Movie Review – Rebel Moon: A Child of Fire

I never know what to expect from Zach Snyder. Will he give us something great like Watchman, his best in my honest opinion and far ahead of its time. And Dawn of the Dead, which added a great film to the zombie horror genre. Or will he give us another Sucker Punch, so lackluster that I could barely finish it. Will Rebel Moon be in the middle with Man of Steal, which was watchable until Zod landed on Earth (and don’t get me started on how daddy Kent sacrificed himself to a tornado so Clark could stay hidden, just terrible)?

Rebel Moon follows a small farming settlement on a moon that is threatened when the tyrannical overlords of their galaxy arrive. Soon, we learn that there is a rebel among them, someone who has a dark past fighting with the very people about to land in their settlement. Because of course.

Here’s the real deal with Rebel Moon since the plot is too convoluted to explain here. It is essentially Rogue One meets Dune, but never rises to the occasion to be welcome in their company. If you have followed me for a while, you know that Rogue One is my absolute favorite Star Wars film and Dune is just a masterpiece, so to be so derivative of those films was a risky move. One that did not play out well for Snyder here.

Don’t get me wrong. The cast, especially Sophia Boutella and Ed Skrein, really sell this. Charlie Hunnam isn’t bad either, but his is more eye candy for me than exceptional performance wise. It is the cast who keeps this from being another Sucker Punch. The cast really wanted this to succeed.

Visually, its gritty and not quite pretty because its, well, brown. Just like every other Snyder film. It’s his style, and I give him credit for sticking with it. I could have done without the opening exposition narrated by Anthony Hopkins. We’ve been there, done that (The Grinch, Thor). That whole sequence could be eliminated and the film should have just started on the moon itself. Strong stories don’t need five minutes of backstory about the evil bad guys before they even begin. Seeing Sophia Boutella running chaotically through the village to ring the warning bell when their ship arrives is warning enough. Those guys suck. And she personally knows why if she is freaking out like that. It’s all the backstory I need.

This is expensive entertainment for Netflix, all special effects and a surprisingly effective original score. In fact, the score is the best part of the film. A watchable film, yes, but don’t expect anything more that Man of Steal or Army of The Dead. It does not add much to the sci-fi genre, but borrows heavily from it. It did, however, leave me wondering what the next part will be. So there is that.

Three out of five stars for at least I was mildly entertained for two hours by Charlie Hunnam’s accent and that fantastic original score.