Ok, I admit. The title is a bit of a mislead as I haven’t actually watched Rebel Moon. I’d been tracking its development, watching teasers as they trickled through the grapevine to eyes and ears eager for Zack Snyder’s take on Star Wars. Netflix hoped they were eager anyway. I’m a fan of Star Wars of course, not in a die hard sense, but enough to say the original trilogy, and yes, even the prequel trilogy (Jar Jar Binks included), were formative aspects of my childhood. The glut of Star Wars IP we’ve gotten post Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm has been mixed, as these things go. Check out my post On Andor and How to Keep and IP Fresh if you’re curious on my thoughts there. (TLDR: Latest trilogy, meh. Done both Luke and Rey wrong in my humble opinion. Andor, woo! So so good.) This is all to say I like Star Wars, and was curious on Zack Snyder’s take. I wouldn’t call myself a die hard fan of Zack Snyder though. I’m more ambivalent. His movie 300 came out while I was in high school, a freshman I think. Wasn’t allowed to see it in theatres of course. Too bloody. Too violent. Too R rated. But that is where older brothers come in handy, helping free younger siblings from surely irrational parental oppression since time immemorial. So he got a copy and watched it with his friends. Which meant I watched it too. I … well I loved it. At the time. I was an awkward gangly kid rushing headlong into puberty and wanting women to take him seriously. As any guy can attest, there’s this extremely awkward period where the girls have started maturing but the boys are lagging just a bit behind. Some more than others. What can I say, I was a late bloomer. I saw this movie right when I was wanting to shed the moniker of cute little brother, the term of address every woman my brother (a truly wise high school junior at the time) brought home would use when they saw me. The movie 300 convinced me the secret to getting women like Lena Headey was six pack abs and a grizzled, macho exterior. So the secret was to be Gerard Butler, if you will. It wasn’t, and isn’t, the secret of course (though maybe it doesn’t hurt?). But my scrawny ass didn’t know that. My scrawny ass also didn’t really manage to build any muscle till college no matter how hard I tried. So onwards through high school I trudged, always looking back to that movie with a sense of awe at its slow motion machismo. I still look on that movie fondly, and Watchmen too, but I don’t think anything I’ve seen from Zack Snyder since has really left much of an impression. He seems to struggle a bit outside the world of adaptations. I watched the Zack Snyder cut of Justice League. It was fine. I admit I was already somewhat in the throes of superhero atrophy at the time. Even so, it was fine. I watched Army of the Dead. It was fun, but while I do like Dave Bautista and Tig Notaro, it didn’t leave much of an impression either. So here we are at Rebel Moon, the launch of a new science fiction IP wholly embraced by Netflix and already promised its own Snyder cut. I love science fiction. I love Hollywood taking risks with new IPs. So, why haven’t I watched it yet?
Reviews I guess. One could argue there are 4 types of movies: those loved by critics and audiences alike, those loved by critics but too opaque or artsy for general audiences, those loved by general audiences but too droll or basic for critics, and those largely panned by both. Rebel Moon seems to be trending towards that last group unfortunately. 23% critic score and 58% audience score on rotten tomatoes. It may sound silly considering I post my thoughts on all things science fiction and fantasy on this blog, but I think it’s important to frame reviews, especially my own, by their context. People like what they like. Storytelling, art in general, is subjective. Its value is inherent. At the end of the day, we classify and review stories to help others find stories they might enjoy, not to assign value. There are movies I adore in every one of the aforementioned groupings, critics be damned. So, will I watch Rebel Moon? Well … I think I’m going to wait for the extended R rated cut. From everything I’ve read, it seems the version currently out is pretty, and at times entertaining, but lacking in depth, consisting of mostly references. And I should point out, not everything needs depth. Sometimes stories are just escapism and there is nothing wrong with that. But I don’t know. Rebel Moon in its current form just isn’t really peaking my interest. I think I’ll wait till the longer cut is released. Perhaps that will give it time to find its own, time for the characters to find their voices. Even so, longer doesn’t necessarily mean better.
M. Weald
M. Weald 