Rebel Moon
Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire, or simply Rebel Moon, is a 2023 American epic space opera film directed by Zack Snyder from a screenplay he co-wrote with Kurt Johnstad and Shay Hatten. Its ensemble cast features Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, Ed Skrein, Michiel Huisman, Bae Doona, Ray Fisher, Charlie Hunnam, and Anthony Hopkins. The film is set in a fictional galaxy ruled by the imperialistic Motherworld, whose military, the Imperium, threatens a village on the moon Veldt. Kora, a former Imperium soldier, ventures on a quest to recruit warriors from across the galaxy to make a stand against the Imperium before they return to Veldt.
Following a limited theatrical release on December 15, 2023, Rebel Moon was released by Netflix on December 22. It received generally negative reviews from critics. A sequel, Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver, released on April 19, 2024. An R-rated director's cut, titled Rebel Moon – Chapter One: Chalice of Blood, was released on August 2, 2024.
Plot
Atticus Noble, a sadistic admiral of the militaristic Imperium, arrives at a village on the moon Veldt on behalf of the Motherworld, a galactic empire in pursuit of conquest, fueled by centuries of war. He explains that his troops are hunting for a band of rebels led by siblings Devra and Darrian Bloodaxe, and offers to buy the village's surplus grain. The village's leader, Sindri, declines, claiming that the villagers barely have enough to survive. A farmer, Gunnar, ignoring earlier warnings from Sindri and Kora, another farmer, indicates that the villagers might have a higher amount. Noble kills Sindri and orders Gunnar to prepare grain for them in ten weeks, which would not leave the villagers with enough to survive. Noble departs, leaving several soldiers and a "Jimmy" robot to oversee the harvest. After facing harassment from a soldier, Jimmy befriends Sam, a villager. Kora prepares to leave, but finds most of the soldiers preparing to rape Sam and kills the soldiers with help from Aris, a soldier disgusted by his own comrades' actions; Jimmy intervenes and defects, saving Sam. Kora warns the villagers to mount a defense, knowing that Noble will kill them once he returns.Kora and Gunnar depart for the port town of Providence, intending to recruit warriors for the village's defense, including Titus, a disgraced Imperium general. During their journey, she reveals to Gunnar that she once served the Imperium as a soldier, having been adopted and named Arthelais by Balisarius, an Imperium commander, after he eradicated her home planet's population, including her family. She was assigned as the bodyguard to Motherworld princess Issa, who was expected to usher in an end to the Imperium's conquests. Issa and her parents were assassinated, with Balisarius subsequently declaring himself regent and continuing the Imperium's conquests.
Arriving at Providence, the pair meets smuggler and criminal Kai, who agrees to take them to Titus. He takes them to recruit Tarak, an ex-criminal who frees himself from slavery by taming a griffin-like bennu, and Nemesis, a partially-cybernetic swordswoman. The group arrives at a gladiator arena on a moon, finding Titus in a drunken stupor. Titus initially refuses to join, but agrees to do so after Kora suggests that he avenge his deceased soldiers. Using Gunnar's previous dealing with the Bloodaxes, the group then arrives at the planet Sharaan to meet them. Darrian agrees to defend the village and brings several rebels, including his lieutenant Milius, while Devra, unconvinced that a victory against Noble's dreadnought is possible, declines. After they depart, Noble arrives on Sharaan and eradicates its population as punishment for assisting the rebels.
Kai tells Kora that he has been moved by her quest to abandon his life as a smuggler and that he has one last shipment to drop off. He takes the group to an unregistered trade depot, at which Noble's personal craft has arrived, and restrains and betrays them to Noble, revealing he had always intended to do so for the bounties on their heads. Noble identifies Kora and Titus as deserters, Tarak as a former prince, and Nemesis as the assassin of sixteen Imperial officers and their security detail in revenge for her murdered children. Kai demands that Gunnar paralyze Kora; Gunnar instead frees her and kills Kai. In the ensuing battle, the other warriors are freed, and casualties include Darrian; Noble is apparently killed by Kora. Afterwards, Kora and Gunnar return with the surviving warriors to Veldt, with Jimmy watching them on their way to the village.
Noble is recovered by the Imperium, and he is revived after speaking on an astral plane with Balisarius, who demands that Noble end the insurgency and bring Kora to him alive so he can execute her himself.
Cast
Production
Development
Rebel Moon is inspired by the works of Akira Kurosawa, the Star Wars films, and Heavy Metal magazines; its logo is an homage to the latter. Snyder initially conceived the idea for the film in college, before discussing it with Johnstad in 1997. Johnstad mentioned that there were rough ideas discussed “We started working on character, scene structure, and action sequences maybe five years later. We started roughing things out.”Snyder then pitched it as a Star Wars film to Lucasfilm, shortly after its sale to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. He also pitched his idea as both a video game and a film to Warner Bros. Pictures "a couple of times". The project was at one point planned as an original television series by Snyder and producer Eric Newman, before pitching it as a film to Netflix.
Following concerns from Netflix Films chairman Scott Stuber that the project would underperform due to its length, Snyder, unwilling to "lose all the character", decided to split the film into two parts.
Casting
's casting in the lead role was announced in November 2021. Charlie Hunnam, Djimon Hounsou, Ray Fisher, Jena Malone, Staz Nair, Bae Doona, Stuart Martin, and Rupert Friend joined the project in February 2022. Fisher first became aware of the project around 2019 or 2020 back when Snyder planned it to be a TV show, being shown whiteboards and showing his interest when Snyder explained that those were for a "little space thing" he was working on. Cary Elwes, Corey Stoll, Michiel Huisman and Alfonso Herrera joined the cast in April 2022. On May 16, 2022, it was announced that Ed Skrein had replaced Friend as the film's main antagonist due to scheduling conflicts, with Cleopatra Coleman, Fra Fee and Rhian Rees joining the project. On June 8, 2022, it was announced that Anthony Hopkins had joined the cast as the voice of Jimmy, a sentient JC1435 mechanized battle robot and one-time defender of the slain king.Filming
Filming commenced on April 19, 2022, with Snyder sharing the first images from the set on Twitter that day. Snyder also served as cinematographer. It ran until December 2, with 152 days of filming taking place in California, to tap into $83 million in qualified spending and tax incentives. Stuart Martin, Cary Elwes, Rhian Rees and Ray Porter acted out and recorded the film's script for Snyder to listen to while preparing the day's shoot; they appear in the film as Den, The King, The Queen, and Hickman, respectively.For the two-part Rebel Moon, the below-the-line wages to California workers and payments to in-state vendors was $166 million.
Post-production and visual effects
On August 20, 2023, the titles for the two parts were reported to be A Child of Fire and The Scargiver, respectively. Two days later, Zack Snyder appeared at gamescom opening night to present the teaser trailer for the two parts, which confirmed the titles.Production VFX supervisor collaborated with Industrial Light & Magic, Framestore, Luma Pictures, Mammal Studios, Rodeo FX, Scanline VFX and Weta FX. Framestore delivered key creatures the Bennu and Harmada.
Music
The score was composed by Tom Holkenborg, who has previously contributed to the score for the Snyder-directed Man of Steel and scored Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice alongside Hans Zimmer, in addition to scoring Zack Snyder's Justice League and Army of the Dead as well the Snyder-produced 300: Rise of an Empire.Release
Rebel Moon had a limited theatrical release on 70 mm film in four major cities: Los Angeles, New York City, Toronto, and London on December 15, 2023, before its streaming debut on December 22, by Netflix. Snyder announced plans to issue an R-rated director's cut in addition to the PG-13-rated cut.Reception
Critical response
For the three-and-a-half-hour director’s cut, the reviews were better – 53% of critics liked the film.Variety writer Owen Gleiberman commented, "while eminently watchable, is a movie built so entirely out of spare parts that it may, in the end, be for Snyder cultists only." Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent gave the film 1/5 stars, calling it "a film populated by some of the Zack Snyder's Justice League filmmaker's worst impulses: a mess of imagery, some of it attempting to shock, congregated largely around the idea of what might look good in a trailer." The Guardians Charles Bramesco also gave the film 1/5 stars, writing, "the finished product has only the vaguest contours of ambition, diminished by a half-assedness dinkifying the latest CGI-jammed saga to decide the fate of the universe." RogerEbert.coms Simon Abrams gave the film 1 star out of 4 and characterized it as too similar to Star Wars and Seven Samurai, containing an over-reliance of visual spectacle with clichéd characters and themes.
Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph gave the film 2/5 stars, noting its similarities to Star Wars and saying that "this first half of Snyder's diptych... is more of a loosely doodled mood board than a functioning film – a series of pulpy tableaux that mostly sound fun in isolation, but become numbingly dull when run side by side." The Messengers Jordan Hoffman gave it a score of 4/10, writing, "As a space opera, it has none of the weight of Dune, none of the characterizations of Guardians of the Galaxy, none of the madness of Jupiter Ascending or The Fifth Element and none of the pep of Star Wars." Writing for The A.V. Club, Lauren Coates said, "while Snyder may do his best to invent a dark, gripping universe to engross viewers, Rebel Moon is a limp, soulless regurgitation of tropes stolen from much more formidable films" and gave the film a D− grade.
Fred Topel of United Press International was more positive, calling the film "an entertaining filtering of science fiction and general storytelling tropes through the lens of creator/director Zack Snyder." The South China Morning Posts Daniel Eagan gave it 3.5/5 stars, writing, "What Snyder brings to the project is a sensational world-building vision and a muscular filmmaking style that can pummel viewers into submission." Adam Graham of The Detroit News gave it a B− grade, saying, "To its credit, it borrows from a solid slate of sources, and while it's highly derivative, it's also highly watchable. Its referential nature helps it clip along at an expedient pace, and while it never feels like you're watching something new, it at least feels like you're watching something familiar."
Reviewing the director's cut, Chase Hutchinson of Collider said it "lacks anything approaching depth or well-constructed action, failing to offer anything worth revisiting despite adding another nearly two hours". Conversely, Zosha Millman of Polygon considered Chalice of Blood an improvement over A Child of Fire, saying, "Ultimately Chalice of Blood ends with a stronger promise for future installments than Curse of Forgiveness delivers, but even with lengthy runtimes and ample side quests, it never feels like Snyder is biting off more than he can chew here."
In a double review of the Director's Cuts for Rebel Moon Part One and Part Two, David James from We Got This Covered wrote: "In an age of algorithmically generated sludge it's a miracle that Zack Snyder convinced Netflix to fund this kinky, gory and truly bizarre sci-fi epic. A cult classic in the making." James praised, among other things, the sex scenes, the violence, and the actors, while he criticized the musical score. He gave the movies four out of five stars.