Rebel Moon First Reactions Are Here: Is Zack Snyder’s New Movie Any Good?
Zack Snyder's Star Wars-like epic for Netflix has finally screened for critics. Here's what they thought about Rebel Moon...
Zack Snyder finally got to make his long-rumored Star Wars movie, except this one has the “violence, sex, and swearing.” That’s according to actor Ed Skrein, who plays the evil Admiral Atticus Noble in the new Netflix sci-fi epic, Rebel Moon. Headed to the streaming service next week, the latest Snyder film is the culmination of a long journey for the director, who first pitched his idea for a more mature, “Seven Samurai in space” to Lucasfilm in the early days of the Disney take over. While the Mouse House didn’t bite back then, Netflix was happy to oblige as part of an ongoing collaboration with the director, which began the 2021 smash hit Army of the Dead.
As you likely guessed, Rebel Moon follows a similar setup to the galaxy far, far away. A group of freedom fighters led by a warrior with a dark past named Kora (Sofia Boutella) must defend the moon of Veldt from the Imperium, a tyrannical military force that will stop at nothing to quell rebellion across the galaxy in the name of the Motherworld. So yeah, it’s the Empire vs. the Rebel Alliance, but in this one, the characters have lava guns, as Snyder revealed to us during a set visit last year. And it’s also of course an homage to Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, as Kora’s main mission in the first part of the two-part sci-fi epic is to recruit warriors to Veldt’s cause. That roster of gritty badasses includes everything from mercenaries and loyal friends to cyborg swordmasters and even a guy who can talk to animals and lead them into battle!
It may not be releasing under the Star Wars banner, but for Snyder, making something with its own set of rules was freeing, according to the director: “I do understand the love of Star Wars, how canonized it is… and actually how immobile it is. That’s why I’m here now doing Rebel Moon the way I’m doing it, because we really have no rules except for the ones we make.”
Ahead of the film’s release, here’s what the first people to watch the movie are saying about Zack Snyder‘s latest:
The movie stars Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, Charlie Hunnam, Michiel Huisman, Staz Nair, Doona Bae, Ray Fisher, Cleopatra Coleman, Anthony Hopkins, Jena Malone, Ed Skrein, Fra Fee, Ingvar Sigurdsson, and Charlotte Maggi.
Rebel Moon will receive a limited theatrical release on Dec. 15 and will then hit Netflix on Dec. 22.
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John Saavedra is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Den of Geek. He lives in New York City with his two cats.