Zack Snyder's Derivative 'Rebel Moon' Is Overlong and Yet Still Feels Rushed

By TK Burton | Film | December 29, 2023 |

By TK Burton | Film | December 29, 2023 |

I’ve long been of the opinion that Zack Snyder does his best work when he’s adapting someone else’s writing. Films like 300 or Dawn of the Dead work well because they suit his admittedly remarkable visual creativity but are not bogged down by his sometimes-shoddy storytelling. Snyder often has grand vision while also lacking the storytelling acumen to follow through on it, which is how we get messy projects like Batman V. Superman and Army of the Dead. These issues are thrust to the forefront of his newest epic idea, the space opera Rebel Moon, recently released via Netflix.

Rebel Moon purports to be a far-flung, wild odyssey of a band of diverse heroes in a fictional universe fighting against the tyranny of The Motherworld. The story centers on Kora (capably portrayed by Sofia Boutella), a former soldier of the Motherworld who fled its grasp to try to find peace on the quiet planet of Veldt. Of course, the forces of the Motherworld — led by the sneering, vicious (yet oddly charming at times) Admiral Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein) come to this quiet little farming planet, seeking conquest and subjugation. In response, Kora begins a quest to find a collection of warriors to bring back to Veldt to help them defend themselves against Noble and his forces.

What follows is a curious collection of recruitment missions, with Kora traipsing about the galaxy with a fellow farmer (Michael Huisman) and a recruited renegade pilot named Kai (Charlie Hunnam). Over time, they are joined by a lethal cyborg assassin (Doona Bae), a retired general and gladiator named Titus (Djimon Hounsou), a rebel leader named — hilariously — Darrian Bloodaxe (Ray Fisher), and a mysterious animal whisperer/blacksmith (Staz Nair). This collective eventually faces off against the Motherworld’s forces, setting the stage for the second film to be released in April 2024.

Rebel Moon is a fascinating discussion point. It is, despite its proponents’ claims, hardly an original story. True, there are few original stories in science fiction anymore, and often stories will borrow from other sagas. It’s hardly an unusual practice. However, rarely does one borrow so heavily and so ham-fistedly as Snyder does here. Rebel Moon blurs that line between homage and copycatting clumsily, and it makes for distracting storytelling. This peculiar mashup of The Magnificent Seven (or Seven Samurai if you’re a purist), Star Wars, Mass Effect, and a half-dozen other stories is so obvious as to make it distracting. The film barely conceals its inspirations/source material, and it suffers for it.

It’s not helped by the fact that the film, despite its 134-minute runtime, still manages to feel rushed. There’s little time to understand the motivations of its characters, let alone get to know them since each recruitment is a ten-minute vignette that feels jammed in there just to get the story rolling. It’s awkward and jarring and throws the pacing of the film off completely. Of course, this will theoretically be resolved with the inevitable (and publicized) release of a director’s cut, but there’s no guarantee that expanding upon these issues will actually improve them. That’s not even covering the fact that deliberately cutting a movie down with the intent of re-releasing its full version later is such a commercially crass plan in the first place (and a clear-cut case of Netflix trying to capitalize on the success of Snyder’s Justice League Snydercut shenanigans).
Where the film often does succeed is in its visual flair and Snyder’s gift for action choreography. While he still over-relies on slow-motion, he continues to impress with how he assembles an action scene, with flawless lighting and solid effects work combined with top-notch direction. And for what it’s worth, the actors mostly do well with what little they’re often given. Boutella, whose dancer background gives her a natural physicality, holds her own here as a star in a film filled with other more well-known names, and her costars both perform well while also giving her breathing room. It’s a nicely rounded cast, even if they’re stuck with some often derivative and stilted dialogue.

It’s with all this said that it becomes hard to say whether Rebel Moon is a good or bad film. On the one hand, how do you judge a film that does some things well, but that’s literally being released incomplete? On the other hand, there’s no denying its failures in writing and originality, and those are things that cannot be remedied in its future cut. Even more puzzling is why Netflix chose to do things this way. They’ve obviously invested serious money in the project — why not simply turn it into an episodic project and give the story room to grow more organically instead of this weirdly bumpy film that feels as hastily assembled as its team of heroes? It’s puzzling.

At the end of the day, Rebel Moon (technically, it’s Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire but who has time to keep typing that out) isn’t a terrible film — certainly not worth the drubbing it’s been receiving. But there are so many parts of it that struggle to work cohesively, so many square pegs hammered into round holes, that it becomes difficult to call it good, either. Perhaps a director’s cut will serve it well, even if that very concept is infuriating in this context. Perhaps it will expand upon its flaws and expose them further. What is clear is that regardless, Rebel Moon is a visually arresting, occasionally exciting film that borrows far too heavily from its predecessors to truly be called an original Snyder project and suffers far too much from some strange combination of ego and greed to even be viewed on its own merits. Maybe you should just wait for the directors cut … but then again, maybe that won’t help at all. Only time will tell.