Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (A Film Review)

WARNING: contains minor spoilers for Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023)

Cast: Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, Ed Skrein, Michiel Huisman, Doona Bae, Ray Fisher, Charlie Hunnam and Anthony Hopkins

Directed by: Zack Snyder

Runtime: 134 minutes

Rating: M (science fiction violence and sexual innuendos)

Sequel/s: Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver (to be released in 2024)

Release date: December 21, 2023 (Netflix)

The movie opens with an exposition piece, narrated by none other than Anthony Hopkins. Truly, this man is a master at narration for dramatic films. And that opening scene is immediately where all the wonder and drama to open a potentially powerful film ends. The exposition explains that there was once a king and queen, and they were betrayed and murdered by their general, Belisarius, who raised himself an army after the betrayal and named himself regent over the "Motherworld".

Then the film switches to a lone moon called Veldt, where its people live in relative harmony in a tight-knit community. They're just beginning to celebrate some unestablished holiday - with far too many sexual innuendos to count - and it is here we are fully introduced to our main character, known only as Kora (played by Sofia Boutella). It turns out Kora is an outsider, and it's revealed later that she arrived on Veldt in the wreckage of a ship, and the older man that she's close with happened to rescue her, and she's been living there ever since.

Shortly after the holiday, Kora and some other village women begin planting seeds in the field when soldiers from the Motherworld threaten their home, and commandeer their reserves of food (as well as take their liberty harassing one of the younger women in the village). The leader, Noble (played by Ed Skrein) does his job well as an antagonist, murdering the village leader and his wife within seconds and demanding the loyalty of the chief farmer, Gunnar. Noble and his men leave, but not without leaving a garrison of men nearby to watch over the town. When one of the younger women in the village is taken by the garrison of men and about to be assaulted (the innuendos are pretty clear, you don't need to guess), Kora lashes out and kills all of them.

Running out of options before the soldiers of the Motherworld return to claim their debt, Kora, teaming up with Gunnar, head to the far reaches of the galaxy to gather an alliance of soldiers to fight against the Motherworld.

My thoughts:

Let me start by saying, this movie has potential. The CGI is neat, and there's a lot of story elements that would make this movie stand out from the lot of other sci-fi movies, given time. But it's heavily convoluted. The enemy doesn't feel like a big threat, and Ed Skrein barely saves the show with his acting chops as a villain. Even he doesn't feel scary enough at times. The real threat is General/Regent Belisarius, who, to be fair, we haven't seen enough of to make a fair assumption. The camera work in the earlier scenes is shoddy, with blurred edges in a lot of the scenery, and while the fight scenes are good, they're not dynamic, and they feel like a cheap rip-off of Star Wars. The film is also chock-full of the slow-motion scenes that I know Zack Snyder is fond of, which really clogs up the flow of the film. In fact, the entire movie feels like a Star Wars flick, which is funny because originally, Zack Snyder first pitched this film to Lucasfilm as part of the Star Wars universe.

The acting is perhaps the most egregious crime that makes this a terrible film. The main female lead, Kora, played by Sofia Boutella, is far too uptight, and her dialogue is stiff and way too intense in some points, far more intense than what the plot demands. While there is a small bit of exposition as pertains to her backstory, we still don't know enough about her. Her personality is wooden and barely has any uniqueness, and she feels more like a bland "Katniss Everdeen" template of a character than anything else. Her "relationship" with General Belisarius as her adopted father isn't very well fleshed out, although I suppose most of the decent character development will be saved for the next movie. At least, that is the hope. The rest of the actors are also painfully acted out. In general, the dialogue is terrible.

The plot twist at the very end with one of the rebels, Kai (played by Charlie Hunnam), is also very poorly done, as Kai seems suspicious from the beginning - or sus, as the kids say. He was all too willing to aid Kora at the start of her rebel-gathering journey. The only character who seems remotely interesting is Tarak, a former slave who tames a griffin-type creature (called a bennu in this universe) and is later revealed to be a prince in the climax of the film, thanks to Noble. If I ever do get around to watching the next film when it comes out on Netflix, I'm looking forward to seeing more of Tarak's story. Also, the climax has so much needless bloodshed, and the final fight between Noble and Kora is terrible.

I will say that the ending of the film at least has some promise, and it does set up the next film very well. But there are far more negative points about this movie than there are positives. I am hoping the next film will be far better than the first, and hopefully Zack Snyder will be able to make it work much more cohesively, hopefully with better acting and camera work.

Thank you for reading this review!! Feel free to keep reading more of my movie reviews, and I've got another one for Wonka (2023), coming out really soon, so stay tuned for that one. Also, my fourth book, Alchemy of Humanity and Divinity, is out now on Amazon for Kindle and paperback, ready to be officially released tomorrow on New Years' Day!! The link is below:

https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0CPJT42RQ

The Apocalypse Love Story Trilogy is also out on Kindle and paperback, and they're available on Kindle Unlimited for free as well if you have a subscription to KU. I've been working on my fifth book, King of Blood, and the Kindle version is out for pre-order at the moment. It will be releasing on February 21st, 2024, which also happens to be my 21st birthday! It might end up taking longer, as I want to make this book the best it can be with edits and proofreading. Speaking of edits and proofreading - I'm still looking for beta readers to help me out with proofreading. If you're interested, find me on Instagram (@thbitz_author) or on Facebook (@Taylor Bitz) and DM me for more details on becoming one of my beta readers.

Thank you again for reading and Happy New Year!!