Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire

The Motherworld has ruled this far off galaxy with an iron fist. Over thousands of years, the monarchs have conquered and waged war creating a great, but brutal empire.  The current king (Cary Elwes), hopes that his daughter, Issa (Stella Grace Fitzgerald), who has the power of healing and resurrection, will unite the galaxy through compassion and love, instead of war.  On Issa’s coronation day, the entire royal family is assassinated severing the bloodline and bloodline and creating chaos.  In the ensuing confusion, Senator Balisarius (Fra Fee) declares himself regent and returns to the warlike ways of the past.  And this is where the story begins (I know…all that and we haven’t even gotten to the actual plot of the movie). Kora (Sofia Boutella), Balisarius’ adopted daughter, Impierium warrior, and former bodyguard to Issa, is now living in the farming community on the moon known as Veldt.  When Admiral Atticus Noble arrives and threatens her new home, she and Gunner (Michiel Hulsman) venture out with Kai (Charlie Hunnam), a mercenary pilot hired by Kora, to gather together a band of warriors to fight against Noble and the Motherworld. Their team consists of, Tarak (Staz Nair), a nobleman with the ability to bond with animals; Nemesis (Doona Bae), a cyborg with laser like swords which she expertly wields with grace; Titus (Djimon Hounsou), a Imperium General, who turned against the Motherworld; and Darrian Bloodaxe, the leader of the rebel army fighting against Noble as his men. The majority of the film is Kora and Gunner traveling to different worlds and gathering together the team.  It is revealed that Kora is the most wanted fugitive in the galaxy, and in the end, one of her team betrays her leading to a final showdown between her and Noble.  Who lives? Who dies? Who cares? Watch and find out!

The story was formulated by director Zach Snyder and was originally pitched to The Walt Disney Company shortly after they acquired the rights to Star Wars as a more mature take on the Star Wars Universe.  Later he pitched the idea to Warner Bros. Pictures (multiple times) as both a video game and a film, but eventually it was redeveloped with producer Eric Newman, first as a television series but eventually landing on a film for Netflix.  The film is a combination of the works of Akira Kurosawa, Heavy Metal and the aforementioned Star Wars franchise and you can see elements of all these in the finished product.  Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire had a limited theatrical release on December 15^th, 2023 and went to streaming on Netflix on December 21 of that same year.  The film is rated PG-13, but there are plans for an R-rated directors cut to be released before Part 2 – The Scargiver is released in April of 2024.

In seeing the previews for this movie, I thought it looked pretty good and was excited to see it.  This is one situation where I was really let down.  Snyder is a master at creating visually stunning films with great action sequences, and this movie has all that, although I feel he overused the “slow motion” effects usually reserved to emphasize elements of the fight, often being used with little to no reason. The costumes are bit strange, and I feel were influenced by the Kurosawa films.  I liked how they looked but have heard from others that they were a bit to “Earthy” looking and not otherworldly enough. The film is sorely lacking in a cohesive storyline and relatable characters and the plot felt hodgepodge and thrown together especially for a movie that has been in development for a very long time.  The scattered scenes feel like sci-fi tropes stitched together, but with only a very fine thread holding them in place.  We aren’t given enough history or time with any one character to really form a connection. To the point that when one of the team is killed, I felt absolutely nothing, as I had not been given enough time with that character to form that bond.  Although the scene is filmed in such a way that you can tell they wanted you to feel something.  The dialogue, although beautiful and poetic, felt forced and without the ring of truth to it, more like someone reading from a novel than characters actually conversing.  The only character I really cared about is hardly in the film, and that is Jimmy, voiced wonderfully by Anthony Hopkins, a mechanical knight who was loyal to the royal family and in the beginning helps Kora defeat the soldiers left on Veldt who are attempting to rape a young girl.  Jimmy later runs away and at the end, we see him on Veldt in a field wearing the crown of flowers given to him earlier and a set of antlers.  Great visual, but with no explanation.  With all this, the film is entertaining and watchable, but I was just expecting something a bit more cohesive.  I think it could have made a much better series, allowing the audience time to get to know and connect with the characters.