After months of anticipation from genre lovers and Zack Snyder fans alike, Rebel Moon is finally here. The blockbuster director hadn’t released a project since his famed cut of Justice League, and his Star Wars-esque venture into sci-fi has been widely discussed. The director wasn’t able to make his own film within the Star Wars universe, so Rebel Moon marked a reimagining of a similar story within his vision. Unfortunately, it seems like the project is a disappointing one for critics as Rebel Moon: Part One - A Child Of Fire debuted with a brutal Rotten Tomatoes score.
Rotten Tomatoes, which is a popular review-aggregation website, currently holds Rebel Moon at 28%, which means that only 28 percent of critics gave Rebel Moon a positive score. This is up from earlier this morning, which was initially only reporting 9%. While it’s a positive sign that the score is going up as more critics have had the chance to review the project, starting so low is not a good thing, and doesn’t bode well as an indicator for the overall critical reception.
Critics aren’t holding back with Rebel Moon's reviews, either. The overall sentiment calls Rebel Moon “formulaic” and “boring,” with some even saying that it’s Zack Snyder’s worst film so far. CinemaBlend reviewed Rebel Moon, and said that the film felt incomplete, and was surprised that they released the film in theaters in its current form. The “Part One” title suggests the filmmaker plans on completing his story, however, with the current reception, future installments may end up being in flux.
What we know about Rebel Moon is limited, but reviews are certainly worse than some of Snyder’s other projects, the sentiments within the reviews seem to echo similar opinions on the director’s work in the past. The long championed “Snyder-Cut” of Justice League ended up being 4 hours, as the theatrical cut was considered to be an “incomplete” representation of the filmmaker’s vision. A similar narrative seemed to happen with Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. While a gritty, more psychological vision for the characters were teased, the result was less than stellar, and according to critics and fans, many found the film to be a “slog.” This word is also being tossed around in tandem with Rebel Moon, so it could be Snyder’s storytelling style that isn’t resonating with viewers.
The reviews currently available come from screenings of the theatrical cut for Rebel Moon, which is playing in limited cinemas around the country. Snyder teased that he already has a directors cut in mind for Rebel Moon, which will therefore be a longer, more “complete” vision. Snyder has scored with fans on his directors cuts before, so maybe the secondary version of the film will be more popular with audiences. We will have to wait and see how the reviews shake up when the film gets a wider streaming release. However, for now, the film is not being considered to be one of the director’s best entries.
You can check out Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire in limited theaters now, nationwide. It will also be available for Netflix subscribers on December 21st, so you can see for yourself if Zack Snyder’s latest is up-to-snuff. For more information on other films heading to cinemas and streaming this month, make sure to consult our 2023 movie release schedule.
