‘Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire’ Review
Stars: Sofia Boutella, Charlie Hunnam, Michiel Huisman, Djimon Hounsou, Doona Bae, Ray Fisher, Cleopatra Coleman, Jena Malone, Ed Skrein, Fra Fee, Anthony Hopkins | Written by Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad, Shay Hatten | Directed by Zack Snyder
Directed by Zack Snyder, who also co-wrote the script, Rebel Moon is the first part of a planned space epic that’s set to span at least one initial trilogy, followed by a further trilogy of sequels. Part Two – The Scargiver, has already been filmed, but it remains to be seen if the third part will make it to the screen, as the first part of the trilogy is decidedly disappointing.
Essentially a reworking of Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) – which, in turn, was basically “Seven Samurai / The Magnificent Seven in Space” – Rebel Moon stars Sofia Boutella as Kora, a former soldier who sets about recruiting a team of space warriors when corrupt government forces threaten her home planet, the moon of Veldt. Her rag-tag group includes lowly farmer and childhood friend Gunnar (Michiel Huisman); nobleman-turned-blacksmith Tarak (Staz Nair); fallen-on-hard-times former general Titus (Djimon Hounsou); mercenary-slash-starship pilot Kai (Charlie Hunnam); insurgent group leader Darrian Bloodaxe (Ray Fisher) and Nemesis (Doona Bae), a sort of cyborg ninja, who’s handy with a sword.
Also in the mix are the film’s baddies: Regent Balisarius (Fra Free), the tyrannical ruler of the Motherworld’s vicious army the Imperium, which controls the galaxy, and Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein), Balisarius’ right-hand man. There’s also Harmada (Jena Malone), a lethal spider-warrior (a giant spider with a human torso), one of several foes that Kora and her team have to face in order to progress to the next level or something.
If Snyder’s Motherworld-controlled universe seems a little familiar – there are droids and flaming swords and everything – that’s because the project was originally pitched and rejected as a Star Wars spin-off, something Snyder openly acknowledges, having presumably reworked the material just enough to avoid copyright infringement.
However, the fact that the entire project feels derivative is just one of its many problems. The main issue is the script, which is so painfully dull that it actively beggars belief. The dialogue, for example, is incredibly flat – it feels like first draft placeholder dialogue whose only purpose is to get the characters from point A to point B, without including anything like wit or personality.
On a similar note, the characters are almost insultingly under-developed – spare a thought for poor Doona Bae, for example, whose only character note appears to be “wears a hat”, while Staz Nair’s entire function on screen appears to revolve around shirtless wisecracks. The result of this is that we barely get to know, let alone care about, the main characters themselves, let alone the people of the planet they are meant to be protecting.
The actors do their best under the circumstances, but they’re so poorly served by the script that you end up feeling sorry for them – Hounsou, in particular, has a look in his eyes that suggests he’s hoping he gets killed off before the third movie. Boutella, at least, makes a striking lead and throws her physicality into the role, but you do end up rolling your eyes when all the script can find by way of motivation for her character is essentially rape-revenge-by-proxy.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there. The plot makes very little sense from moment to moment, even within the basic set-up, and there’s just no dramatic weight or impact to any of it. There are, for example, late-arriving plot twists that were clearly conceived as huge emotional moments, but they go past with barely a shrug, both onscreen and off.
Snyder is admittedly known more for his action sequences than for anything approaching nuance, but even the action sequences are poorly staged. He also does his whole signature slow-motion thing over and over again, to the point where it feels like it adds at least an extra ten minutes to the already bloated running time.
In short, Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire is a frequently frustrating and poorly conceived space epic that doesn’t even bother to end on a compelling cliffhanger. Track down Battle Beyond the Stars instead – that’s exactly the sort of fun that this should have been.
