TL;DR – Moments of interest in the middle of a sea of mess.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire Review –

Before we begin our best of 2023 list, there are a handful of movies that I want to catch up on, one of them being this new Science Fiction magnum opus from Zack Snyder. Snyder has always been at least an interesting director because he has a clear visual style, and that has worked for him in the past. The question is if this will work for him today?

So to set the scene, there is a large empire that spans across space, reaching out and conquering all they could find from the Motherworld. That is until assassins kill the King (Cary Elwes) and Queen (Rhian Rees) in a coup d’etat. There is a power vacuum filled by a Regent (Fra Fee) who sent his ships out to the edge of his domain to make sure no plant picks this moment to rebel against them. On the backwater moon of Veldt, things are proceeding as they always do until the ship commanded by Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein) appears in orbit over their settlement. While some in the town see an opportunity, Kora (Sofia Boutella) knows the reality: they are here to take, and take, and take.

It should come as no surprise that I was left missing by this film. But there were moments here and there that did cut through the mess. It is clear that Snyder has a good visual eye for moments. These are visual motifs that almost take on the visage of some sort of deification. If Ancient Greece had a cinema, Snyder would have been in his wheelhouse. These are the same sort of moments that cut through in the Snyder Cut. Added to this, Sofia Boutella is doing a remarkable job keeping it all from falling apart.

However, when the credits rolled on this first part of Rebel Moon, my main thought was how messy it was. The narrative is The Seven Samurai by the way of Star Wars, but we only get to see the recruitment part of the film in this first part. While this sounds like a good idea conceptually, the reality is a confused mess of ideology, politics, and philosophy that never lands anywhere. There are moments where you can feel like the film has something it wants to say about things but can never commit to actually having a position on any issue.

That confusion spreads to the worldbuilding that even though we only got half of the narrative here, it still felt rushed and all over the place. The visual effects oscillate from fantastic to dreadful, where you can feel that ambition did not meet budget realities. It is also filled with tonal inconsistencies where you can think that this was a movie that was filmed to have a more substantial impact but that they dialled it back to PG-13 in post. This dulls the effect they were clearly aiming for.    

In the end, do we recommend Rebel Moon –Part One: A Child of Fire? At this point, unfortunately, not. Maybe once we have gotten to see the second part and see the narrative as a whole, some of the issues I have here won’t be so bad. However, it mostly felt like a dull mess. If you liked Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire, we would recommend to you Farscape.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you watched Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire
Directed by – Zack Snyder
Screenplay by – Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad & Shay Hatten
Story by – Zack Snyder
Music by – Tom Holkenborg
Cinematography by – Zack Snyder
Edited by – Dody Dorn
Production/Distribution Companies – The Stone Quarry, Grand Electric & Netflix
Starring – Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, Ed Skrein, Michiel Huisman, Doona Bae, Ray Fisher, Charlie Hunnam, Anthony Hopkins, Dustin Ceithamer, Staz Nair, Fra Fee, Cleopatra Coleman, Stuart Martin, Ingvar Sigurdsson, Alfonso Herrera, Cary Elwes, Rhian Rees, E. Duffy, Jena Malone, Sky Yang, Charlotte Maggi, Corey Stoll, Stella Grace Fitzgerald, Greg Kriek, Brandon Auret, Ray Porter, Tony Amendola, Dominic Burgess, Derek Mears & Sisse Marie
Rating – Australia: M;