The first part of Zack Snyder’s space opera duology, Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire, hit Netflix in Dec 2023. What started off as a Star Wars spec script that Snyder pitched to Lucasfilm, eventually morphed into an “original” IP with ambitions of kicking off a multimedia franchise, including video games and graphic novels. Given its origins, it’s only to be expected that the script would have recognizable elements from the Star Wars universe, which in turn has inspired space operas for the past half century. But while watching the movie, it became clear that it’s not just Star Wars that Snyder has copied, or paid homage to. The entire film appears to be a pastiche of stereotypes, story beats, characters and imagery culled from a range of science fiction, fantasy and action films. Certainly, as a filmmaker, Zach Snyder has the right to bring to screen whatever he feels like, and if Netflix wants to spend $150 million financing it, that’s their prerogative too, but it really makes me wonder why such a gifted director and his screenwriters could not come up with one original idea in a two hour space opera with so much opportunity for world building. I’ve listed the more obvious “influences” below, and perhaps sharp-eyed movie buffs may have picked up other references.
Rebel Moon Storyline – Seven Samurai (1954): The overall storyline borrows heavily from Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, in which a village of farmers hire a group of ronin to protect them from bandits who will come to the village after harvest to take their crops. In Rebel Moon, a farming community on an isolated moon seeks to recruit warriors to protect them from soldiers who threaten to take away their crop. They send one of their farmers, Gunnar (played by Michiel Huisman) along with Kora (Sofia Boutella), a mysterious woman who joined the community the previous year.
Opening Exposition – all Star Wars films: No one would dare copy the on-screen scroll which has become a hallmark of the Star Wars franchise, and has become one of the most elegant devices to deliver exposition at the start of a movie. Instead, Rebel Moon delivers the audio equivalent via Anthony Hopkins’ instantly recognizable and clearly enunciated voice. He describes a galactic empire thrown into chaos due to regicide, an ambitious and ruthless senator who steps into the power vacuum, and rebellion emerging on the outer fringes of the Imperium…all familiar story beats for Star Wars fans.
Imperium Soldier’s uniforms – Nazi Wehrmacht: In Star Wars, the Empire’s ruthless troops were called Stormtroopers after the Nazi infantry soldiers of World War II, however their white armor and skull-like helmets were a wholly original design. In Rebel Moon, the troops of the Imperium are kitted out to look like Nazi stormtroopers, and Admiral Atticus Noble (played with fiendish delight by Ed Skrein) certainly looks the part of a Nazi Field Marshall, with his jackboots, trench coat, collar patches, metal gorget and rigid peaked cap.
Imperium Scribes – The Bene Gesserit from 2021’s Dune: The admiral and his troops are accompanied by tall, red-robed characters who look a bit like the black clad Bene Gesserit priestesses in Dune, with their shroud-like veils and high hats. The background notes for Rebel Moon state that the red-robes are Scribes, a religious order tasked with recording the achievements of the Imperium, who accompany armies and delegates to view events as they take place. Unlike the vocal and politically active Bene Gesserit, the Scribes appear to be passive observers, and in fact remain very much in the background in the film.
Jimmy, the mechanical knight – C3PO from the Star Wars films: For fans of C3PO, the humanoid robot famous for his dulcet tones voiced by British actor Anthony Daneils, Zack Snyder has created the character of Jimmy, a mechanical soldier, voiced by another British actor, Anthony Hopkins.
Kora’s combat experience – “No Man’s Land” battle scene from 2017’s Wonder Woman: As Kora recounts her upbringing as a soldier of the Imperium, the accompanying flashback features a combat sequence clearly inspired by the World War I scene in Wonder Woman (on which Zack Snyder was a producer). Although it lasts only a few seconds, the slow motion shots of soldiers charging across a desaturated battle-scarred landscape while tracer rounds streak past them, will be familiar to fans of the thrilling scene in which Diana charges across open land against a hail of German bullets.
Ecto-restraints used by bounty hunters – Boba Fett’s carbonite from 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back: Rebel Moon has bounty hunters called Hawkshaws, reminiscent of Mandalorian bounty hunters like Boba Fett in Star Wars. While Boba Fett famously used carbonite to incapacitate and transport Han Solo, the Hawkshaws have a visually similar, though far more sophisticated device called an eco-restraint. In this one aspect, I have to say that the Rebel Moon writers and production designers actually came up with something superior to the idea they copied.
Bar scene in the port city of Providence – Mos Eisley cantina scene from 1977’s Star Wars: In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi journey from Luke’s farm to the spaceport town of Mos Eisley, where they go into a tavern looking for transportation off the planet. There they encounter various scum and get into a bar fight, a scene surely inspired by similar set-ups in various Westerns of the 40s and 50s. In what is virtually a lift of that story beat, Kora and Gunnar arrive at the Port City of Providence, looking for information and transportation…and of course, they get into a bar fight.
Kai, the mercenary – Han Solo from the original Star Wars trilogy: Charlie Hunnam seems to be channeling Harrison Ford in every scene he’s in as Kai, a roguish and handsome mercenary who Kora and Gunnar meet in Providence.
Bennu – The hippogriff from 2004’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: The third instalment in the Harry Potter film series features an entertaining sequence in which Harry uses respect and empathy to befriend a dangerous mythical creature called a hippogriff (inspired by the gryphon from Greek mythology). Rebel Moon features an almost identical looking creature called a bennu, and here too, the untamable beast is won over by an ex-nobleman named Tarak through empathy rather than by force.
Harmada, the spider-creature – The scorpion monster from 2001’s The Mummy Returns: Jenna Malone plays a human-spider hybrid named Harmada in Rebel Moon. She bears an uncanny resemblance to the CGI human-scorpion monster in The Mummy Returns, which was the resurrected embodiment of Mathayus, the Scorpion King (and was Dwayne Johnson’s first ever big-screen role).
All of the above happens by the half-way point of the film, and these scenes and characters were so derivative, that I found it challenging to focus on the storyline. Fortunately, the second half of the film charts its own path and is capped off with an entertaining action sequence in the third act. This gives me reason to hope that the second part, due in April 2024, will feature similarly well executed scenes, which even if not original, put a fresh spin on tired tropes. All credit must go to Sofia Boutella, who effectively portrays the intensity and pain of her character Kora. She also shows off some amazing moves in the action scenes.
Chronophlogiston 