Like many directors of his generation like Michael Bay and Christopher Nolan, Zack Snyder was influenced by Star Wars and you can see that in some of his films, such as the opening ten minutes of Man of Steel. George Lucas’ beloved galaxy is a world that Snyder was interested in exploring and back when Lucasfilm was purchased by Disney, Snyder pitched a Star Wars film that took cues from Seven Samurai, even though there was a whole episode of The Clone Wars that was heavily inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 masterpiece.
With Lucasfilm having other plans with what to do with the cinema of Star Wars, Snyder has recycled his rejected pitch into an original space opera, split into two parts, the first of which you can watch now on Netflix. Rebel Moon takes place in a distant galaxy that is ruled by the Motherworld, a militaristic empire fueled by centuries of conquest and war. When the Motherworld’s military, the Imperium, threatens a farming colony on the moon Veldt, Kora (Sofia Boutella) ventures on a quest to recruit warriors from across the galaxy to make a stand against the Imperium before they return to Veldt.
Seven Samurai obviously inspired many imitators from The Magnificent Seven to A Bug’s Life, and Rebel Moon isn’t even A Bug’s Life, which had a sense of humor. Considering that he has made blockbusters that range from superheroes to zombie tigers, there are times when Snyder forgets to have fun. The fictional galaxy that Snyder presents here is a brutal one, where to demonstrate how evil the bad guys are, there is a scene of sexual violence, an unpleasantly recurring theme in some of the director’s filmography.
No doubt you will see a lot of beats to Star Wars, such as the Imperium essentially being space Nazis and a confrontation that takes place in an alien-infested bar that looks a lot like the Mos Eisley Cantina, and yet you will not find any of that zippiness that the best Star Wars films have to offer. Despite some stunning imagery with Snyder serving as his own cinematographer, his overindulgence of slow-motion that make the action sequences move at a snail’s pace which is a shame, considering that Doona Bae as a swordmaster battling a giant spider-like creature should be bad-ass.
Despite those familiar narrative beats, the look of Rebel Moon has more in common with 80s fantasy cinema, with some of the planets and its inhabitants looking like they came from a Frank Frazetta painting. And yet, the problem with a lot of those fantasy films from that decade is that characterization is not a priority and Rebel Moon shares that flaw. With the exception of Sofia Boutella’s Kora, who narrates extensive flashbacks of her former life as an Imperium soldier, we never really get to know the rest of the warriors as to what is motivating them to rebel. Once these characters are established by name and skill, they basically placed in the background looking cool.
While we must wait until April for Part Two: The Scargiver, which could potentially flesh out the characters and make the action more exciting, we are also waiting for an R-rated, extended cut of this film, which makes you wonder why we didn’t get it in the first place… unless that means more scenes of sexual violence and thus, no thank you. Whatever your thoughts are towards Snyder’s uncompromising approach to filmmaking, whenever his films like Rebel Moon are compromised through the editing, they become disjointed and soulless.
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