Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire

Today I enjoyed: Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire. And let me say it up front: The only good thing about this movie - was the bad guy. Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire was originally thought to be a Star Wars story. However, Disney did not like what Zack Snyder had to offer, as he wanted to build a new story with new characters and more gore than the original Star Wars movies. And after seeing the movie, I get a sense of why Disney took a rain check on it. The film opens with a shot of a young female farmer, working hard on a field in a what seems to be medieval, maybe viking village, only contrasted by the huge red orangish planet in the background. But here the problems already start. Nothing looks real. You instantly get this uncanny valley kind of feeling, that something is off. This opening scene already reveals that almost everything was shot in a studio in front of a huge LED screen - called a stage craft - and you recognize this throughout the entire movie. And as if that was already bad, there are constant J. J. Abrams style lens flares, the CGI at times feels lazy at best, I honestly started to question if I was seeing a live action movie, or some animation flick. To be fair, I watched it at home on my TV, as Netflix - who eventually took on Snyders project - decided to put this film directly on the stream, skipping the cinema screenings. The saddest part in my humble opinion though is, that there are actually competent actors involved, like Djimon Hounsou, Charlie Hunnam and Bae Doona, but the movie does not facilitate their skills at all. Hell, even Sofia Boutella can literally kick ass, if you give her some good action scenes. But while the former actors get way to little time to bring their characters to life properly, the main character played by Sofia Boutella mostly stands in the background of her own movie changing from frowning to slightly smiling, depending on the occasion. And do not get me started on the fight scenes. The very first fight scene, which has an intense setup and a lot of potential felt really odd. From the style, I was expecting some blood at least, but the movie stays on a weird line between rough close combat, that would justify bloodshed on the one hand and classical PG13 rated laser gun fights on the other. It looks like the more gory parts were cut, which makes sense, if you consider that the word is, there will be a second version coming. A Snyder Cut, if you will, that is considerably longer than this version and way more brutal. But time will tell, if that is true and if it will be the better movie. But I doubt, that even that longer version will provide enough background story for the characters and the full universe the film takes place in. The only silver lining - as already mentioned in the beginning - is Ed Skrein as the antagonist. He delivers a chilling science fiction version of a Nazi general, reminiscing Hans Landa from Inglourious Basterds. He acts gentle and civilized at first, only to switch to brutal maniac in an instant, showing his real face. Overall this motion picture was a big disappointment. I am a big fan of science fiction and I can forgive quite some mistakes. But this was too much after all and even with all the good will I could find in me, the flaws are just too obvious. Maybe part two will make this movie whole, maybe it should have been a single film in the first place. But my recommendation, if you are not a die hard science fiction fan, is to save these two hours of your life for something else. *Originally posted on my blog: https://robingierse.de/blog/tie-rebel-moon-part-1.

Another Zack Snyder movie another wave of haters, so nothing new here. I found it pretty well done, the CGI is magnificent on some points; the choice for protagonist as Sofia Boutella (Atomic Blonde) was the best? No. But it isn't so bad. For a movie that is to be his version of SW it isn't bad... reminds me a bit a medieval / western space opera with a Warhammer 40.000 touch. About being a SW or Seven Samurai "copy"..... really? So what? People can tell the movies the way they want, so nothing is absolutely new nowadays, it isn't mind blowing but decent. It is like invalidating SW because we had ST before or Gallactica almost at the same year. My greatest gripe about the movie isn't about the interval between this one and the second movie (April 18th, 2024) so yeah almost two to three years for the complete Trilogy if it hits the public well. The gripe was to put a final fight against the guy that seemed to be the main villain, turns out he is like Darth Maul in the end, and yeah with a confront in the end to have some more action. The real Darth Vader (let's not speak of SW Emperor here because he was the excuse to continue the trilogies). Generally speaking the trio of Snyder (too ambitious), Kurt Johnstad (300 - is ok) and Shay Hatten (John Wick 3 and 4... that almost don't have story) isn't a good choice. Visually speaking beside the pseudo-archaic western / samurai setdown (including a bar fight) I found it was an ok choice especially being in the outside worlds of the Empire. Acting was ok, Boutella could have replaced by another actress more charismatic - about the others not much to be said as it is and introduction and gathering of heroes (or rebels if you like the way the title says). Each one have a distinct personality and background yet to be seen. The CGI and practical effects and prosthetics are very nice - Anthony Hopkins as the robot is just really 5 minutes of the movie yet to be seen. The visual of the ships reminded me of those 70's japanese space opera (yep, Space Battleship Yamato it is with other references) with a Warhammer 40k touch to the villains. The edition is good (Dody Dorn of Memento) and Junkie Xl (or Tom Holkenborg - that works mostly with adventure movies) is an ok choice but without any memorable music here. Out of the weak ending fight scene (or rush in the history maybe to generate more interest and income for the other two movies) for this one no reason for a major gripe about this one. The biggest let downs are this and the cooldown to see more in more than one year only. And I have a small feeling that all the trilogy won't be enough to fill and the spots left open into characters and development into the story if are all 6 hours total. This is a point that a better screenplay would be needed. So let's wait a "bit" more to see where it leads. From my point of view a 6.5 out of 10.0 / B- for now. Don't listen to the Snyder haters, watch and judge for yourself - I had more a 70's japanese space opera feeling for this one than SW.

Anyone remember "Battle Beyond the Stars" (1980)? Well this is a sort of hybrid of that and the "Magnificent Seven" that is quite impressive to look at, but that's about the height of it. A political assassinations has destabilised the kingdom and so "General Noble" (Ed Skrein) is off in his Dreadnought to terrorise the inter-planetary population. He arrives on a peaceful agrarian planet, kills the town father and declares that he'll be back in ten weeks to collect their harvest of grain. Panic sets in, especially when the guards he leaves behind try to force themselves on a villager and they encounter the wrath of "Kora" (Sofia Boutella). She's pretty nimble with her weaponry (so we just know there's a story here somewhere) and also manages to convince the town wimp "Gunnar" (Michael Huisman) that they must set off to recruit some help they can use to thwart the destruction of their livelihoods by "Noble". What we have now are a series predicable, set-piece, escapades as gradually they assemble a disparate band of rogues and criminals who might just want to take on the general in an hopelessly one-sided contest. You might detect the voice of Sir Anthony Hopkins ("Jimmy") and Charlie Hunnam sports a variable Irish accent as the famed "Kai" as this follows extremely well trammelled lines of adventure mixed with romance, political intrigue and some whizzo special effects. The denouement is straight out of "Attack of the Clones" (2002) and sets us up for a second instalment that you could probably just about map out now. I like the genre and I didn't hate the film, but it's disappointingly derivative and - well, you've just seen it all before.