Rebel Moon is now playing in select theaters. It streams on Netflix beginning Friday, December 22.
Rebel Moon could have been many things before it landed at Netflix as a space opera in two parts: After director Zack Snyder pitched Lucasfilm on his idea for a Star Wars trilogy, he considered spinning his sprawling sci-fi concept into a TV series, and then a video game. The derivative and awkwardly stitched storytelling from Snyder and co-writers Kurt Johnstad and Shay Hatten in Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire suggests they should have stuck to either one of those previously explored avenues.
Introducing a completely original space odyssey is no easy feat, especially given how deeply the established canon permeates our culture. Rebel Moon is very clearly a rejected Star Wars script, but as George Lucas stole considerably from Frank Herbert's Dune, you can somewhat forgive how much it both narratively and visually borrows from that universe. Still, the patchwork script takes so much else from the likes of Blade Runner, The Matrix, Seven Samurai, Dark City, Conan the Barbarian, Excalibur, hell, even Snyder's own films, it's disappointing that it never accomplishes anything quite so enticing, erudite, or bloody.
The story kicks off with some rudimentary context narrated by Anthony Hopkins' mechanical knight, Jimmy. He describes a universe governed by brutal totalitarianism and, in an echo of Isaac Asimov's Foundation, a corrupt feudal power based on the mysterious Motherworld that has ruled "for a thousand kings." That is until the reigning monarch (Cary Elwes), his wife, and their mystical daughter, Princess Issa (Stella Grace Fitzgerald), are murdered, supposedly by insurgents. A power vacuum makes way for Regent Balisarius (Fra Fee), leader of Motherworld's army (the Imperium) to take over.
It’s an info dump that might have been engaging if there were more to it than watching a phallic-shaped dreadnought cruising through space. The ship carries the Regent's fearsome admiral Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein) around the universe to pillage, steal, and colonize worlds as well as quell any uprisings against the Empire – sorry, the Motherworld. A cross between Darth Vader and the maniacal SS Commander Goeth from Schindler's List, Skrein has fun as this murderous commander with a scary club, gaunt look, clipped English accent, and a penchant for squeamish, shall we say, pampering rituals.
On the moon of Veldt, a sex-positive, Northwest European-coded farming community is minding their own business and "making love for the harvest" when Noble arrives with the Imperium to violently occupy their lands. The villagers' surprise and ignorance about the barbaric power on their doorstep is somewhat confusing, given ol' Jimmy's narration: If the royal family have been ruling with an iron fist for centuries, this naiveté is misplaced. Kora (Sofia Boutella), a high-ranking member of the Imperium who went AWOL, has been hiding out on Veldt and so takes it upon herself to gather a team of fighters from across the galaxy to protect her adopted home. She brings nice guy farmer Gunnar (Michiel Huisman) along for the ride, and in between locating their target warriors, he becomes Kora's receptacle for an outlandish amount of exposition and backstory that still manages to leave quite a few gaps.
This strong female protagonist is pretty much a facsimile of the MCU’s Gamora, but Boutella showcases a perceptive ability to flit between formidable power, quiet charm, and palpable vulnerability. And that’s despite the cheesy dialogue: You can just imagine lines like "kindness is a virtue worth dying for" and "guilt is the underbelly of honor" being printed on bumper stickers.
In one early scene, Kora takes out several Imperium soldiers to protect a young woman from gang rape. That Snyder relies once again on sexual violence as a plot device to signal a woman's empowerment is rather revolting. Maybe if the choreography and camerawork matched Boutella's talents, the catalyst for this fight wouldn't leave such a bad impression. But throughout the film, the framing and editing of action sequences appear cramped, lackluster, and uninspired.
Snyder's signature god-like upshot angles and slow-mo battle visuals make a few appearances, but never live up to highlight-reel clips like the opening fight of Watchmen or Baby Doll’s tussle with the Samurai Giants in Sucker Punch. Jimmy the robot is an excellent use of CGI, but isn't in it enough. Rebel Moon otherwise retains the sludgy, desaturated palette from Snyder’s DC films – brightened only by a colour motif of orange. Even with a slew of fantastical worlds on display, limited locations and time spent on each planet mean the first half of Rebel Moon struggles to make good on its promise of an elaborate universe with a unique mythic lore – instead its racialized civilizations feel too close to home.
The five warriors Kora recruits get similarly superficial treatment. The introductions of topless nobleman Tarak (Staz Nair) and cyborg swordmaster Nemesis (Doona Bae) involve mythic beasts, though the former has too much in common with Harry Potter meeting Buckbeak in Prisoner of Azkaban. Starship pilot Kai (Charlie Hunnam), ex Imperium general Titus (Djimon Honsou), and freedom fighter Darrian Bloodaxe (Ray Fisher) are also afforded minimal time to understand their characters on a deeper level. Rebel Moon: Part Two - The Scargiver might just do some of them justice, but after two hours of mediocre world-building, pedestrian storytelling, and a rather run-of-the-mill climactic battle, there’s very little incentive to return to this far, far away galaxy.
