‘Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire’ is a visual masterpiece

Audiences should expect to be enthralled by the visually stunning landscape and designs in Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire. Free from any intellectual property restraints, Zack Snyder goes big in this two-part sci-fi megaproject.

We begin our hero’s journey with Kora (Sofia Boutella) who’s taken refuge on a moon called Veldt. When the universe’s ruling force, The Motherworld, loses its king due to assassination, Regent Balisarius (Fra Fee) and Admiral Noble (Ed Skrein) build up a reputation of cruelty, greed, and destruction. The Regent sends Admiral Noble to hunt for any opposition to his rule which leads him on a hunt for the Bloodaxes (Cleopatra Coleman and Ray Fisher). This brother-sister duo leads an insurgency that refuses to bow to the evils of The Motherworld. Kora finds herself indirectly involved once Admiral Noble discovers that one of the farmers on Veldt, Gunnar (Michiel Huisman), had sold their crops to the insurgents. Being the sole person on Veldt with any valuable knowledge of the inner workings of The Motherworld, she becomes their only hope for survival.

The production design was absolutely marvelous. The backgrounds featured gorgeous pastel hues and images that could only be gleaned from imagination. Planets, moons, cities, and spaceships were materialized by Stephen Swain and Stefan Dechant, who have been responsible for such projects as House of the Dragon and Pacific Rim. The final result was a beautiful bloom of retrofuturism. The costume designs and visual effects were sufficient for a film of this magnitude. Snyder tapped two veterans who worked on Army of the Dead (Stephanie Porter and Marcus Taormina) as well as John Desjardin from The Flash. Porter responsibly oversaw each outfit’s authentic caliber, even down to the military costuming, reaching back into the Bolshevik era for Noble’s look. Taormina and Desjardin had a much larger task in creating a planet, fine details of a village, and a dropship that, once fully built, weighed a staggering 22,000 pounds.

For my fellow linguists out there, there’s plenty to love about this film that’s going to fill your semantic heart. Kora lives on a moon called Veldt. “Veld” in Dutch means field. “Welt” in German means world and the letter “W” is pronounced in English like the letter “V”. So it makes perfect sense that Veldt is a largely habitable space that’s meant for farming. Now, whether they meant to do that or not remains to be seen, but it was the first thing that came to mind since I read in both Dutch and German. Staz Nair plays a character named Tarak who eventually gets recruited by Kora on her journey to secure a force to defend her village on Veldt. When Tarak speaks his native tongue of Samandritan, you’ll discover a delicious amalgam of Portuguese and Russian. As you can see, even down to names and titles, everything about this film was meaningfully done and meticulously detailed.

The look of certain creatures and a set of specific weapons wielded by Nemesis (Doona Bae), a master swordswoman, might draw some comparisons to Star Wars, and to that degree, it’s understandable. But trust, the film stands on its own and embraces the heroic story it’s presumed to. There were a few scenes that were overly dramatized and a few backstories have been omitted, but the latter will hopefully be supplied in Part Two. A handful of villains have yet to be explained as well (like the priests and scribes pictured below). 

Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire gets a 9 out of 10. Sofia Boutella has some killer fight scenes in here that make for a good action flick. As you’re gradually introduced to characters, keep a sharp ear out for the voice of Anthony Hopkins. With less than two weeks to go in 2023, Netflix has thrown a wrench into things for end-of-the-year top movie lists (not to mention consideration for awards next year). The PG-13 rating is accurate as some of the violence is a bit over the top and there was an instance where it “appeared” like a rape was bound to take place but didn’t. Ignore the Star Wars purists who are dragging this through the mud and cap off the year with a bang!

You can watch Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire on Netflix  www.netflix.com/RebelMoon on Dec. 22

#RebelMoon @NetflixFilm

-Jon Jones

Photos: Courtesy of Netflix