is all slippery charm as Kai, Kora’s second in command. Doona Bae is also particularly impressive as Nemesis, a half-cyborg with heated swords.
At times, Rebel Moon feels like an amalgamation of every other major franchise out there. True, the Star Wars vibes are immaculate, but the creature design borrows heavily from Lord Of The Rings and we’ve already mentioned Harry Potter. It’s all done lovingly, but with so many visual references to other franchises, Snyder fails to make Rebel Moon into its own thing, with a strong identity and visual language.
The cut dropping on Netflix 22 December is a hair over two hours and it flows remarkably well. Snyder has always been good at pacing his films; Justice League may be unnecessarily bloated but it never dragged and neither does A Child Of Fire. A longer, more brutal cut is also on the way, but it’s hard to imagine it fixing any of A Child Of Fire’s flaws.
Still, A Child Of Fire is helplessly dragged down by the plot only serving to set up The Scargiver, but there is plenty to enjoy here too, depending on your opinion on Snyder, of course.
All the usual Snyderisms are here, there’s plenty of slow-mo and brutal action and it’s hard to deny Snyder’s capabilities as a visual storyteller. Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child Of Fire is a bit wobbly on its own two feet, but it promises great things for The Scargiver next year.
Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child Of Fire is now in cinemas and will be available on Netflix 22 December.
