Rebel Moon is not well received by the international press. (Image: Netflix)
$166 million, two films, an animated TV series, a video game, a comic and a radio drama podcast. With Zach Snyder’s Rebel Moon, a major new sci-fi franchise is set to emerge, which is obviously none other than Declare war on Star Wars itself will.
But the first Netflix film – which starts in Europey on December 22nd – turns out to be a big hit for our film expert Vali, as you can read in his spoiler-free review. And he is not alone with this opinion: On Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, the first part of the Dilogy Child of Fire is being torn apart by critics from all over the world
This disappoints the critics
At Rotten Tomatoes The sci-fi flick is currently at 23 percent (from 43 reviews). Metacritic With 18 reviews, the film still manages to score 32 points. But why is Zach Snyder’s Star Wars competitor so poorly received by the press?
Especially those meaningless story with theirs irrelevant heroes and villains, which do not go through character development, are heavily criticized. So write David Ehrlich from indieWire for example:
A film that feels like a million standalone storyboards with absolutely nothing connecting them.
Instead of showing the long version of the film, Netflix decided to separate the sci-fi epic into two parts. Our in-house film expert Valentin Aschenbrenner assesses: »That in Child of Fire an hour of material is missinghas rarely been so obvious in a film.«
For Robbie Collin von Daily Telegraph (UK) Furthermore, it is not only disappointing but extremely astonishing that “after supposedly 20 years in development, the film still seems completely pointless.”
Kyle Wilson von Polygon finds even harsher words for the Netflix production:
Everyone except the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut fanboys would be better off hurling this pathetic film into the far corners of the galaxy.
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Rebel Moon: Zack Snyder’s big sci-fi hope for Netflix reveals more about the story in the trailer
Moments worth seeing
Between all the criticism there is also a bit of praise here and there. In its best moments, Rebel Moon gives one exciting insight into a new sci-fi universewhich reminds our critic Vali of a mix of Star Wars and Warhammer 40k.
Also the Preludein which we get to know the heroine Kora, takes enough time for the world and characters and initially seems promising – a promise that the film is increasingly unable to keep.
Also the choreographed hand-to-hand combat are impressive and benefit from carefully used slow motion effects. Shootings later in the film, on the other hand, degenerate into chaotic chaos and lose sight of detail.
For every bit of praise that critics find about Rebel Moon, there is a negative observation that carries more weight. William Bibbiani von The Wrap sums it up like this:
A very expensive but uninspired Star Wars rip-off with some exciting action scenes, but also some really ugly moments that mar the whole film.
By the way, the user reviews on both platforms are sometimes significantly better than the assessment of professional critics. Rebel Moon gets a rating of 5.7 from viewers on Metacritic and a full 72 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
However, it is also important to note that not everyone who cast a vote was able to see the film. A clearer picture will be available when Child of Fire is released on Netflix in a few days at the latest.
What do you think about Rebel Moon: Child of Fire? Would you like to watch the sci-fi epic on Netflix? Are you big fans of Zach Snyder? Or did the film lose you after all the negative reviews? In your opinion, does Star Wars even need competition? Feel free to write us your thoughts in the comments!
