REBEL MOON: PART ONE – A CHILD OF FIRE (2023)
Tagline: War comes to every world.
(Action, Sci-Fi, Can We Get More Nemesis?) [PG-13]
What do you think they want?
Everything…
In this one, a group of farmers is visited by henchmen from the Mother World. After they are subjugated by Atticus Noble it becomes apparent their only option is to fight. It just so happens that one of the farmers is a former soldier named Kora with elite fighting skills. Kora is unable to fight the coming battle on her own and she decides to help gather a group of soldiers and undesirables to fight the terror of their oppressors.
First off, if this sounds a lot like the plot to BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS, that’s because it’s essentially the same exact plot as that movie. That is where the similarities stop though. Honestly, just the first 38 minutes of this movie are probably the best cinema I have seen all year.
If you like Zack Snyder, you are likely to love this thing. Aside from a few weird issues, I don’t see how you couldn’t. One thing I think that they could have done better if they wanted to make this a little more accessible for everyone, would have been to stay away from creepy naked dudes plugged into aliens or whatever the crap is going on. I think they could have easily abandoned the profanity and made this just a bit more fun overall. Having said that, Snyder is known for his visuals and doesn’t shy away from edgy storytelling, so I guess I should have expected a bit of that?
I think there are a few things that they could have done better. The ship designs are pretty weak. When I was writing 50 BELOW, I purposely gave all the ships animal shapes to keep things interesting. Unfortunately, there is nothing that intimidating or interesting about any of the ships in this film. Where this thing really shines is in “most of the design work on the aliens. With clear nods to STAR WARS, most of the aliens in this were super clever and just really cool-looking. The villains are all sufficiently devious-looking and Nemesis (who actually serves the side of good here) is just really epic-looking. We do get a few moments of unnecessary cheese, but it does serve to break up some of the darker moments.
Acting wise Sofia Boutella is solid as Kora. She is given much more of a prominent role in this than she was in either THE MUMMY or PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND. Djimon Hounsou was good as Titus, which isn’t a shocker because he is always good, but this film underutilized him. Michiel Huisman (KATE) is solid in his role as Gunnar, but man his character is naïve when this thing starts out. I do like that he got a character arc and ended up redeeming himself to an extent. Ed Skrein (ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL) creeps me out anyway, and it doesn’t help that he’s playing a super creepy character in this named Atticus Noble, but man he’s effective as a character. Bae Doona (CLOUD ATLAS) is good but isn’t given very many lines hence the subject line above. Her character Nemesis might be the best thing about this whole movie, but that isn’t saying that Kora isn’t also really awesome. We have a Ray Fisher (JUSTICE LEAGUE) sighting and I am guessing that is probably due to him having a good relationship with Zack Snyder. Charlie Hunnam (PACIFIC RIM) also shows up, but I was unimpressed with his character in this.
Overall this 2-hour and 13-minute movie feels short, but it’s an incredible effort to start off the REBEL MOON verse. I am not going to say it’s an incomplete film, because we do get a pretty complete story overall, but it’s definitely clear this was the introduction to other things. I do hope we see the griffin again and that Nemesis and Titus get more of the spotlight as this series moves forward.
I really wish this had a wider theatrical release because it definitely demanded it. If you read my stuff, you know how much I love Snyder, but this one drops the ball in a few areas. I have to give it a 5 out of 7. If you are going to do flashbacks, you probably want them to be longer than a few seconds. Also – the best battles in the film, should not be in your flashbacks. Also – Zack, please hire someone who is going to give us some unique iconic-looking ships instead of a bunch of generic-looking flying toasters.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF GRAND ELECTRIC AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
Comments
Post a Comment