Year of Release: 2023
Director: Zack Snyder
Starring: Sofia Boutella, Michiel Huisman, Ed Skrein, Doona Bae, Charlie Hunnam, Djimon Hounsou, Staz Nair, Ray Fisher, Fra Free, Cleopatra Coleman, Stuart Martin, Ingvar Sigurdsson, Alfonso Herrera, Cary Elwes, Anthony Hopkins, Jena Malone, Corey Stoll
Genre: Action, Adventure
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 2
Watch it on Netflix
Synopsis and Review
Zack Snyder is back, continuing his deal with Netflix after the somewhat mediocre "Army of the Dead" (and after being excised from Warner Bros. and their DC comics universe). "Rebel Moon" focuses its story on Kora, whose real name is Arthelais, and has been working as a farmer in a remote planet since being rescued by the father figure Hagen. Her community is breached by a ship commanded by Atticus Noble. Atticus and his men are part of The Motherworld, an empire that is now ruled by Balisarius, someone who is intent on keeping expanding the footprint of that empire through war and conquest. Atticus lands on the planet looking for supplies, but also is aware the community has sold some of its crops to the rebellion. After killing the leader of the community, Atticus leaves with the promise of returning to seize all crops. Kora eventually reveals herself to be a highly skilled and trained military officer, and embarks on a journey with another man from the community to seek warriors who can help the community defend themselves from the return of Atticus. They manage to get the help of Kai, a smuggler who introduces them to a series of highly skilled individuals, all with a motivation to fight back the empire, but everyone isn't who they appear to be.
"Rebel Moon" tries really hard to be a new version of George Lucas' "Star Wars", peppered with some hints of flavor of what the Wachowskis did with "Jupiter Ascending", with a dash of "Harry Potter" and even a hint of "Lord of the Rings". You'd think with such a rich tapestry of flavors, the overall confection would turn out far more elaborate than this, but the narrative has a difficult time finding a tone, and even building characters that actually have any motivation at all. The story of the renegade soldier who wants to move past a checkered and brutal past can make for a great narrative, however Kora is flatly described, and apparently her single motivation in the film is to a) escape the ships from the industrial complex and then suddenly b) find a couple of warriors to tackle the entire empire. While flimsy character development can at times be compensated by establishing a compelling universe in which the characters live in, Zack Snyder fails to give this universe and its characters much personality or distinctiveness. While pillaging narrative aspects from better films, he failed to realized that there needs to be some coherence in the storytelling that is being presented to the audience. So while we have the introduction of characters like Kai, the pseudo Han Solo, and the group that is created, which almost feels like a less interesting version of Joss Whedon's "Firefly", the subsequent group is rapidly put together, with little to no explanation to what makes these characters actually worth paying attention to or even caring about. The film feels like a rapidly assembled sketch/decal from other templates, all tossed in together, but with no consistency amongst themselves. Visually the film also lacks polish and sophistication, which is surprising, considering this director has made a name for himself more as a stylist than as a gifted storyteller. The visual effects look unpolished. The cast is a bit all over the place, with a highlight going to Sofia Boutella, who tries her best to bring Kora to life, with good support from Corey Stoll, while Doona Bae (who usually works with The Wachowskis), is sadly lost on this mishmash of a film. Charlie Hunnam who is typically a one note performer, manages to keep that streak intact, while Ed Skrein, who has now become the official new Michael Wincott, simply needs to find better roles. Anthony Hopkins who has a brief voice role, manages to bring more humanity and dimension to a character that is literally animated, when compared to the rest of the cast. The production team is also unmemorable, including the cinematography from Zack Snyder himself (just bring back Larry Fong), score from Tom Holkenborg and production design from Stefan Dechant and Stephen Swain. This is just not a very good film all around.
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