Rebel Moon Pt. 1: A Child of Fire (Zack Snyder - Netflix, 2023)

[shevek]

Just saw the new trailer for this.
Strong fighting-skilled woman leads rebellion against oppressive empire. OK.
I'm not 100% sure of the veracity of this, but a friend told me that this was a Star Wars series that Snyder wanted to make, but Disney wasn't interested so he's just making it himself?

Sofia Boutella has been percolating for quite a long time in the sci-fi/fantasy movie ranks.
She was hot as Jaylah in Star Trek Beyond and even hotter as the titular Mummy.

Wonder if this could finally make her a star at the age of 41.
They're putting a lot of faith and muscle behind Zack Snyder to make this one work. An event in two parts, with the first part dropping Dec 22.

Update: Also, apparently Snyder is trying to 'stick it' to the pop-culture skeptic types on Youtube who used to be very much in his corner about the DC movie situation. But remember when he dissed the entire audience of Geeks & Gamers on a livestream? They don't like him anymore, for good reason. So, now Mr. Snyder is leaning 'woke' instead and has hired, of all people, Mags Visaggio to do a Rebel Moon comic which will come out in conjunction with this series. Sure to be a winner!

[Dogfish]

Remake of Battle Beyond The Stars. I'm down to clown but where's the Valkyrie at?

[shevek]

Remake of Battle Beyond The Stars. I'm down to clown but where's the Valkyrie at?

Saint-Exmin is way too bodacious for Current Year, but you can still get her action figure for about $40 or so.
Thanks for making me revisit that 1980 Corman classic - I didn't realize it was James Cameron's first 'big break' in the industry.
It's worth a rewatch!

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[Dogfish]

I didn't know it was James Cameron's either, I thought that was Piranha 2. That's cool though. Maybe it's partly why the movie is good.

Edited to add, daaaaaaaaaamn, he did the effects and it had James Horner do the sound track. Somebody had an eye for talent on that (what should have been) mess.

[Dogfish]

Am watching it and am genuinely surprised nobody has been sued by Games Workshop.

[batgirl1969]

The bounty hunters robot device was a nice bondage device add though....really works good!!

[shevek]

The bounty hunters robot device was a nice bondage device add though....really works good!!

That seriously might have been the best thing about the movie. Exceptionally good design on that.
I couldn't figure out the exact deal on the "paralysis gun", though. Does it kill the victim and just preserve their body for transport?
Because it definitely looked like it killed the informant, but later when Kye tells Gunnar to use it on Cora, he mentions "paralysis" instead of death.

The movie is not quite the total unmitigated disaster that people are saying it is, but there's very little that's original about it, either.

Sofia Boutella is not a compelling lead.

The bad guys are Nazis.

The characters aren't fully developed - they're barely introduced. And there's a ton of exposition that breaks things up and slows things down.

But you know, I didn't have the worst time ever. Zack Snyder did establish a universe. He might not get to repeat it, though.

[sneakly]

The bounty hunters robot device was a nice bondage device add though....really works good!!

I did like the bondage device, but it was a big mess for the most part. They want the heroines to be self reliant, but they can’t make them sexy and compelling. Why do they think they are mutually exclusive?

I just kept asking myself, why would anyone want to drop everything and go help this tiny little farm commune? They destroyed an entire city (planet?) to capture one guy who was racing off to save a farm in East Po-dunk. Made no sense.

[Dogfish]

The bounty hunters robot device was a nice bondage device add though....really works good!!

I did like the bondage device, but it was a big mess for the most part. They want the heroines to be self reliant, but they can’t make them sexy and compelling. Why do they think they are mutually exclusive?

I just kept asking myself, why would anyone want to drop everything and go help this tiny little farm commune? They destroyed an entire city (planet?) to capture one guy who was racing off to save a farm in East Po-dunk. Made no sense.

Yeah it's conceptually incredibly stupid. The story works where it's a bandit group, there's a degree of parity, the bandits need the food, there are stakes for the bandits. In this instance, it's just dumb. Like fifty guys in a few houses and fields on an alien world? Just move. Like, go to another alien world. You're not from that one. How are you going to fight an empire over some low tech huts?

Zack Snyder seems like a genuinely okay dude but he is not smart. Give him something to paint by numbers like 300 and he's in his element. Let him write and it's a disaster.

[Dogfish]

The bounty hunters robot device was a nice bondage device add though....really works good!!

That seriously might have been the best thing about the movie. Exceptionally good design on that.
I couldn't figure out the exact deal on the "paralysis gun", though. Does it kill the victim and just preserve their body for transport?
Because it definitely looked like it killed the informant, but later when Kye tells Gunnar to use it on Cora, he mentions "paralysis" instead of death.

The movie is not quite the total unmitigated disaster that people are saying it is, but there's very little that's original about it, either.

Sofia Boutella is not a compelling lead.

The bad guys are Nazis.

The characters aren't fully developed - they're barely introduced. And there's a ton of exposition that breaks things up and slows things down.

But you know, I didn't have the worst time ever. Zack Snyder did establish a universe. He might not get to repeat it, though.

The bad guys are the Imperial Guard from Warhammer 40K. Genuinely surprised nobody got sued over that.

My take on the paralysis gun was that it'd sever the spinal cord and the overall holding device would prevent the injury being fatal. Recurring theme with this movie, it's fucking dumb. They don't have sedatives?

[Abductorenmadrid]

I watched Rebel Moon Pt1 the other day with no pre-knowledge of what I was getting into and thank god for that because if I had hopes or expectations they would have been left wanting.

The Battle Beyond The Stars comparison has already been made, and its fair. Rebel Moon is that. And The Magnificent Seven. And that setup in the Mandalorian that time with the villagers fighting the thugs with their AT-ST etc. It's a classic tale for sure and if Rebel Moon had done something really good to stand above the others that would be something but it doesn't (yet?).

Some of it is clumsy,

Spoiler

like the whole stand off that ends up with the village leader Sindri being killed. The way the dialogue starts out you would think Gunnar was intentionally trying to get Sindri killed. And yet it seems it was more out of naivety. It could have been better written I think. Likewise Kora, the story's main heroine basically bets her life on a stranger's (Tarak) ability to tame some vicious beast so he can pay off his own debt and go with her. I know, I know, to advance the plot she just does, but seriously, no hesitation at all? Seriously, there are many points through this that you're going be thinking "What? Why?"

It's a shame because it seems to be a great cast, totally owning their roles but for characters we have barely have a chance to care about. Maybe that will come with more parts but I just feel that any of the so far assembled "magnificent" team members could have been killed off already and I would have gotten over it quickly.

[shevek]

Likewise Kora, the story's main heroine basically bets her life on a stranger's (Tarak) ability to tame some vicious beast so he can pay off his own debt and go with her. I know, I know, to advance the plot she just does, but seriously, no hesitation at all? Seriously, there are many points through this that you're going be thinking "What? Why?"[/spoiler] It's a shame because it seems to be a great cast, totally owning their roles but for characters we have barely have a chance to care about. Maybe that will come with more parts but I just feel that any of the so far assembled "magnificent" team members could have been killed off already and I would have gotten over it quickly.

Yes, this is truly one of the weakest parts of the production - the hastily assembled sequence of character introductions where everyone gets a chance to "show" what they can do, So much exposition!

Spoiler

but Kora seems to have little choice in their actual selection. It looks to me like Kai pretty much leads her by the nose (it's his ship she's riding in,
after all) and yet she never really questions why he so readily signs on - after all, he's the one who needs the money the most, to maintain his ability to travel in the ship.

So the question remains - did he assemble this crew simply in order to obtain the maximum bounty reward from the Empire, rather than assemble them based on their fantastic skill ratings? Or did it just happen to be both: the people who are the most dangerous to the Empire also just happen to be the best warriors? Hmmm.....

As for "Tarak", more than one person (Nerdrotic, among them) has commented about how closely he resembles "Turok", the Dinosaur Hunter.
Yet another possible lawsuit there. (I'm kidding, but still...._

Not Turok.

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Also, not knowing the names of most of the characters, I was surprised when references started to be made to what I thought was the "Blood Axis".
It soon turned to be the "Bloodaxes" (the brother and sister woke-revolutionary team who looked like they came straight out of The 100, but to be honest, she is the hottest character in the series and I'm glad she didn't get killed) but for a while there I was wondering why there was a reference to a fascist neofolk band in a Zach Snyder script. Whew!

Not Blood Axis.

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[sneakly]

I watched John Wick 2 last night. It was much more believable and and the character development and motivations were much better done.