Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire is another reminder of why Zack Snyder should stay out of writers’ rooms. At this point, it’s difficult to see the fact that Snyder’s best films are the ones he didn’t write as a coincidence. If Snyder doesn’t have a talented writer (like he did on Dawn of the Dead and Man of Steel) or some great source material (i.e. Watchmen and 300), he cannot be trusted to produce a compelling story with interesting characters (exhibit A, Sucker Punch, exhibit B, Army of the Dead).

Yes, in terms of world-building Rebel Moon is quite derivative but that could be forgiven if its characters were remotely watchable.

In the first of what is to be a 2-part story, a young woman leaves her native colony to assemble a team of warriors to help protect her home from a tyrannical monarchy.

The Characters

YouTuber Cr1TiKaL hit the nail on the head when he described Rebel Moon’s cast as “action figures.” All they do is brood, explaining their backstories with the enthusiasm of Ben Stein, expecting us to care.

‘Bland’ characters is a common complaint that’s hurled at action films, I’ve made that very criticism of many titles but before Rebel Moon, I don’t think I ever encountered a film, no matter how tedious or generic, that didn’t make some effort to show its characters’ common humanity. Underwater’s cast had chemistry, the characters in Kong: Skull Island had lives to get back to, Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Godzilla had a son he loved.

These little traits, that have been used so often they’ve become clichés now, show a genuine desire to get you to care for the characters. If Rebel Moon wants to do the same then it does an extraordinary job of masking it.

The first act shows a lot of promise in all honesty. We’re introduced to a farming community on a distant moon where we hear mentions of a great power that spans whole planets. Not a brillantly original premise but the ships, costumes and props are quite distinct in appearance and clearly make an effort to deflect any comparisons to Star Wars, with varying levels of success.

The farmers are pretty well done, in writing, performance and look. They all have chemistry as well as traditions and methods that are unique to their word and community. The chief of the village, Sindri (Corey Stoll), is the most likeable of the bunch but unfortunately he’s not a main character.

Kora (Sofia Boutella) is the young woman who leads the quest. She has a history that, with a radical rewrite, could be interesting and involving but not only is it all revealed in a flashy exposition dump, it’s delivered with no emotional urgency. Everything you see and hear you may as well as read on the packaging of Kora’s action figure, you’ll feel no different.

Things only get worse as we follow Kora off planet. The remainder of the film consists of action-packed vignettes that introduce each of the warriors she recruits. Their characters are defined by how well they fight and their tragic back story, which is delivered in that oh-so-compelling Bill Stein fashion.   

The Worldbuilding

I appreciate films that try to establish an original franchise. While most are made to exploit the popularity of another franchise, whether it’s Star Wars or Harry Potter, some are genuine in their attempt to create a new world, Avatar and The Chronicles of Riddick being examples.

I’m not sure if Rebel Moon can be considered for the latter category. Just like with the characters, the worldbuilding in the first act shows a lot of promise. The design of the farm and the soldiers are more reminiscent of early Soviet Russia than Nazi Germany. It could be argued that the Motherworld is more like the British Empire than Star Wars’s Galactic one. We learn that the Monarchy at the heart of the Motherworld once had a princess who was assassinated. There are scenes where she is spoken of with great fondness by various soldiers and citizens, which help ground the film’s proposal of galaxy of people being governed by a royal family.

Unsurprisingly, all the locations Kora visits are just as bland as the people she meets there. We see the film’s rendition of the cantina bar scene, a Gladiator planet, a desert planet and an industrial planet. These environments could be interesting and impressive if we hadn’t already seen them 15 years ago in the Star Wars prequels.

I’m intrigued enough by A Child of Fire to watch The Scargiver once it’s released but I know I’m not alone in thinking that this is a terrible start for a franchise. The panning it’s received is well deserved in my opinion.

I give Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire a painfully mediocre 5 out of 10.