Rebel Moon Trailer Defies the Empire

Movies

Rebel forces are gathering to unseat an evil galactic empire, but I’m not talking about Star Wars or Dune or even The Creator; this is Rebel Moon, an upcoming sci-fi epic from Zack Snyder that saw its trailer released today. Directed by Snyder from a script he co-wrote with Kurt Johnstad (300 and Atomic Blonde) and Shay Hatten (John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and John Wick: Chapter 4), Rebel Moon finds a former member of an oppressive government seeking redemption by recruiting a team of warriors to overthrow her former colleagues in evil. Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, Charlie Hunnam (ugh), Ray Fisher, Cleopatra Coleman, Jenna Malone, Ed Skrein, and Anthony Hopkins star. The film will be split into two parts, Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire and Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver, which will arrive on Netflix on December 22, 2023, and April 19, 2024, respectively. You can see the trailer below:

Is the sci-fi epic going to be the thing that takes the place of superhero movies as the dominant film genre now? I doubt it; they’re too expensive, and the studios have to keep costs down going forward. But there do seem to be a bunch of them coming out at the same time. At any rate, the trailer for Rebel Moon looks pretty cool on the whole. I like the visual style a lot, and the special effects are good, not requiring the apologetic “They’re not finished yet!” defense. I also like some of the actors, especially Anthony Hopkins, Djimon Hounsou, and Cleopatra Coleman. I like Ed Skrein fine (and I wasn’t surprised to learn that he’s playing a villain), and Sofia Boutella and Ray Fisher I can take or leave, although they’d better hope Fisher has a big enough role before he demands everyone at Netflix be fired. Then, there’s Charlie Hunnam, who baffles me every time he’s cast in anything because he’s been terrible in every role I’ve seen him play; he’s on the level of a Sam Worthington or Jai Courtney for me in that I don’t understand why they keep trying to make him happen. The story looks fairly familiar, which isn’t a bad thing if it’s done well and there are some wrinkles to keep it from being too derivative; the Nazi allusions are not exactly subtle, either. But I’m interested enough to check it out when it premieres.