Reviewed by Tim Robins
CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD
When a peaceful settlement on a moon in the furthest reaches of the universe finds itself threatened by the armies of the tyrannical Regent Balisarius, a mysterious stranger named Kora becomes their best hope for survival…
I thought twice about reviewing Zack Snyder’s latest offering, Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire because there are enough negative reviews out there, and I have overlooked Star Wars stories such as Andor and Ahsoka, which were fine, but the Star Wars galaxy has never had a place in my heart. So there’s one good thing about Snyder’s efforts to start a rival universe – he has made me re-evaluate Star Wars, 1977, (aka Episode IV aka A New Hope aka whatever) in a new, more positive light.
Good Lord, A Child of Fire is dull. It took me four viewings to get through to the end, by which time I felt I’d spent days with the least interesting travelling companions in this or any other universe. These included Kora (Sofia Boutella), the sub-titular ‘Child of Fire’, a self-identified rebel who freed herself of the ideology and violence of the ‘Motherworld’, an evil, multi-world regime – an ‘Empire’ if you will – forged by the Imperium, space-Nazis lead by Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein). Noble geddit. He’s called ‘Noble’ but he is actually space scum (Ah, ironic names, don’t you just love ‘em?).
Noble has nothing better to do than to do a hard search of every tiny village on every planet, looking for rebels! Unfortunately, Motherworld tech must be so bad that a pattern recognition camera isn’t among his arsenal – with the emphasis on arse. Finding nothing but grain farmers he goes away and threatens to return in four weeks, by which time Kora and a fellow villager, Gunner, depart to gather together a fighting force to stop the village being wiped out. Yes it’s Seven Samurai, and yes, this reworking scenario has been well worn out. Think The Magnificent Seven (1960), Blake’s 7 (1978), Roger Corman’s Battle Beyond the Stars (1980), The Mandalorian, season Two (2020) and Witcher: Blood Origin (2022) – and that’s just for starters.
The fact that Snyder’s film is derivative isn’t the problem. Lots of films derive from many sources. But where Lucas derived ‘Star Wars’ from a great many sources and made them into something new, the Blood Moon universe is just the same old, same old. It’s as if Synder knows what he likes, but doesn’t know what makes the things he likes actually work. A good example of this is his adaptation of Watchmen (2009). That film opens with a fight in which, as in the comic, The Comedian is beaten up and killed. But Snyder overlooks the premise of The Watchmen, which is that its ‘Superheroes’ have, for the most part, no actual superpowers, so we are treated to highly aestheticized and utterly implausible ultra violence. Then there’s Dr Manhattan. Isn’t the point of his character in Watchmen that the future is determined, even if he can’t always see what happens at certain moments? Well, forget that.
In The Child of Fire none of the characters are interesting, particularly Kora. Ok, I get she’s a tough boss girl in the post-Alien manner. But nothing made me care about her, especially not her Warhammer 40K flash backs. Backstories are rarely interesting. “I am your Father” worked at the end of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back for a number of reasons – we’d been led to believe Luke’s father was dead and now here he is, not only alive but one of the rebels’s greatest foes, and a personal enemy of Luke. Heck, Luke would rather die than be like his parents. What that ending didn’t have was flashbacks to Vader as a younger man, conceiving Luke, abandoning his Mother, etc etc. Back stories must be relevant in the present in which the drama unfolds (Russell T Davies, take note).
I won’t detain you too long with the one-dimensional characters that populate the Rebel Mooniverse. Joining Kara is Michiel Huisman as Gunnar, who is, according to Wikipedia, “a farmer and secretly in love with Kora who joins her in her attempts to defend his homeworld”Think about that. A mature man, a rebel, who is “secretly in love”. Believe me, these characters may look like adults but they are teenagers to the core.
Here’s one more – Ray Fisher plays Darrian Bloodaxe, “a warrior and Devra’s brother recruited by Kora ”. That’s right, a character whose main character trait is to be related to another character. Whose Devra? Glad you asked. She’s Darrian’s sister, silly. There are others, but you can Google search them. ‘Bloodaxe’. Sigh. When I was pitching a team to a Warhammer comic I included a similarly named character – ‘Battleaxe’. That was 30 years ago and at least the name was a (albeit sexist) riff on the fact the hulking warrior was a woman!
And the world building in Blood Moon sucks. I don’t believe in the village Kora lives in – it resembles a folk museum in which various examples of peasant life have been strategically placed without looking lived in. The different localities are almost indistinguishable from each other, and, yes, it looks like Serenity. Don’t just give us zhuzhed-up T-Shirts and Trench Coats – and sometimes Snyder doesn’t even bother with the zhuzhing.
Sometimes, A Child of Fire is unintentionally funny. Kora rings a big bell to warn residents that there’s a gigantic battle ship in the clouds above their village. What? They’re likely to have missed that. But it was one of Snyder’s attempts at metaphor that totally cracked me up. A harvest festival is accompanied by an on-the-nose exhortation by the leader that the villagers should spend the night shagging and procreating. The next day, in slow motion no less, we see Kora planting seeds. The problem comes when her companion sees the big ship in the sky. All her seeds are instantly spilled on the ground. Was this supposed to indicate the end of the villagers’ future? Probably. But it looked to me as if they symbolised the girl defecating on the spot – to be indelicate, shitting herself with seeds.
In interviews, Snyder has outlined plans to make Rebel Moon a massive IP. Only in today’s post Star Wars, post MCU universe would that be regarded as a worthy ambition. Part Two, The Scargiver will be dropped in April. Meanwhile there’s a comic and a “ridiculous scale” RPG game in the world. ‘Ridiculous’ is right. Who in their right minds would want to be any of the dullards in the film? (although, bagsy the large tick creature that talks through other people via two tentacles sprouting from its body).
Blood Moon: A Child of Fire has topped Netflix’s chart for a bit so it has been popular with audiences, if not critics. But it really isn’t possible to predict a film’s success. Marketing may be a necessity but it is not in itself sufficient. There was a time when George Lucas didn’t see himself making another two chapters of Star Wars, let alone an empire of toys. And neither did toy shops. So I wish Synder well. I am sure that he has many good qualities as a director, but apart from a terrible earnestness, I’ll have to leave it to others to tell me what they are.
Tim Robins
• Rebel Moon, Part One: A Child of Fire is available on Netflix now
• Rebel Moon, Part Two, The Scaregiver, lands in April
• Rebel Moon: Moon House of the Bloodaxe #1 is available from 10th January 2024 in comic shops, published by Titan Comics | Story: Zack Snyder | Writer: Mags Visaggio | Artist: Clark Bint
In this prequel to Rebel Moon, as war is looming on the horizon on the planet Shasu, the reluctant ruler of the Bloodaxe family is conflicted between living up to his father’s domineering legacy and maintaining the peace. It is up to him to settle the conflicts within himself, and his family, before the entire planet erupts in war.
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• Rebel Moon Part One – A Child Of Fire: The Official Novelization: The Official Movie Novelization by V. Castro
Paperback | Available Now | ISBN: 978-1803367316
Two-time Bram Stoker Award-nominated author V. Castro is also author of Aliens: Vasquez, The Haunting of Alejandra, The Queen of The Cicadas, Goddess of Filth, Hairspray and Switchblades, and Out of Atzlan.
A Mexican American ex-pat living in the UK for the past 16 years, as a full-time mother, she dedicates her time to her family and writing. She also has site full of Latinx and merch based on her books – lamuertemarket.com. Web: vcastrostories.com
• Rebel Moon: Wolf: Ex Nihilo: Cosmology & Technology: Creating a Galaxy: Worlds and Technology by Peter Aperlo
Hardcover | Out: 12th March 2024 ISBN: 978-1803365220
The first of two official companion books for the Zack Snyder-directed Netflix films Rebel Moon taking an exclusive in-depth look at the worlds and technology, ships and armament.
Rebel Moon: Wolf: Ex Nihilo: Cosmology & Technology goes behind the scenes of these much-anticipated films to explore the planets, ships and technology of the galaxy. Bursting with exclusive on-set photography, concept art, storyboards by Zack Snyder, and more, accompanied by cast and crew interviews, the book takes an in-depth look at the making of the films.
Peter Aperlo is the author of many books on film and TV, such as Watchmen: The Art of the Film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: The Art of the Film, and The Art and Making of The Boys. He also penned the stories and screenplays for the console video games Watchmen: The End is Nigh and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole. And if you look hard enough, you can find his name on a number of products for a variety of tabletop RPG systems.
His extensive background in Viking culture and history served him well when writing The Unofficial Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard Companion and Introduction to Norse Mythology for Kids, both published by Ulysses Press. He also collaborated on the upcoming Netflix animated series Twilight of the Gods, where he was both a writer and a consultant.
His horror/thriller feature film (co-written with and directed by Clay Staub, produced by Scott Mednick), Devil’s Gate, premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival.
A freelance journalist and Doctor Who fanzine editor since 1978, Tim Robins has written on comics, films, books and TV programmes for a wide range of publications including Starburst, Interzone, Primetime and TV Guide.
His brief flirtation with comics includes ghost inking a 2000AD strip and co-writing a Doctor Who strip with Mike Collins. Since 1990 he worked at the University of Glamorgan where he was a Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Media Studies and the social sciences. Academically, he has published on the animation industry in Wales and approaches to social memory. He claims to be a card carrying member of the Politically Correct, a secret cadre bent on ruling the entire world and all human thought.
Categories: Features, Film, Other Worlds, Reviews, Television
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