Title - Rebel Moon: Part One - Child Of Fire
Production - Netflix, Grand Electric, The Stone Quarry
Starring - Sofia Boutella, Michiel Huisman, Charlie Hunnam, Ed Skrein, Anthony Hopkins, Corey Stoll, Bae Doona, Djimon Honsou, Staz Nair, Ray Fisher, Cleopatra Coleman, Fra Fee, Ingvar Sigurdsson, Stuart Martin, Cary Elwes, E. Duffy, Alfonso Herrera, Charlotte Maggi, Jena Malone
Writer - Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad, Shay Hatten, Sky Yang
Director - Zack Snyder
Release - 22 December 2023
Why was Djimon Honsou even in this movie? He barely had any lines, and his character recruitment was the worst. I mean, is he happy as an actor? Did he get paid a lot? He was complaining about other projects he's been on, this looked way worse! What's going on?
There was only one bright spot in this entire travesty of a movie. That was the Ed Skrein scene when he first arrived at whatever that place was called, and the build-up to killing Corey Stoll's character (c'mon, early on in that feasting scene you could already tell he'll be the first to go); that whole sequence was brilliant because of how Skrein played it, and because of how Zac Snyder directed and co-wrote it. That sequence was so good, a reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds, it had no business being in this movie.
Sofia Boutella, I'm very sorry to say, cannot lead a movie. Whether it was the acting or the direction given to her, she only had 2 facial expressions throughout - the scowl and the anguish. Matthew Vaughn knew this and used her so effectively in Kingsman: The Secret Service and also in Argylle - from the looks of the trailers. She's effective as a support role, not a lead.
Charlie Hunnam did all the acting here. Unfortunately, the script wasn't written properly at all. We did not get to understand his character. He just popped up, decided to join (well, we knew later on why; but Boutella and Michiel Huisman's characters never once questioned his intentions?), and then became the group's official spokesperson. What? Out of the goodness of his heart?
And the other recruiting were also written in half-assed. Hunnam's character just threw in a few lines, then the recruitees showed off what they could do (except, of course, Honsou) and after that, no confirmation of role or purpose, they just joined up.
Ray Fisher and Cleopatra Coleman's characters were so out of left field, why did one join up and the other didn't? They were supposed to be family. It's so disjointed in the reasoning.
It was at least a good introduction of Bae Doona into Hollywood. Her work in the zombie series "Kingdom" was great. But during her random battle with the spider-lady (motion-captured by Jena Malone), she - like a true anima character - waited till the last minute before unleashing her best weapon - a cross between a Jedi lightsaber and a flaming sword. And wasn't it strange that only Huisman decided to help in that fight while everyone else just watched?
And finally, my dissatisfaction with Snyder's style of direction, his all-style-no-substance decision these days that only could go on Netflix. He really needs a studio to rein him in, with all his random slow-motion sequences that added absolutely nothing to the beauty of his shots. His Watchmen was one of a kind, that tone of a comic book lended perfectly to a lot of the slow-motion. Even 300 was something special. But there was nothing new about this movie's tone that the slow-mo just added onto the minutes of the runtime and became such a bore.
A studio would force him to cut this movie down by 30 minutes and still, we would have the same shit in the end. And now he's talking about another ridiculous "Snyder cut"? Give me a fucking break. What, you managed to get Anthony Hopkins to do some voice work? Bra-fucking-vo. Where was his character in the entire second half? Snyder couldn't find a way to write him in at least? And had to tease us at the end to show us, see, sequeeeelll.
I had hopes for this movie, I really did. I'm all for another Star Wars type of movie. But this slow-motion business was such a waste of time. And it makes Gareth Edwards' The Creator looks like the actual A New Hope.
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