Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire is directed by Zack Snyder and stars Sofia Boutella, Michiel Huisman, Ed Skrein, Charlie Hunnam, Staz Nair, Bae Doona, Djimon Hounsou, Ray Fisher, and Anthony Hopkins. The film follows Kora (Boutella), a former warrior  who now resides within a peaceful farming community on a distant planet. When they are threatened by the arrival of the evil Mother World, Kora is forced to take up arms as the community’s only hope for survival. Kora journeys to neighboring planets in order to attain as many allies as possible. Outgunned and seemingly outmatched, the allies must band together if they are to have any shot at saving their home.

The cast here is mostly serviceable, but no one does anything particularly interesting. This is even more disappointing when considering that this heavy amount of Sci-Fi-Fantasy lends itself perfectly to odd and eccentric characters. It’s as if the script just forgets about some of these characters completely, introducing them and then using them for absolutely nothing. The most interesting things about most of these characters are their costumes/weapons. Yikes. Boutella is a serviceable, likable lead actress, but is too much of a stock hero. Charlie Hunnam stands out because of his sheer charisma, but it feels like he’s just doing his best Han Solo impression. So much so, that any fun is buried under this feeling of sameness. The standout here is Anthony Hopkins as the voice of AI robot, Jimmy. The few scenes he is in steal the show, but the character is inexplicably forgotten about in the second half. It’s clear that we’ll receive more of him in part 2, but every film should stand on its own. This film stands on its own the least of any “Part 1” film that has come out in the last decade. It almost feels as if this should have been the first 5 episodes of a 10 episode series.

The action here is probably one of the film’s saving graces, but it’s hindered by Snyder’s extreme overuse of slow-motion. This has always been a staple of Zack Snyder films, but he jumps the shark here completely. The film also suffers from an absurd amount of exposition. For example, the film begins with a scene of spoken exposition as a dreadnought floats through space. It lasted so long that it almost reminded me of something out of Spaceballs (1987). This exposition continues throughout the film, giving us so many flashbacks and information dumps that it feels like the actual plot isn’t moving along in any significant way. It hurts that none of this exposition does any work in terms of building the characters. It helps to build the world, but the world is filled with elements ripped straight out of films such as Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), The Green Mile (1999), Dune (2021), and most prevalently: Star Wars (1977). Rebel Moon isn’t inspired by these films, it copies them. One of the biggest issues with this film is that it feels like entire scenes are completely missing. Certain moments/details are weirdly unexplained and feels as if the studio edited the original version of the film so they could call that one the director’s cut. This film is almost over edited in a sense, very forced. 

Overall, this is an extremely derivative Sci-Fi film that wholly earns its title of “Adult Star Wars.” The thing is, it’s not as awesome as it sounds. The performances are stock, the editing is weak, and the directing is spotty. Excluding the overuse of slo-mo, the visuals are undeniably stunning. The action is fun, and the runtime doesn’t drag. This one of those films that has a multitude of flaws, but if you enjoy Star Wars or anything similar, I can’t imagine being bored. At the end of the day, if this appeals to you initially, you’ll probably have a decent time. I didn’t think this was a very good film, but I’m on board for the sequel. I think it has the potential to retroactively improve this film. C