‘Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire’ Review- A Mish-Mash Of Movies We Have Already Seen

This film streamed in 2023.

Zack Snyder directs the sci-fi flick Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire. After getting rejected by multiple studios, it finally made its way to Netflix.

Kora (Sofia Boutella) is a former Motherworld officer who is living a quiet life in a farming community on an alien planet. They are visited by Admiral Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein), who demands a portion of their harvest and murders the village elders to intimidate them, and leaves, vowing to return. At first, Kora wants to run, but instead slays the guards left behind and is saved by the robot Jimmy (Anthony Hopkins).

Kora and farmer Gunnar (Michiel Huisman) join forces with smuggler Kai (Charlie Hunnam) to find General Titus (Djimon Hounsou) and recruit him to help fight Admiral Noble. Along the way, they recruit blacksmith Tarak (Staz Nair), sword expert Nemesis (Doona Bae), and rebel Darrian Bloodaxe (Ray Fisher) to fight. However, Admiral Noble is hot on their trail.

This movie is basically a combination of every “person leaves home to find warriors to save them.” The plot takes the title from a 90s video game. It takes the premise of The Magnificent Seven. It takes the setting of Star Wars. It takes character designs from The Lord Of The Rings. It takes creatures from Harry Potter. It has a whole lot of taking, but not a single original detail. With all of the hype, you were expecting some sort of space opera. Not so, and I am not surprised.

I genuinely feel bad for the actors. They all did a good job, but their lines were poorly written and had virtually no character development outside of the main protagonist. This is one of my biggest complaints about Snyder. The dude knows nothing about how to build on characters and expects the audience just to know about them through long, boring monologues and exposition. Honestly, the robot, which was on screen for maybe five minutes, was the most interesting character.

Of course, it would not be a woke Hollywood movie without a woman who looks like she weighs ninety pounds beating men three times her size with ease. This made it boring because you knew that Kora would just do the thing to accomplish that other thing. Yes, she has military training, but so do the majority of her opponents. Except for the scene where a weird spider creature fights Nemesis. Kora just yawns and gawks as the action happens. That is the only time when lives are literally in danger and she decides not to use plot armor to get crap done.

Not to repeat myself, but the lack of originality was the movie’s main issue. Because of this, all of the “twists” you could see from a mile and therefore boring. There were also a lot of plot threads that were left open, so I hope the sequel fills them in.

Essentially, Snyder has found his home. He can join the ranks of Cuties and Tall Girl in the cinema landscape.

Bottom line, Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire is typical fare from Zack Snyder. It is a lot of hype with no payoff. It is just bland, flat characters traipsing around other film’s more interesting plots.

PARENTAL CONCERNS: Some strong language, Brief nudity, Strong violence

FAVORITE QUOTE: Look who decided to show up.

Check out the trailer below:

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below. Tell me if there is a comic book, movie, or anime you would like me to review.