Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire review – derivative space opera saga | Action and adventure films

The first part of Zack Snyder’s ambitious, long-cherished space opera, Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire looks suitably impressive: the story unfolds against vividly realised worlds, starting in an idealistic agrarian commune on an out-of-the-way moon, and travelling through cobalt mining planets, gritty desert outposts and lunar dive bars. The fight sequences are decent, if a little over-reliant on self-important slow-motion shots of people clobbering one another with space axes. But the story is a derivative mess that feels as though it was assembled from bits of plot picked off the carcasses of other, better films, and glued together with brain-numbing, pace-killing chunks of exposition. Sofia Boutella shows action-star potential as Kora, a mysterious outsider who has found peace living with the farming commune, but she deserves a better vehicle than this chop-shopped jalopy.

The first part of Zack Snyder’s ambitious, long-cherished space opera, Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire looks suitably impressive: the story unfolds against vividly realised worlds, starting in an idealistic agrarian commune on an out-of-the-way moon, and travelling through cobalt mining planets, gritty desert outposts and lunar dive bars. The fight sequences are decent, if a little over-reliant on self-important slow-motion shots of people clobbering one another with space axes. But the story is a derivative mess that feels as though it was assembled from bits of plot picked off the carcasses of other, better films, and glued together with brain-numbing, pace-killing chunks of exposition. Sofia Boutella shows action-star potential as Kora, a mysterious outsider who has found peace living with the farming commune, but she deserves a better vehicle than this chop-shopped jalopy.