‘Rebel Moon’ review: Zack Snyder does less, not more, with ‘Star Wars’ formula
“Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire,” Zack Snyder’s new space extravaganza, seems to think it can start a franchise simply by existing.
Rather than hooking the audience with an interesting narrative, compelling characters or imaginative worldbuilding, this movie seems mostly like an excuse for its actors to stand in large rooms looking amazing. The costuming is spectacular, and the camera caresses the actors voluptuously, emphasizing every glint of light and bead of sweat on every tanned body. It functions more like a Kanye West music video than a sci-fi blockbuster.
“Rebel Moon” was developed from Snyder’s rejected pitch for a darker, more mature “Star Wars” film. When this project was announced, the hope would be that the “300” director would address some of the problems with the recent “Star Wars” sequels, which mostly seemed more the product of boardrooms and staff meetings than artistic vision — something of which Snyder has no shortage, even if his films often stop at “daring” without quite progressing into the realm of the great. Known as a hyper-stylized director with a level of unpleasant detail scuttling under the service of even his PG films like “Legend of the Guardians,” Snyder would seem a great fit for the universe that gave us Jabba the Hutt.
Yet for all the sights to behold in Snyder’s new “Rebel Moon,” the story improves on “Star Wars” in only one meaningful way: it concerns itself with the actions of ordinary people rather than putting all its stock in fate and destiny and bloodlines.
If those ordinary people actually felt like people, we might’ve had something. Instead, we meet stock characters defined by a few attributes — a mysterious swordswoman (played by Bae Doona), a “Conan the Barbarian” type who can talk to animals (played by Staz Nair), a Djimon Hounsou role airlifted from his glowering “Gladiator” performance.
None of these people seem very intelligent. The villains keep handing the heroes weapons, daring them to use them. The heroes keep doing what any sentient person would do in that situation.
There is no sense of this universe existing beyond what we see on screen.
We enter a spaceport and quicken up with excitement, hoping to see a hive of scum and villainy that puts the Mos Eisley of “Star Wars” to shame. Yet, the town seems entirely unpopulated except for a single bar, where (you guessed it) the heroes find a pilot to smuggle them off the planet after contending with a variety of sketchy aliens.
The heroes travel from planet to planet, and interesting details are only vaguely glimpsed in the background. Snyder has not embraced the opportunity to populate this universe with fascinating creatures and curious cultural details. Places that should provide opportunities for a gruesome riot of invention — the dungeons of a cobalt mine, an extraterrestrial gladiator pit, an unregistered trading outpost in deep space — feel just as ephemeral as music video sets.
Snyder has promised a director’s cut coming soon. This keeps happening with Snyder (recall “Justice League”). Why can’t he just make a decent movie the first time around?
The director has staked a lot on the “Rebel Moon” universe, and the film comes with the tagline “Part One: A Child of Fire.” He wants us to invest in this space-opera odyssey, just like every commercial director who’s ever attempted their own “Star Wars.” (Remember “Bright?” How about “The Old Guard?”)
With our minds colonized by the “Star Wars” and “Lord of the Rings” legends, it’s hard to find a new monocultural pop-cultural mythos to get excited about. “Game of Thrones” did the trick, with its gritty and mature take on a high-fantasy legendarium.
A similar take on “Star Wars” could be fascinating. There is a scene in “Rebel Moon” where Tarak (Staz Nair) tames a griffin-like creature. This is a scene like dozens we’ve seen before in sci-fi cinema, where the hero mounts an unpredictable flying beast that throws them around at first before finally letting them control it — at which point he throws back his arms and shouts “woo-hoo!”, soaring proudly through the skies.
It would be interesting, just once, to give us a scene where the hero gets off the creature and vomits.
‘Rebel Moon’
Stars (out of four): 2 stars
Runtime: 2 hours, 14 minutes
Rated: PG-13 (for sequences of strong violence, sexual assault, bloody images, language, sexual material and partial nudity)
How to watch: On Netflix