Zack Snyder has been a topic of much discussion in the world of cinema lately. It seems that you either love his works or you hate them. I fall squarely in neither camp. I liked Zack Snyder’s Justice League, but Rebel Moon did not float my boat.
The reason why is not hard to pinpoint. Rebel Moon, which was released by Netflix on Dec. 22, is reminiscent of many better films in the sci-fi genre, but unlike Gareth Edwards’ The Creator, Rebel Moon doesn’t have a young scene-stealer and half-decent characterization. The film is completely devoid of characterization, and like I said in my review of The Creator, atmosphere can only do so much. Rebel Moon follows disgraced Motherworld soldier Kora (Sofia Boutella), who enlists a ragtag team of fighters to take on the Motherworld armies after they occupy a farming village on the grassy planet Veldt. The script of Rebel Moon, which was subtitled Part One - A Child of Fire, reminds me of several science fiction and space opera films, but the one that came to mind the most was Star Wars. A hero from a backwater planet, a scoundrelly pilot, a “most wretched hive of scum and villainy,” a brutal, cybernetic killing machine who reports to a boogeyman - it’s all Star Wars. The planets with varying climates and villains who like to take weird baths also reminded me of Dune. Besides having good characters and a good script, Justice League also had some humor and charm. Rebel Moon has almost no humor at all, which really makes the over-two-hour runtime drag. The characters were incredibly boring. A sweeping story like this needs intriguing characters to draw us in, and Rebel Moon did not have any. Kora believes that “Kindness is a virtue to die for,” yet her main personality trait is that she likes to fight at any given opportunity. That is actually the one thing uniting most of the disparate members of her fledgling resistance, and the one trait that each of them have. Gunnar (Michiel Huisman) doesn’t even have that. He’s just there because he likes Kora. Meanwhile, Admiral Noble (Ed Skrein), the aforementioned cybernetic killing machine, also wants to fight all the time, except with him, it’s because he’s evil. The only character that was intriguing at all was Kai (Charlie Hunnam). The Han Solo-esque scoundrelly pilot, he had some good lines, like "Does that make me one of the good guys?" However, his arc was also somewhat predictable. I was actually expecting him to triple-cross them, but I'm glad they didn't do that. One character that I thought they could have done more with was Sam (Charlotte Maggi), the water girl. After she was featured in three scenes, one of which was Kora's call to adventure, I really thought she was gonna have a big role in the movie. She should have. After Kora saved her, she's more bonded to her than Gunnar, whose only thing he shares with Kora is that they're both attractive. She should have been Kora's love interest. I also thought they could have done more with Jimmy the robot, but I'm sure Snyder is saving that for the sequel. The visual effects were great. I felt completely transported to the worlds of Veldt, Pollux, and Sharaan. I also liked the haunting violin score at the end. Over his career, Zack Snyder has crafted a particular type of movie. If you like that sort of thing, good for you. But if you like original scripts with intriguing characters, I'd look elsewhere in the galaxy. 3/10
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AuthorTyler has been reviewing movies for a long time. He enjoys watching movies with the three H's - humor, heart, and high stakes. |