Rebel Moon star Sofia Boutella has admitted it was "hard" to see the Zack Snyder sci-fi movie getting negative reviews because she knows the "heart, tears and sweat" that went into the project.
Boutella, who played the titular "Scargiver" Kora in Netflix's Rebel Moon: Part 1 - A Child of Fire, told Vulture it was challenging to witness the critical response to the movie upon its release. She found that the negative reviews "really affected" her because she knows the love and labour that went into making the movie.
"I always thought that I was fully armed to take on those punches, and then I read the critics that came down on Rebel Moon, and it really affected me," Boutella noted. "I'm just gonna be honest about it. I feel like I'm carrying it for everybody that cared so much about this project, and that's what affected me. Not the way I look. If anything, I've been pretty lucky and people like my work in it, but the movie was criticized.
"It really affected me for all of those who put so much heart, tears, and sweat in this project," she continued. "It's hard to see something being demolished to that extent. I'm proud to have been part of it, and if there is no more Rebel Moon, it will be a very important part of my life that I will defend forever."
Part 1: A Child of Fire boasts a 21% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, with the general consensus being that the movie's visual eye candy "isn't enough to offset a storyline made up of various sci-fi/fantasy tropes." IGN, however, said it suffered from "a derivative patchwork script, mediocre action sequences and a superficial story."
Boutella will reprise her role in Rebel Moon: Part 2 – The Scargiver, which releases on April 12, 2024, less than five months after Part 1: A Child of Fire hit Netflix in December 2023. The director's cuts of both films will likely follow close behind Part 2, with the extended versions releasing on the same day sometime in the summer.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on X/Twitter @AdeleAnkers.
