‘Rebel Moon – Part 1: A Child of Fire’ Review: Zack Snyder’s Sprawling Space Opera Lacks Surprise and Subtlety

Courtney Howard // Film Critic

Rebel Moon – Part 1: A Child of Fire

Directed by: Zack Snyder

Starring: Sofia Boutella, Michiel Huisman, Charlie Hunnam, Ed Skrein, Bae Doona, Staz Nair, Ray Fisher, Djimon Hounsou, Cleopatra Coleman, Anthony Hopkins, Corey Stoll, Fra Fee, Jena Malone

REBEL MOON – PART 1: A CHILD OF FIRE plays like we’re watching Zack Snyder plagiarize his homework in real time. What should’ve been an inspired homage to well-known sci-fi classics comes across as cribbed from Cliff’s Notes, scribbled down by a sleep-deprived college student who only half paid attention in film class. The once-visionary auteur heavily borrows from many others to deliver his own refurbished movie mashup, taking the blueprint from SEVEN SAMURAI and THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN and littering it with blunt references to STAR WARS, BLADE RUNNER, LORD OF THE RINGS, THE MATRIX, DUNE and AVATAR. Had he exercised compelling, crafty originality in between those lines, as he’s previously proven capable of doing, there might be something to this creative exercise. However, what we get is a disappointingly vapid byproduct of outsized ambitions and squandered sentiments.

Snyder and his co-screenwriters Shay Hatten and Kurt Johnstad saddle their picture and actors with a parade of exposition right off the bat. The narrated backstory (by Anthony Hopkins, who voices a less perky C-3PO-esque robot named Jimmy) tells of the assassination of the royal bloodline which led the galaxy to interplanetary war and strife. The King’s tyrannical right-hand-man Balisarius (Fra Fee) seized command as a revolution took place. Yet there are insurgent rebels on the rise and brutal emissary Admiral Atticus Nobel (Ed Skrein) has been tasked to ferret out the motherworld’s enemies, laying waste to planets and their people.

The next destination on Noble’s galactic warship tour is Veldt, a farming planet whose resources are beginning to dwindle. He’s demanding a large cut of their yearly harvest – a commodity they can’t spare. The all-too-naive pacifists led by Sindri (Corey Stoll) and advised by Gunnar (Michiel Huisman) think they can negotiate. However, one new member of this peaceful community knows better: Kora (Sofia Boutella), a former star soldier turned deserter who’s been laying low on Veldt since the war broke out. After it becomes clear there’s no deal to be had, Kora and Gunnar set off on a planet-hopping adventure to recruit a team of mercenaries to help fight back. Those include downtrodden general Titus (Djimon Hounsou), vengeful swordswoman Nemesis (Bae Doona), bounty hunting opportunist Kai (Charlie Hunnam), underestimated slave Tarak (Staz Nair) and insurgent leader Darrian Bloodaxe (Ray Fisher).

While this set-up works on paper, in execution it becomes a dull, frustrating, convoluted mess. Snyder, Hatten and Johnstad value telling over showing, not only when it comes to the elongated speech dumps delivered by the actors (Boutella and Hopkins shouldering the worst of it), but also in terms of the characters’ motivational drives. It’s all text and no subtext. They don’t make room for subtleties to land, let alone properly develop them in the first place or enhance them with the mounting dramatic stakes and character arcs.

Though they’re essentially poaching from familiar works, they fail to understand the basic mechanics behind those films when it comes to successful narrative and character function. Putting their inspirations in a blender doesn’t make this concoction instantly palatable. They need to finesse it, adding connective, innovative ingredients, which they disappointingly don’t do. Even worse, and perhaps more insulting, they repeatedly spell out what’s going on as if the audience has forgotten, aren’t paying attention or have fallen asleep.

Snyder, who did a terrific job world-building and team-building in ARMY OF THE DEAD, botches both in his franchise-starting hopeful. The expansive galactic vistas and majestic planetary landscapes are blurry (thanks to the special optics Snyder custom builds), murky and rendered with ropey CGI. The aesthetics are typically at odds with the shocking lack of immersive qualities. And this doesn’t help during the big action sequences that frequently cut away from the hits before they happen, leaving any satiation from the punches as an unrequited audience request.

Gathering the team takes far too long, and with each primary cast member, their cinematic references are glaringly undisguised. Nemesis’ fight with a spiderwoman (Jena Malone) echoes LORD OF THE RINGS. Tarak’s taming of a wild beast is AVATAR-influenced. Kai is very Han Solo/ Lando Calrissian-coded. And on and on. Snyder also can’t help but fall prey to his worst sophomoric tendencies. Kora’s wannabe empowering, Cambellian “answering the call” sequence, which has her bosom heaving in a cleavage-revealing tank top, starts with a violent threat of the rape of a village woman. Soon thereafter, in a scene that plays as homophobic, an alien portrayed as an offensive homosexual stereotype molests Gunnar in a seedy bar (this film’s version of STAR WARS’ Cantina).

It’s true that not every movie – especially those on the mega-scale Snyder creates – needs to dole out a heavy, radical message. However, it’s fairly clear that’s what he and his screenwriting cohorts are attempting with their commentary on marginalized communities championing a rebellion against fascist warlords. The filmmakers appear to be frightened, or at least ill-equipped, to sort out their political points and thematic material surrounding genocide, societal displacement, and corruptive power that leads to megalomaniacal Neo-Nazi-esque personalities. What’s there is bloodless and toothless – maddening lackluster superficiality that comes down to a horrendously basic, uninspired good-against-evil battle for peace.

Grade: 1.5 out of 5

Rebel Moon – Part 1: A Child of Fire opens in select theaters on December 15. It streams exclusively on Netflix on December 22.