When a peaceful settlement on the edge of a distant moon finds itself threatened by the armies of a tyrannical ruling force, a mysterious stranger living among its villagers becomes their best hope for survival.

Fresh off his broadly successful tinkering with his ‘Justice League’ movie for Netflix, Zack Snyder continues his partnership with the streaming service with the first in a planned space opera movie series called ‘Rebel Moon’. The first movie, subtitled as ‘Part One: A Child of Fire’ introduces us to a fictional galaxy that is ruled by an imperial power, and the hero that is on a mission to take them down. No, this is not another ‘Star Wars’ movie, but it may as well be, because everything about ‘Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire’ screams out subpar ‘Star Wars’, and this opener follows the broad trajectory of ‘A New Hope’ almost beat for beat. It’s not that every space opera movie is a copy of ‘Star Wars’, despite its undoubtedly huge influence, but in the case of ‘Rebel Moon’, the tag is warranted.

So, the plot. It begins with an attack by the Motherworld on a small farming colony, which is the driving factor in our hero Kora (Sofia Boutella), who is a former imperial soldier, setting off to recruit warriors from across the galaxy to help lead the fightback against the imperial power. This includes Charlie Hunnam’s dodgy Irish accented mercenary Kai (hello Han), a mechanical knight called Jimmy who is voiced by Anthony Hopkins (hello C-3PO), and a farmer from Kora’s planet who is secretly in love with her played by Michiel Huisman. As they jump around planets they get in various skirmishes in various settings including a bar (hello Mos Eisley), before they end up tracking down the imperial commander who has been causing all the havoc in Ed Skrein’s Atticus Noble. This all plays out in typical Snyder style with excessive use of slow motion and fight sequences shot in such darkness that following what is going on is nigh on impossible (that’s if you even care by this point). Apparently a longer cut is being released ahead of the second part of the series – good luck if you choose to watch that.

All this is to say that ‘Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire’ is derivative, completely lacking in originality, with paper thin characters, dodgy accents and the worst impulses of Zack Snyder’s filmmaking style. I doubt I’ll be checking back in for ‘Part Two: The Scargiver’, and given it was shot back to back, I doubt the problems that plague this movie will be any different in that one.

Rating: 2/5

Directed By: Zack Snyder

Starring: Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, Ed Skrein, Michiel Huisman, Doona Bae, Ray Fisher, Charlie Hunnam, Anthony Hopkins, Staz Nair, Fra Fee, Cleopatra Coleman, Corey Stoll, Carey Elwes and Ray Porter

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt14998742/