REVIEW: Snyder’s ‘Rebel Moon’ is a soulless sci-fi slog

This film was “Rebel Moon – Part One,” so a Part Two is surely on the way. Netflix can keep it, one was enough.

“Rebel Moon,” directed by Zack Snyder, unsurprisingly starts on a moon. More specifically, it’s a remote moon populated by small farming villages. One of those villages is where Kora (Sofia Boutella), a former soldier, is residing for a more peaceful life.

That life is upended, though, when a ship from the militaristic galactic empire arrives and demands the villagers produce rations for its army as its in the midst of a conflict with rebels. With a threat of violence if the demand is not met, a village farmer partners with Kora to find warriors throughout the galaxy to defend the community.

It’s fitting that “Rebel Moon” is a space opera, because it takes an astronomical amount of material from existing media. The film basically takes the stories from the likes of “The Seven Samurai,” “The Magnificent Seven” and “A Bug’s Life” (seriously), and then mashed it together with the original “Star Wars” trilogy, accept it has zero personality.

Early on, it was easy to consider giving the film the benefit of the doubt, since the “Part One” aspect made it seem like it was adapted from a book series or a graphic novel. Turns out, that’s not the case, this is a completely new, er, recycled story, and its faults lie with the filmmakers.

It’s astounding just how much Snyder and Co. take from other sources, too. A previous review on the site about the “Aquaman” sequel cited how that film had a scene reminiscent of the cantina sequence in “Star Wars.” Well, this one takes the cake, because “Rebel Moon” basically copies and pastes it.

It’s understandable that at this point, a lot of things have already been done in sci-fi and space epics, but the genre also offers so much creative potential that it’s a let down when a film just retreads ground. To be honest, the film probably could have gotten away with this issue, too, had it not been a total bore.

The problem starts right at the beginning, with an opening narration describing a convoluted conflict with meaningless politics. It’s downhill from there, too, as the movie turns into a drawn-out recruitment sequence.

Kora and the farmer, Gunnar (Michiel Huisman) go to planet A, find a tough standout, convince them to tag along, and then go to planet B. Rinse and repeat.

Since the film was inspired by “The Magnificent Seven” story, one would think that it would follow-through by having the group of heroes return to the farming village. Maybe have them learn a bit about the community, embrace it with a sense of duty, all while coming together as a team.

That doesn’t happen. Instead, they just meander from planet to planet getting new people until the climactic battle with the big bad. Apparently if a viewer wants any sort of stakes or emotional connection to major action they have to wait for the sequel. Bummer.

The characters don’t help matters either. Kora is maybe the blandest genre protagonist in a while. She has no charisma or spirit with Sofia Boutella giving the character no edge or charm. It’s a far cry from her enjoyable performance in another sci-fi flick, “Star Trek Beyond.”

Huisman, meanwhile, doesn’t have much to work with as the farmer Gunnar. A character with little zeal, he doesn’t have much of an arc that plays out. Apparently, he was supposed to have romantic feelings for Kora, but maybe that’s only noticeable if you squint.

The rest of the ragtag group is rather forgettable, too. Djimon Hounsou, Ray Fisher and Staz Nair all play fairly interchangeable tough brooding guys, while Anthony Hopkins’ voice is used for a robot who at first appears to be a major character and then disappears for 90 percent of the film.

Charlie Hunnam is somewhat notable for giving his character a bit of a smart-ass attitude, but the performance doesn’t do all that much in the grand scheme of things. Ed Skrein, meanwhile, plays a stock bad guy who for some reason wears a white business shirt and a tie. I guess “The Big Short” was also an inspiration for this.

From an action stand point, “Rebel Moon” is fine. Snyder knows how to make some exciting set pieces, there’s no doubt, and his use of slow motion is effective here and there. The fights including the sword master character Nemesis played by Doona Bae are especially a highlight.

It doesn’t make too much sense, though, for the heroes to recruit several hand-to-hand combat warriors when the Empire, excuse me, the Motherworld ships can obliterate a small town from orbit. Regardless, some of the action works, other bits don’t, but overall it’s hard to be invested in anything when one doesn’t care much about the characters or what they’re fighting for.

Having a shred of entertainment value doesn’t do nearly enough to salvage “Rebel Moon.” It’s a boring film that reuses a lot of elements from genre films and adds nothing fresh to the mix. 1 out of 5.