Rebel Moon

REBEL MOON - PART ONE: A CHILD OF FIRE (aka REBEL MOON) (15)

D: Zack Snyder

Netflix / The Stone Quarry / Grand Electric (Deborah Snyder, Zack Snyder, Eric Newman & Wesley Coller)

US 🇺🇸 2023

134 mins 

Science Fiction

W: Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnston & Shay Hatten

DP: Zack Snyder

Ed: Dody Dorn

Mus: Tom Holkenborg

Sofia Boutella (Kora / Arthelais), Djimon Hounsou (Titus), Ed Skrein (Atticus Noble), Michael Huisman (Gunnar), Bae Doona (Nemesis), Ray Fisher (Darrian Bloodaxe), Charlie Hunnam (Kai), Anthony Hopkins (voice of Jimmy)

Zack Snyder’s attempt at a space opera in the vein of Star Wars may attract fans of the director’s work like a moth to a flame, but for everyone else, it will be incredibly underwhelming.

The plot is basically a reworking of The Magnificent Seven / Seven Samurai in a galaxy far, far away, though any real comparison to Star Wars really is fantasy. The story opens on a farming planet that is threatened by the despotic leader of a tyrannical army, and one of the villagers becomes the only hope for peace when she assembled various warriors to seek retribution.

Style over substance would be one way to describe this mess, though the cynic in me believes it was all made to cash in on an alternative R-rated “Snyder cut” which runs 70 minutes longer.  This version was long enough for me to know all I needed to know. 

4/10