Netflix's Rebel Moon **SPOILERS**

[80sbaby]

Saw this and here are my thoughts. (Buckle up because, in honor of Snyder, this is going to be long for no reason lol)

Ok so Zack Snyder is the new George Lucas. It's funny I never thought of that before watching this but, considering this was originally a pitch for a new Star Wars film, it makes sense. Like Lucas, Zack is a visionary. He has a lot of grandiose ideas and can make spectacular looking set pieces. The problem is, like Lucas, he needs someone to reign him in and polish up his shoddy writing. Without that supervision, you get things like the PT and Rebel Moon.

You want to make a Seven Samurai/Magnificent 7 in a galaxy "far, far away," I get that. But then you also want to expand and add in all sorts of lore that makes it feel overstuffed and disjointed. The characters are all shallow and I have no clue who they are beyond their basic archetypes: Mysterious Stranger (with personal connection to the villains), Joe Average, Not Han Solo, Cool Ninja Chick, Noble Sava-er um, I mean Indigenous Person, the Twins (with only a single personality between them) and the Disgraced Warrior seeking his Honor. And I mean that literally, I have no clue what their names are because they barely interact with each other and there's hardly any explanation for why most of them even want to join this lost cause mission?

Visually it's a ridiculously beautiful film and several shots are just brilliant. I absolutely love the designs of several alien species, too. The action is also good but, of course, there's Snyder's trademark overuse of slo-mo. It's to the point of parody now and not dissimilar to John Woo's over reliance on doves. Where it used to look cool, it now just makes the scenes derivative and boring. If you want to show how badass a fighter someone is, try having them actually move with swiftness and skill (he actually does this in one short scene and it's great, but then predictably, uses slow motion at the very end smh.)

All in all, this is pretty much what you'd expect from Zack Snyder, for good or bad. In this case I'd say "bad" but it has potential. Unfortunately that will likely never be met since there's nobody on Snyder's team to stop his indulgences like Lucas had in the OT. So we're just in for more "not Star Wars" that's closer to AotC when we could be getting ESB instead smh. Such a waste.

[James Cameron]

That's about what I expected, and I'm not sure I'm interested in seeing this. I thought Snyder's DC work was masterful and would have been even better (less awkward) if he were given more creative freedom, but that's not saying he is better with FULL creative freedom.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Star Wars itself is pretty generic (the evil empire is called...The Empire).

Scrubbing off the serial numbers would logically make the problem worse

[Emperorjones]

I too feel that Snyder has similarities to Lucas, in that both have very good visual imaginations but are not the best storytellers. But that being said, I think Lucas is better at storytelling than Snyder. While Rebel Moon has been acknowledged as starting as a Star Wars pitch, and I definitely saw the influence in the film, it's not on the same level of the Star Wars original trilogy, or even the prequels. It gave me more of slightly harder edged Disney Star Wars. The grit, grime, and morally ambiguities that Snyder was going for-perhaps-were better done in Rogue One, Andor (only saw the first half of that), Obi-Wan, as well as much of Disney Plus's Star Wars content. And when it comes to the flash, despite my gripes with the sequels, each of those movies had more spectacle than Rebel Moon: Part One.

I'm a sucker for new (or "new") space operas, and I did like Rebel Moon enough to want to see the director's cut, as well as the second part. The cast was likable enough, though the characters weren't well developed. Admiral Noble was a standout for me, and he came across like a more competent General Hux. I also thought Rebel Moon's aesthetics did stand out enough from other franchises, though they reminded me of Star Wars, Firefly/Serenity, and a bit of Farscape as well. I liked a lot of the costuming (except the Imperium battle suits), but I would've liked to have seen crazier alien designs.

What really didn't work for me was how much the story hinged on coincidences and happenstance. I also don't think the film did enough to establish why these people will be the ones that can save the day. When I learned that Netflix had wanted Snyder to make a PG-13 film first in order for him to do the R-rated version he really wanted to do, I thought that it was a missed opportunity to use the PG-13 film and do a prequel to Rebel Moon. I've read/heard they've put a lot of thought into the worldbuilding, and doing a prequel could've been a way to better explore some of that and set up the first movie. Snyder is definitely thinking of franchise potential with Rebel Moon. There's a novelization and a comic book prequel series coming. He could've used the PG-13 film obligation perhaps to just do make the comic book story a prequel film so that audiences would already know something about the galaxy of Rebel Moon before Part One, and that way Snyder could just go harder with the action.

As it stands, I thought Rebel Moon: Part One was an okay popcorn film. But there's no way it dethrones Star Wars like I saw some people claiming (or hoping) it would. Lucas established a much better visual language. I've seen there are some Rebel Moon action figures (and the ones they picked first were the strongest ones to make into toys), but overall, I don't think the rebels' costuming really made them distinct enough. I do think the Bloodaxes, Nemesis, and the robot Jimmy did have some nice looks, and Noble as well.

[Username taken]

My wife made me watch this with her (especially since today wasn't a full work day for us).

The movie was fine. It was aggressively ok and nothing more. My major problem with it was the total lack of originality, the movie simply pulled from multiple properties, some of them better than the movie.

The one thing that I marveled at was Djimon Honsou. The man has refused to age and at almost 60 he's still a unit.

[Username taken]

I heard there's an R-rated cut of the film.

Are we now getting movies with DLC? The movie played on Netflix, they aren't shy about graphic sex or extreme violence, why not just show the R-rated version? It all looks very cynical.

[BeastieRunner]

It was alright.

Space Opera is getting crowded now and honestly I'd rather see more Dune and Creator than this.

Not sure I'll check the sequel unless I hear great things from people I trust.

Honestly, I'm not one to say this much, but it needed to be R to not feel so ... generic.

I loved the robot

[choptop]

This was better then last few starwars movies and dune.

[Gray Lensman]

Saw this and here are my thoughts. (Buckle up because, in honor of Snyder, this is going to be long for no reason lol)

Ok so Zack Snyder is the new George Lucas. It's funny I never thought of that before watching this but, considering this was originally a pitch for a new Star Wars film, it makes sense. Like Lucas, Zack is a visionary. He has a lot of grandiose ideas and can make spectacular looking set pieces. The problem is, like Lucas, he needs someone to reign him in and polish up his shoddy writing. Without that supervision, you get things like the PT and Rebel Moon.

You want to make a Seven Samurai/Magnificent 7 in a galaxy "far, far away," I get that. But then you also want to expand and add in all sorts of lore that makes it feel overstuffed and disjointed. The characters are all shallow and I have no clue who they are beyond their basic archetypes: Mysterious Stranger (with personal connection to the villains), Joe Average, Not Han Solo, Cool Ninja Chick, Noble Sava-er um, I mean Indigenous Person, the Twins (with only a single personality between them) and the Disgraced Warrior seeking his Honor. And I mean that literally, I have no clue what their names are because they barely interact with each other and there's hardly any explanation for why most of them even want to join this lost cause mission?

Visually it's a ridiculously beautiful film and several shots are just brilliant. I absolutely love the designs of several alien species, too. The action is also good but, of course, there's Snyder's trademark overuse of slo-mo. It's to the point of parody now and not dissimilar to John Woo's over reliance on doves. Where it used to look cool, it now just makes the scenes derivative and boring. If you want to show how badass a fighter someone is, try having them actually move with swiftness and skill (he actually does this in one short scene and it's great, but then predictably, uses slow motion at the very end smh.)

All in all, this is pretty much what you'd expect from Zack Snyder, for good or bad. In this case I'd say "bad" but it has potential. Unfortunately that will likely never be met since there's nobody on Snyder's team to stop his indulgences like Lucas had in the OT. So we're just in for more "not Star Wars" that's closer to AotC when we could be getting ESB instead smh. Such a waste.

Seven Samurai in space? I think I already saw this movie, it was called Battle Beyond the Stars. Roger Corman's biggest budget, and probably his best film, enhanced by 2 unknowns working on special effects and writing the score. Those 2 were 2 guys names James - Cameron and Horner.

[CliffHanger2]

This was better then last few starwars movies and dune.

I really did get a kick out of the emperor in TROS. But in general, I agree.

[The Cool Thatguy]

This was better then last few starwars movies and dune.

These are not words I'd ever expected to write, but Dune and the latest Star Wars were better than this movie.

[Username taken]

These are not words I'd ever expected to write, but Dune and the latest Star Wars were better than this movie.

Yep.

The last Star Wars films and Dune were better than Rebel Moon.

[choptop]

Disagree completely starwars was meh and Dune was just boring RM isn't the best thing ever but at least it was entertaining.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Rebel Moon ticked off every villain cliche in the book, one after the other.

That can work in Star Wars because we're used to it, not so much in other stories. Ajax bored the hell out of me.

[choptop]

Rebel Moon ticked off every villain cliche in the book, one after the other.

That can work in Star Wars because we're used to it, not so much in other stories. Ajax bored the hell out of me.

I agree but it was more focused on the hero's Kai and the guy in the bar were the best villans.