Movies REBEL MOON: PART ONE - A CHILD OF FIRE (Dragonlord's Review)

[Wetarmpits]

I told you guys. But some mod deleted my ragy input about utter garbage productions.

 

[GearSolidMetal]

I'm a Zach Snyder fan, and consider him to be one of the 3 best Hollywood directors since 2000.

His camera placement for scenes is damn near perfect especially for comic book movies.

But when he has any input regarding the script, it instantly becomes stupid. In many ways he's like Rian Johnson in that respect, but instead of arrogance & elitism Zach Snyder is just plain stupid.

Anybody remember this gem?



How about every version of his Justice League Snyder Cut being in 4:3 fullscreen? Fucking retarded.

And his movies - aside from the visuals - everything about the plot, characters, dialog have been progressively getting worse with every movie he does.
In that respect, he's like Paul W.S. Anderson only making shitty Resident Evil sequels for the last portion of his career... which is hopefully over.

So... all Zach Snyder had to do was recognize his creative-narrative flaws and find a small team of scriptwriters he respected to write the DCEU and this Star Wars ripoff... and his name would be up there with Nolan & Cameron.

Instead, now its among the names of JJ Abrams, Rian Johnson, and Paul W.S. Anderson.... amazing talent behind the camera, put pure arrogance believing their input in the scripts weren't shit.

 

[BB in Crazy!!!!]

While I didn’t think it was THAT bad. It showed plenty of promise. But the writing and directing of the just bad. Some of the special effects I liked and the scenery of many of the scenes. But this seems to have suffered the exact same issue as The Last Jedi, it needed a plot and writing overhaul.

 

[BB in Crazy!!!!]

I'm a Zach Snyder fan, and consider him to be one of the 3 best Hollywood directors since 2000.

His camera placement for scenes is damn near perfect especially for comic book movies.

But when he has any input regarding the script, it instantly becomes stupid. In many ways he's like Rian Johnson in that respect, but instead of arrogance & elitism Zach Snyder is just plain stupid.

Anybody remember this gem?



How about every version of his Justice League Snyder Cut being in 4:3 fullscreen? Fucking retarded.

And his movies - aside from the visuals - everything about the plot, characters, dialog have been progressively getting worse with every movie he does.
In that respect, he's like Paul W.S. Anderson only making shitty Resident Evil sequels for the last portion of his career... which is hopefully over.

So... all Zach Snyder had to do was recognize his creative-narrative flaws and find a small team of scriptwriters he respected to write the DCEU and this Star Wars ripoff... and his name would be up there with Nolan & Cameron.

Instead, now its among the names of JJ Abrams, Rian Johnson, and Paul W.S. Anderson.... amazing talent behind the camera, put pure arrogance believing their input in the scripts weren't shit.

Basically this

 

[jeff7b9]

Zack Snyder is so obsessed with slow motion that even his slow motion has slow motion.

Note the political angle that somehow one relatively skinny female, basically unarmed, defeats and entire group of armed trained military fighters with military weapons, basically because they are the evil white guys and she is effortlessly a master of combat, and so she wins multiple 6 vs 1 fights and gunfights.

Ugggh.

And who trained her to be a master of violence?

The evil white guys.

 

[SwamiLeoni]

Everything i hear points to them stealing mainly from 40K : /


For anyone interested heres the most popular short film involving 40K lore;

Ya this was great. There’s also a great breakdown by the creator I believe on Reddit.

Other good Warhammer media:

Hammer & Bolter
Pariah Nexus
The Exodite (especially the end scene)

All pretty awesome in their own way.

 

[GhostZ06]

There were several references to 40k.

1. The Imperium (serving a dead king)
2. Their uniforms
3. The Mechanicum Militarum
4. Tech Priests
5. Knockoff Bolters
6. Taking over a resource planet

There’s probably a ton more if you dove deep and looked for them. But I definitely caught these. Seems like it’s more inspired by 40k than it is SW.

Thank god im not the only one that noticed the imperial guard flag.

 

[GhostZ06]

Hmm, very subtle.

lol

 

[irish_thug]

Update: December 25, 2023

Dragonlord’s Review of REBEL MOON – PART ONE: A CHILD OF FIRE (No Spoilers)

Bottom Line: Plagued by some God-awful dialogue, multiple inept exposition dump and just plain bad direction by Zack Snyder, Rebel Moon borrows a lot of elements from better films to mesh them all into the worst big-budgeted movie of 2023.

Rebel Moon was born out of Zack Snyder’s Star Wars movie pitch to Lucasfilm back in 2012. Feeling that they are more than capable of destroying the Star Wars franchise by themselves, Lucasfilm declined Snyder’s pitch. Many years later, Snyder found a streaming service who hates money and don’t care about quality – Netflix. And so here we are.

Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire is a cross between Star Wars and Seven Samurai… and a gazillion other sci-fi movies/TV shows. Watching Rebel Moon is akin to watching James Cameron’s Avatar where you have an uneasy feeling that you’ve seen it all before from other movies. The difference is Cameron has the proficiency to mesh them together to create, at best, a highly-entertaining spectacle and at worst, a decent watchable film. Watching Rebel Moon just feels like it’s the highest-budgeted B-movie ever made.

The way Snyder sets up the dialogue is just awkward. There are times you feel like you’re watching a YouTube fan film because how amateurish it feels. Poor Sofia Boutella, who is the star of the film and has the unfortunate task of spewing a lot of these pretentious lines. She also does a terrible job of doing most of the exposition dump which is also ineptly executed by Snyder. Showing limited acting range and might better suited in supporting roles, Boutella is miscast as the lead Kora. Kora’s flashback childhood scenes also feels copied from Gamora’s background in Avengers: Infinity War.

Ed Skrein was very effective in playing the villain Admiral Atticus Noble. Though the character is pretty much one-dimensional, Skrein’s charisma and ruthlessness shines brightly making the villain very memorable and probably might be the best thing about the film. You can also see how Snyder tries to rip off Tarantino by setting up a Hans Landa moment for Noble when he first shows up. My second favorite part of the film is probably Harmada (played by Jena Malone), a menacing spider-like creature that’s clearly nerfed when she inexplicably fights mostly with two limbs at a time.

Snyder is pretty good at casting. So it’s perplexing how he chose Fra Fee to play the Imperium tyrant Belisarius. He just doesn’t have gravity or presence to play the big bad for this two-parter. He looks way too young also. And when they decide to age him up by giving him some beard, it just doesn’t look convincing.

With the exception of Doona Bae’s cool cyborg swordmaster and Charlie Hunnam’s Han Solo-like rogue, the rest of the “Seven Samurai” cast are just okay. People complaining about well-established fictional characters being race-swapped or gender-swapped have some legitimate grounds. You often hear the naysayers suggest that the filmmakers create original characters instead to showcase diversity. Rebel Moon is an original story with original characters and if the complainers still protest, then it’s high time to look inward and admit to themselves that they just do not want to see certain types of people onscreen.

This is just an observation but I thought it was interesting choice for Snyder that the rapey Imperium soliders were all white (not 100% sure but please don’t make me watch the movie again) except for that one minority-looking soldier who tried to defend the victim. It was interesting for me since Snyder has a substantial conservative fanbase online and curious how they would react to that scene. If that scene were in any other movie, that scene would get a lot of flak from the right. Or would the Snyder Cult ignore that part and continue praising their idol?

Snyder always had a talent for the visuals, so it was surprising to me that Rebel Moon’s graphics didn’t really wow me. Considered innovative back in 2006 when he did 300, Snyder tried to do the same visual style in some of the scenes here and it just comes off as cheap-looking. Some shots looked like it was filmed in a studio lot with a giant wallpaper in the backdrop. Two days after I saw Rebel Moon, I watched The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes and my God, the cinematography was just sublimely beautiful. Even the interior shots of minor scenes set in an apartment was done so exquisitely well. I just can’t help compare the two films and be even more disappointed with Snyder since striking imagery is his forte.

Just like with some of his films, Snyder will release a director’s cut of Rebel Moon a few months from now, stating that it will be an R-rated extended version and that “it’s almost like a different movie.” It’s so mind-boggling why Snyder just didn’t release his ultimate version of Rebel Moon since he has carte blanche over the project. It’s like him saying, “Watch this inferior version of Rebel Moon first before I gaslight you into liking the same inferior movie but much longer a few months from now.” Clearly, Snyder and Netflix are just being manipulative and greedy into trying to recreate the Snyder Cut movement.

Overall, Rebel Moon borrowed a lot of components from other films but the hodgepodge sci-fi story was just told poorly. It didn’t help that the dialogue was atrocious and some of the scenes were so amateurishly staged. The pacing was not good and some scenes felt too abrupt. Sofia Boutella can’t carry the film and the other supporting heroes aren’t that compelling. Despite the sequel coming out in April 2024, this potential franchise might be already doomed from the get-go.

RATING: 3/10

Spoiler

I thought it was funny that Snyder killed off Ray Fisher's Bloodaxe character. Fisher basically willfully torpedoed his career by doing Snyder's bidding in getting revenge on those who he felt wronged him for the Justice League theatrical cut. Studios are reluctant to hire Fisher naturally since he likes to create dramas out of nothing. With that said, I thought Snyder would at least reward Fisher by letting him appear in the Rebel Moon sequel since the guy doesn't have a job anymore.

(Please leave a Like if you appreciate my reviews. Thanks.)

Hmmm...dlx 3 = Irish 7. I'll still watch it.

 

[blaseblase]

Snyder is good at shooting action but I really dont think he should be the primary director behind these big budget films. He definitely shouldn't be writing his own screenplays. He would be better served being part of a collaborative team that can cover up his weaknesses.

 

[LilMountain]

Snyder is good at shooting action but I really dont think he should be the primary director behind these big budget films. He definitely shouldn't be writing his own screenplays. He would be better served being part of a collaborative team that can cover up his weaknesses.

Even shooting action he needs to add more tools to his toolkit, Slo-mo is played out, especially when it gets to the point where he's further slowing a portion of an already Slo-mo shot

 

[Iron Mang]

If you turn your mind off it's a not bad movie - gave it 7/10.

The plot seemed a bit all over the place. Sofia Boutella is hot and some nice eye candy but she is not a good actress.

This reminded me of cheesy 80s action adventure movies but with modern day special effects.

The fight scenes were fun but, again, the story was all over the place.

I just watched it yesterday with my kid, and I felt exactly the same. It was okay and my daughter liked it (she's 13). The movie wasn't what I expected and could have been a lot better. Are we sure that this movie isn't a parody? I mean, there were 2 jump from high ledges scenes, lmao!

The only thing that I think will be different in the R-rated version, is that there are sex scenes after the planting celebration, blood, and some nude Sofia Boutella. Since I already know the story, this will probably take about 10 mins of extra watching while I fast forward through scenes.

 

[JadeOwl]

 

[yamahacrasher]

I'm not going to say its a masterpiece, but I enjoyed it. Again, I have no taste, and am definitely a sci-fi nerd so take my opinion for what its worth (not much, probably).

 

[666]

I'd go with 5/10 titties and more violence could've turned it up to 7 for me though.

 

[irish_thug]

Given how important grain is to human survival, there really ought to be more movies about it.

 

[irish_thug]

I'd go with 5/10 titties and more violence could've turned it up to 7 for me though.

titties and violence are an automatic 11

 

[herpd807]

I watched it. It was "ok". Felt like your typical sci fi movie from the 80's/90's.

Certainly better then where Star Wars is trending. Which is well BELOW average.

 

[Cool Hand Luke]

Hmm, very subtle.

caught that as well

 

[Cool Hand Luke]

fuck this is bad