Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023)

December 15, 2023 (US) • Science Fiction, Action, Adventure • 134m

Overview

When the ruthless forces of the Motherworld threaten a quiet farming village on a distant moon, a mysterious outsider becomes its best hope for survival.

Director

Zack Snyder, Shay Hatten, Kurt Johnstad, Zack Snyder

Top Billed

Sofia Boutella

Keywords

rebellion space war space female protagonist militarism space opera family values authoritarianism space adventure action hero female warrior political crisis rebel gangs alien spaceship space vessel awestruck

Where to watch

Free / Included

Netflix

Netflix Standard with Ads

Top Billed Cast

Crew

Collection

Rebel Moon Collection

Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire

Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver

Reviews

The Movie Mob

⭐ 6/10

December 23, 2023

**Rebel Moon is a flawed space epic that can’t compete with Star Wars or Dune but offers some fun for genre fans that don’t take it too seriously.**

Rebel Moon adds the small, growing resistance struggling against a galactic tyrannical empire of Star Wars to the small village searching for a band of noble warriors to save them of Seven Samurai (or the Magnificent Seven or The Three Amigos), but falls short of capturing the greatness of its ins… read the rest.

BornKnight

⭐ 6/10

December 23, 2023

Another Zack Snyder movie another wave of haters, so nothing new here.

I found it pretty well done, the CGI is magnificent on some points; the choice for protagonist as Sofia Boutella (Atomic Blonde) was the best? No. But it isn't so bad. For a movie that is to be his version of SW it isn't bad... reminds me a bit a medieval / western space opera with a Warhammer 40.000 touch.

About being a SW or Seven Samurai "copy"..... really? So what? … read the rest.

Chandler Danier

⭐ 7/10

December 24, 2023

A good attempt to see how close one can get to Star Wars without getting sued. Better than Star Wars movies of late. Great Dark Souls spider boss fight. Everything kind of blends together after spider boss. A nice way to spend an hour before getting up, wandering around, passively experiencing explosions and plot details.

CinemaSerf

⭐ 6/10

December 25, 2023

Anyone remember "Battle Beyond the Stars" (1980)? Well this is a sort of hybrid of that and the "Magnificent Seven" that is quite impressive to look at, but that's about the height of it. A political assassinations has destabilised the kingdom and so "General Noble" (Ed Skrein) is off in his Dreadnought to terrorise the inter-planetary population. He arrives on a peaceful agrarian planet, kills the town father and declares that he'll be back in t… read the rest.

thorian93

⭐ 5/10

December 28, 2023

Today I enjoyed: Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire.

And let me say it up front: The only good thing about this movie - was the bad guy.

Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire was originally thought to be a Star Wars story. However, Disney did not like what Zack Snyder had to offer, as he wanted to build a new story with new characters and more gore than the original Star Wars movies. And after seeing the movie, I get a sense of why Disney took a rain check on it.

The film opens with a shot of a young female farmer, working hard on a field in a what seems to be medieval, maybe viking village, only contrasted by the huge red orangish planet in the background. But here the problems already start. Nothing looks real. You instantly get this uncanny valley kind of feeling, that something is off. This opening scene already reveals that almost everything was shot in a studio in front of a huge LED screen - called a stage craft - and you recognize this throughout the entire movie.

And as if that was already bad, there are constant J. J. Abrams style lens flares, the CGI at times feels lazy at best, I honestly started to question if I was seeing a live action movie, or some animation flick. To be fair, I watched it at home on my TV, as Netflix - who eventually took on Snyders project - decided to put this film directly on the stream, skipping the cinema screenings.

The saddest part in my humble opinion though is, that there are actually competent actors involved, like Djimon Hounsou, Charlie Hunnam and Bae Doona, but the movie does not facilitate their skills at all. Hell, even Sofia Boutella can literally kick ass, if you give her some good action scenes. But while the former actors get way to little time to bring their characters to life properly, the main character played by Sofia Boutella mostly stands in the background of her own movie changing from frowning to slightly smiling, depending on the occasion.

And do not get me started on the fight scenes. The very first fight scene, which has an intense setup and a lot of potential felt really odd. From the style, I was expecting some blood at least, but the movie stays on a weird line between rough close combat, that would justify bloodshed on the one hand and classical PG13 rated laser gun fights on the other. It looks like the more gory parts were cut, which makes sense, if you consider that the word is, there will be a second version coming. A Snyder Cut, if you will, that is considerably longer than this version and way more brutal. But time will tell, if that is true and if it will be the better movie. But I doubt, that even that longer version will provide enough background story for the characters and the full universe the film takes place in.

The only silver lining - as already mentioned in the beginning - is Ed Skrein as the antagonist. He delivers a chilling science fiction version of a Nazi general, reminiscing Hans Landa from Inglourious Basterds. He acts gentle and civilized at first, only to switch to brutal maniac in an instant, showing his real face.

Overall this motion picture was a big disappointment. I am a big fan of science fiction and I can forgive quite some mistakes. But this was too much after all and even with all the good will I could find in me, the flaws are just too obvious.

Maybe part two will make this movie whole, maybe it should have been a single film in the first place. But my recommendation, if you are not a die hard science fiction fan, is to save these two hours of your life for something else.

*Originally posted on my blog: https://robingierse.de/blog/tie-rebel-moon-part-1.

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pimpskitters

⭐ 5/10

January 5, 2024

I'm hearing a lot of grumbling how this movie is a rip-off star wars and various other half baked ideas of cinema. Some others say a bit of guardians of the galaxy is peppered in, as well as other CGI nightmares floating around. An analogy may be useful here. When I take a shit in the morning, and look down between my legs, and see a turd, very much like the turd I saw the morning before, and many other days, I'm not upset. I say, good, nice and … read the rest.

r96sk

⭐ 8/10

May 4, 2024

<em>'Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire'</em> is an enjoyable ride!

I will say that I wasn't ever totally engrossed into the story, though at every moment I was still very interested in what I was watching unfold - and for a movie that has a run time of around 134 minutes, that's a big plus. I particularly liked the world building, as well as the special effects.

Sofia Boutella is a great choice to lead the ensemble, her performance is … read the rest.

Dean

⭐ 9/10

June 24, 2024

What a great movie. I never like Star Wars or Galaxy wars or whatever movies and found them boring, but this one is really good. Interesting story, great actors, no propaganda. Giving it solid 9/10.

tmdb51616167

⭐ 3/10

September 1, 2024

The film or series being referenced appears to have left the viewer feeling unengaged and disinterested due to its excessive length and drawn-out sequences. The storyline and writing are criticized for being boring and failing to hold the viewer's attention, resulting in a lackluster viewing experience.

The excessive extravagance and tediousness of certain parts of the film or series are highlighted as major drawbacks, making it difficult for … read the rest.

vylmen

⭐ 3/10

December 12, 2024

Potential Destroyed By Slow Motion

Yes, I know, it's Zack Snyder. If a movie is 90 minutes, he'll add 1 hour of slow motion to it, frequently at moments that don't need it. He should take lessons from Xanxia and Wuxia directors on when slow motion actually adds something.

The universe built, character development and the potential of the story are just waste on this OCD pressing of the slow motion button. Such a shame.