Rebel Moon is a Netflix/Zack Snyder joint that had people sharpening their knives in anticipation of evisceration. I was looking forward to it though since I love big sci-fi epics and there’s part of me that roots for Zack Snyder’s swings even if he sometimes whiffs. I was cautiously optimistic.

This flick is set in one of them there evil galactic empires with a pesky rebellion problem. Our heroes begin as simple farmers who are faced with a Star De… I mean a dreadnaught from The Mother World and they have to send people out to find warriors to protect them.

Yes indeed… that’s the basic premise of The Seven Samurai… and The Magnificent Seven… and Battle Beyond the Stars… and The Three Amigos… and A Bug’s Life… and The Magnificent Seven (again). Yes, the “villagers threatened by bandits find help” is a derivative plot that has been done before so I can’t hate this flick because some of those previous attempts were decent.

I can, however, grumble about the missed opportunities. The flick started life as a Star Wars movie but was retooled into this. Dude has all the money and room in the world to do whatever he wants in a totally new IP and he just makes Battle Beyond the Stars again. That’s a wasted opportunity. He can do any damn thing he wants and this is what he settled on?

As a Zack Snyder film, we get a lot of his style and visual eye. The effects are (usually) very good, the costuming is fine, the production values are pretty great. We get plenty of action with only some of his trademark slow motion. The majority of the non-action scenes aren’t distractingly over-stylized… it’s largely shot pretty even keeled.

This big dramatic space opera is not interested in your MCU and DCEU taking the piss out of epic storytelling. Maybe to its detriment. I don’t think it cracks wise even once. Maybe that’s a mistake given its mass of space operatic noise, but I respect it when so many movies are embarrassed by their heroic ideals.

Unfortunately, the majority of the movie is so focused on those epic visuals and space operatics that it forgets the characters. Most of them are just a bundle of stereotypes. You know the bad guys are evil because they dress like the SS… the good guys are a bunch of scrappy do-gooders and space cowboys. There’s a heroic shot at the end with all the heroes standing side-by-side and I had no idea any of their names.

I should sneer at the simplicity but I don’t… because I had a good time. I didn’t think it overly stupid even as it takes short cuts with characters and delivers massive awkward exposition dumps. But it was well made, the action was solid, and the black and white heroes and villains were easy to cheer for or boo at. It’s not the height of any kind of storytelling, but it’s watchable fun, especially if you crave big sci-fi blow-outs. I look forward to part 2.

Score: 77