{"id":63,"date":"2024-05-11T17:50:36","date_gmt":"2024-05-11T16:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joshtest04.wordpress.com\/2024\/05\/11\/rebel-moon-part-1-a-child-of-fire\/"},"modified":"2025-05-05T20:21:42","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T19:21:42","slug":"rebel-moon-part-1-a-child-of-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fevered.earth\/index.php\/2024\/05\/11\/rebel-moon-part-1-a-child-of-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebel Moon Part 1: A Child of Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The retro styling on the title card is very nice\u200a\u2014\u200aI almost want the rest of the film to be this nostalgic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cZack Snyder is making his own Star Wars.\u201d It\u2019s a bold premise. For better or worse, the film immediately begins to take shape in your mind\u200a\u2014\u200aand from a filmmaker whose divisive reputation precedes him, there\u2019s a strong temptation to assume what kind of film this will be before seeing a single frame of it. Zack Snyder\u2019s Netflix production Rebel Moon: A Child of Fire<\/em> wasn\u2019t made on a shoestring budget, and by definition it can\u2019t capture the blissfully ignorant innovation of making an off-brand Star Wars\u200a\u2014\u200aa Starcrash <\/em>or a The Man Who Saves The World<\/em> with the ambition to do it all from scratch, in a period where the image of Baby Yoda wasn\u2019t plastered on every lunch box. But there\u2019s still some of that cheeky thrill in hearing \u201cZack Snyder\u2019s doing an R-rated Star Wars,\u201d as if you might have heard it on the playground at school and immediately started calculating how you would trick your parents into renting it for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s already so very much Star Wars nowadays\u200a\u2014\u200amostly vented from the great Disney+ orifice, but it\u2019s still only been four years since The Rise of Skywalker<\/em> arrived on the big screen. People once had to wait sixteen long years for a new cinematic Star Wars experience. Unimaginable now in a world with Ahsoka <\/em>and Andor <\/em>and The Acolyte<\/em> and so on. So the challenge for this new two-part space opera is to shake itself free of diminutive comparisons and distinguish itself as an original science fiction movie and setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The first question is: which Zack Snyder is at the wheel? The contemplative, existentialist director of Man of Steel<\/em>? The director wedged into the mythic\/pulp aesthetic of Zack Snyder\u2019s Justice League<\/em>? Or the artisanal lens enthusiast of Army of the Dead<\/em>? Naturally there\u2019s a bit of each (especially that last one, with some truly beautiful lenses put together for this one ), but more than any other self-reference Rebel Moon <\/em>sees Snyder return to the blushing, hyper-stylized action of 300, <\/em>albeit with the benefit of hindsight and many years more experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The soft focus is paired with rich, deep shadows for a unique, ghostly look.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Much like the under-appreciated Jupiter Ascending<\/em>, which had the Wachowskis exhibiting a similar competency, Rebel Moon <\/em>treats its classic pulp sci-fi locales as a given, trusting the viewer to immediately clock the idyllic space-farm, the hive of scum and villainy, the Blade Runner<\/em> city, the old West and so on. These varied settings are bound by a rich saturation and contrast in the colors that forms a coherent visual throughline; a comforting intensity that\u2019s established in the lurid opening shots on protagonist Kora\u2019s home moon of Veldt. As well, the infamous slo-mo\u200a\u2014\u200awhich has often been restrained or absent in Snyder\u2019s work post-Watchmen<\/em>\u200a\u2014\u200ais back here in force, ratcheting the tension up in a way that will make you sad this initial release isn\u2019t actually R-rated and can\u2019t yet feature the heavily implied explosions of blood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The visual coherence helps the viewer keep up to speed, as the film moves at a breakneck pace through the second half of the story. The plot of Rebel Moon<\/em> is explicitly that of Kurosawa\u2019s Seven Samurai<\/em>\u200a\u2014\u200aor more directly John Sturges\u2019 adaptation of that story, The Magnificent Seven<\/em>. The traditional peasant village comes under threat from an evil empire and sends out representatives to recruit itinerant heroes, any they can find, to defend it. The opening act is given the most time and attention, laying out the lives of the villagers in such a way that their plight is apparent and human, as well as showing the evil empire engaged in some classic evil empire behavior: more Caesar than Palpatine, the fight is over grain tribute rather than lofty ideals (at least at first).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The dreadnought in low orbit evokes similar imagery from last year\u2019s The Creator<\/strong>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Similar to Magnificent Seven<\/em>, the gathered recruits only get the space of a single vignette to distinguish themselves in. Even these, though, have evidently been cut to the bone to hit that two-hour runtime. It\u2019s still intelligible\u200a\u2014\u200aall we need to see is the indentured blacksmith strutting confidently towards the beast-too-wild-to-be-tamed to understand what\u2019s going on, for example. Unlike this year\u2019s other novel sci-fi epic, Gareth Edwards\u2019 The Creator,<\/em> there\u2019s never a sense that the film has engaged the plot compression unit to such an extent that things have become dreamlike and abstract. The worst thing you\u2019ll suffer is disappointment that we don\u2019t get to spend more time with the various rogues who end up getting recruited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final act is the least complete, given the difficult task of not <\/em>resolving the plot before part two arrives in a few months\u2019 time. It\u2019s a hard sell, as hard here as it was for Across the Spider-verse<\/em> or Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning <\/em>earlier in the year. A movie should have an ending. There\u2019s an action showdown as you might expect, all flashing lights and dramatic violent flourishes. But without the catharsis of final victory or the establishment in that tight runtime of something like a Death Star to blow up, it feels like what it is: a midpoint. But even if this finale is more \u201cwait and see\u201d than it is overwhelming, the stinger right at the very end promises a sequel which might upend all sorts of expectations for how this story plays out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It casts the hexagonal grid motif the Marvel movies have settled on in a certain light.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Being a knock-off is permission to break all the rules, and Rebel Moon<\/em> knows this full well. Is there a C3P0? Yes, and he gets shot. Is there a cantina? Yes, and it\u2019s flirting with being a brothel. Is there a Han Solo? Well, no spoilers. And will it be trashy as all hell? In a clear statement of intent, the film opens with a girthy, tumescent space cruiser crossing the threshold of a great yonic portal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the headlines, Star Wars (and Seven Samurai <\/em>and The Magnificent Seven<\/em>) aren\u2019t the only inspirations Rebel Moon<\/em> is playing off. Excalibur <\/em>is another obvious one, with the king dead or dying and his errant knights sickly and dispersed across the land. The Perceval here is Anthony Hopkins\u2019 entrancing \u2018Jimmy\u2019, the C3P0-like pacifist robot who immediately breaks from that mold by shooting someone dead and fleeing into the forest to discover himself, only reappearing at the close now decorated with deer antlers. Comic relief, Jimmy is not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The taming-the-beast sequence owes much to Avatar, <\/em>though I somehow doubt featuring in a Zack Snyder film will quiet the \u201cno cultural impact\u201d crowd. Of course, George Lucas never shied away from having a character mount a great computer-generated beast\u200a\u2014\u200athere\u2019s one in all three prequel films. The Bennu, a griffin-like winged beast, is a fine addition to this canon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Star Wars is when there\u2019s a weird little guy in it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The most notable element of classic Star Wars that is missing is, sadly, the space politics. A much-mocked Lucas fixation, the scenes of machinations in the galactic senate or boardroom tables full of Imperial officers griping are lacking here. The tone is more in line with Dune<\/em>, with us meeting or hearing about individual power brokers within an Imperial hierarchy but without even the token bureaucracy represented by Dune<\/em>\u2019s Mentats. And (delightfully for this PG-13 cut) we get to see just a little Baron Harkonnen moral decay on the part of the Imperial forces, and a touch of eXistenZ-<\/em>aping body horror in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s more than a little of The Witcher <\/em>creeping in around the edges too, especially in Kora\u2019s flashback retellings of the story of the young princess. The backstory of Snyder\u2019s universe here is more fantastical, more Lord of the Rings <\/em>than Lucas\u2019s tragedy of the republic\u200a\u2014\u200ait\u2019s good Kings and bad Regents, and prophesied children who will bring peace to the realm. And with a gothic God-King, a great empire across the stars that\u2019s just maybe a little bit fascist, and a concerning undercurrent of implied necromancy , it\u2019s hard to escape the touch of Games Workshop\u2019s Warhammer 40,000 setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A caped figure looms over a youngling.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s unclear if Rebel Moon<\/em> will be the Zack Snyder film to win over his detractors. Having made himself deeply unpopular in some circles with his mythopoetic take on DC\u2019s superheroes, applying the same techniques to another sacred cow risks solidifying his reputation as an iconoclast\u200a\u2014\u200aor worse, a contrarian. Netflix, who you can assume would very much like to have \u2018Netflix\u2019s Star Wars\u2019, have engaged in an all-out marketing blitz, plastering the film across their media outlets and building small interactive moons in various cities. The film itself risks being swallowed up in all this external drama, but it\u2019s enjoyable and distinctive enough to stand by itself. There are few big-budget films with a comparable ambition of style and motion and a director visually talented enough to realize that ambition. Rebel Moon<\/em> is worth seeing on that justification alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it Star Wars? Perhaps predictably, what makes Rebel Moon<\/em> most interesting is all the ways in which it\u2019s not Star Wars. Able to vary in characters, mood, setting and tone, Rebel Moon is fresher than any attempt to do this sort of thing since Jupiter Ascending<\/em>. That film was compromised by running out of the hard cash required to see the full vision on screen. The fate of this film has been gambled on what has so far been a losing proposition, the two-part film epic. Like young Anakin Skywalker on Tatooine, we can only hope the old master has rigged the dice, and Rebel Moon<\/em> realizes all this potential when part two lands next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you enjoyed this article I have conveniently already reviewed<\/em> <\/strong>Rebel Moon Part 2<\/strong><\/a>. I\u2019ll probably end up reviewing the extended cuts when they arrive in the summer also; <\/em>subscribe <\/em><\/a>to get them by email when I do. If you appreciate my writing, watch my video essay <\/em>Sixteen Attempts to Talk to You About Suicide Squad<\/strong><\/a>. Then watch my video essay <\/em>The Fanatic<\/strong><\/a>. Then back to <\/em>Suicide Squad<\/strong><\/a>. Then <\/em>The Fanatic<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>again. If you\u2019re after more text, subscribe to my <\/em>Letterboxd<\/em><\/a> reviews.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was originally written for <\/em>Blood Knife<\/em><\/a> which is currently on hiatus.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cZack Snyder is making his own Star Wars.\u201d It\u2019s a bold premise. For better or worse, the film immediately begins to take shape in your mind\u200a\u2014\u200aand from a filmmaker whose divisive reputation precedes him, there\u2019s a strong temptation to assume what kind of film this will be before seeing a single frame of it. Zack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":3,"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,96],"tags":[45,18,19,78,22],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","category-media-criticism","tag-media-criticism","tag-movie-review","tag-movies","tag-rebel-moon","tag-zack-snyder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fevered.earth\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fevered.earth\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fevered.earth\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fevered.earth\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fevered.earth\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fevered.earth\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99,"href":"https:\/\/fevered.earth\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions\/99"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fevered.earth\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fevered.earth\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fevered.earth\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}