Rebel Moon: A Child Of Fire & The Scargiver (Netflix, 2024)
Rebel Moon was always meant to be seen as whole. After the introductory A Child Of Fire it is up to Zack Snyder to reveal the (almost) complete picture with Part Two: The Scargiver.
There seems to be only one way to talk about Snyder these days: you either love him or you hate him. Speaking for myself, I’m stuck somewhere in the middle. I think his debut feature, a remake of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (2004) will probably always be my favorite, a truly frightening horror movie, with a remarkably lead performance from a young Sarah Polley.
Over the years I’ve also enjoyed movies like the epic 300 (2006), the subversive comic book movie Watchmen (2009) and the relatively lighthearted Sucker Punch (2011). I won’t deny that I’ve also seen and even to a certain extent enjoyed his DC-movies - Man of Steel (2013), Batman V Superman (2016) and Justice League (2017) - I just don’t have any fixed opinion on them. In my book they were all ‘kinda fine, I guess…’ However, after that I kinda gave up and didn’t bother to see either the extended version of Justice League or the Army of the Dead movie.
Rebel Moon (rejected by Disney before being picked up by Netflix) piqued my interest, though. Seeing as it is basically his variation on Star Wars and The Seven Samurai, with the great and still somewhat underrated Sofia Boutella as Kora, the Chosen One, who has to lead the rebellion and save the universe, or at least a small moon full of farmers (called Veldt) from the mighty forces of the Imperial Realm.
Kora got help from the wayward General Titus (Djimon Hounsou), potential love interest Gunnar (Michiel Huisman), Nemesis (Bae Doona), Tarak (Staz Nair), a robot called Jimmy (voiced by Anthony Hopkins) and, at least initially, starship pilot Kai (Charlie Hunnam). While crossing swords (or light sabers) with General Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein) and Regent Balisarius (Fra Fee), who Kora has a fraught relationship with, dating back to her childhood days - yes, that’s a Star Wars nod right there.
In A Child of Fire Kora spent a lot of time (perhaps a little too much) hopping from planet to planet to get the band together. But if you settled in to its episodic structure, it was worth it for the colorful characters and the visual spectacle.
However, in The Scargiver (written once again by Snyder, Shay Hatten and Kurt Johnstad) it’s time, at least in the second hour, for the ultimate fight between good and evil. It’s the stuff that Snyder does best, even though it remains unclear how it all is supposed to end, as the filmmaker has already announced plans for more Rebel Moon movies.
The first hour, by the way, is dominated by the harvesting of the crop on Veldt, the preparations for war and the personal motivations of the various warriors, including a flashback focused on Kora’s own tumultuous past.
Rebel Moon isn’t all about her - it’s definitely an ensemble picture with a lot of other stuff going on - but it is probably one of Snyder’s best decisions to put the smart, strong and sensitive Boutella right there in the middle of it.
Rebel Moon is not cinema (or even streaming) at its greatest, but like Dune it makes more sense if you - cliche alert - feel that the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts.
So with a Rebel Yell I give it three stars for the whole enterprise.