By Gary

A strong opening, Netflix’s Rebel Moon: A Child of Fire could launch a new franchise to rival Star Wars but will depend on part two.

When a peaceful settlement on the edge of a distant moon finds itself threatened by the armies of a tyrannical ruling force, Kora (Sofia Boutella), a mysterious stranger living among the villagers, becomes their best hope for survival.

Tasked with finding trained fighters who will unite with her in making an impossible stand against the Mother World, Kora assembles a small band of warriors – outsiders, insurgents, peasants and orphans of war from different worlds who share a common need for redemption and revenge.

As the shadow of an entire Realm bears down on the unlikeliest of moons, a battle over the fate of a galaxy is waged, and in the process, a new army of heroes is formed.

Zack Snyder first conceived this as a Star Wars movie andpitched it to Lucasfilm shortly after it was bought by Disney in 2012.

The visuals in this movie are just awesome, but it’s lacking substance. It’s hard to judge this movie on its own because it’s basically a heroine zipping around the galaxy putting together a team to fight the bad guys.

We get to know each recruit a little bit as they are approached.

So, this movie is watchable for the special effects, but not much else. It’s basically an introduction of all the characters and a basic background of the woman’s story. It doesn’t offer much by itself.

Clearly inspired by the Star Wars franchise, Seven Samurai and so much more. All these ideas and borrowed visuals create a new world that’s genuinely interesting and consistently striking.

The second act just has the core cast planet hopping between set pieces which are just so committed to looking cool in a way only Snyder could pull off with this level of seriousness.

Sofia Boutella gives the best performance. Being the lead character means she gets the most depth which helps, and she nails the general stoicism of her character.

Even with the dodgy accent Charlie Hunnam is still able to be a loveable scoundrel and Anthony Hopkins voice work gives the film its most human performance.

Everyone else is wasted. It’s especially shocking to see how late into the film Djimon Hounsou is introduced and how little he gets after that; he really is just kinda there.

Staz Nair, Bae Doona and Ray Fisher all do quite a lot with a little whilst facing the same issue and are hopefully given a lot more in the extended cut and sequel.

They should have made this a 3.5 or 4-hour movie and included part 2.

Anyway, it’s still watchable but by itself, it’s not very memorable. Part 2 will determine if this movie is good or not.

My Rating: 7/10