Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire

Starring: Sofia Boutella, Charlie Hunnam, Ed Skrein, Michiel Huisman, Djimon Hounsou, Ray Fisher, Staz Nair, Doona Bae, Anthony Hopkins, Corey Stoll, Jena Malone, Cary Elwes, Cleopatra Coleman

Director: Zack Snyder

Former Imperium officer Kora (Boutella) has settled on the quiet farming planet of Veldt, intent on leaving her past behind her. When Imperium Admiral Noble (Skrein) arrives looking for rebel camps, the peaceful village is left in disarray after their leader is killed for refusing to help Noble and his troops. Realizing the only way to stop Imperium is to lead a rebellion against them, she along with fellow farmer Gunnar (Huisman) begin the search for Titus (Hounsou) who previously tried to lead a rebellion too. As they head out to convince Titus to help, Kora and Gunnar also recruit mercenary pilot Kai (Hunnam), nobleman turned blacksmith Tarak (Nair) and cyborg swordswoman Nemesis (Bae) to help them make their final stand.

You can say a lot of things about Zack Snyder as a director, but you can't deny the man's passion for wanting to inject badass visuals directly into the eyeballs of the people watching his films. Forget the plot and forget character motivations as long as it just looks damn cool. And more often than not it does!

It's wild to think that this began as a pitch to Disney as a Star Wars film. Snyder then tinkered with the idea as a TV series but thanks to his success with Army of the Dead, Netflix backed up a dump truck of money for Snyder to finally make his long-gestating space opera. The Star Wars influence is definitely still present in the story and in some of the characters.

If you weren't already a Snyder fan, this movie will do nothing to win you over. His love for slow motion action scenes is very much prevalent in many of the action scenes, his script could have used a few more drafts to make it all make sense, and he can't resist some truly over the top visuals. That being said, you have to admire Snyder's ambition and the action is pretty easy to follow despite some obvious editing to keep the movie PG-13. And it's surprisingly decent action, with all the actors getting chances to shine. This will probably be his most divisive film since Sucker Punch and it features a lot of the same issues I mentioned above.

Like I said, the plot is a mess but that didn't stop Snyder from getting a talented group of actors together to tell this story. Sofia Boutella gets a chance to be an action lead, something that someone should have done sooner after watching her supporting turn in Kingsman. Her character, despite being an anti-hero, is very easy to get behind. Hunnam, Huisman and newcomer Staz Nair all are good but their characters backstories all get lost in the plot muddle.

More importantly, reviewing the movie seems irrelevant. The plot is borderline incoherent and characters drop in and out without warning. And despite running over 2 hours, Snyder keeps things moving despite almost daring you to try to make sense of what is happening. These all seem like valid criticisms so why is it irrelevant? A director's cut has already been announced and with the longer running time promises to make more sense. This is often the case with Snyder's movies, as his director's cuts of both Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League proved. With this director's cut set to be released before Part 2 in a few short months' time, it will be interesting to see if there was anyone still clamoring for more stories set in this universe. For now, only Snyder fans need to press play.

Grade: C+

Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire is available on Netflix