Zack Snyder had a great idea for a Star Wars movie, and it turned out that it would have made one hell of a Star Wars movie, but since Disney didn’t want it, we get Rebel Moon: Part 1 on Netflix. What’s Disney’s loss will turn out to be Netflix’s gain! Is the movie bad as some national film critics would have you believe, f@#$ no, it’s exactly what you think this movie is going to be if you’re a fan of Zack Snyder. He essentially made a Magnificent Seven/ Seven Samurai story wrapped up in a Star Wars-esque world and while it’s not an original idea, who cares? This type of story has been told over and over and it would have made a great story within the Star Wars universe! However, even though it’s not original that doesn’t mean the film isn’t fun to watch. I feel like this Star Wars movie if it had been made as a Star Wars story would have been in the age of rebellion. The worst tragedy about Rebel Moon is the fact that it isn’t an actual Star Wars movie set within a universe that we’re all familiar with. But I am not ashamed to say that I loved this movie. Of course, I have some criticism and we’ll get to that, but let me go on the record as saying, this movie is not bad! It’s not as terrible as some would have you believe, and you should definitely watch it on Netflix. Let a true nerd, tell you the truth and not what you want to hear! It’s the best Star Wars movie we have gotten since Rogue One… yeah, I just said it! This movie is better than The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, and probably a little bit better than the Han Solo movie, although that was a fun movie too.

If you’ve ever seen The Magnificent Seven, either the Steve McQueen version or the Denzel Washington version then you pretty much know how this story starts. A small community is terrorized by bandits or in this case the evil empire and an outlaw by the name of Kora hiding in the community who was once a highly decorated soldier and lethal weapon sets out to find warriors to defend this small community. She puts together her own “seven samurai” and throughout the movie, you get her backstory through flashbacks, how she became a soldier turned revolutionary…. or “rebel,” if you will. Her past is not necessarily a unique story, but you begin to understand her reasons for why she went into hiding.  Now Insert a motley crew of characters that will become the Magnificent Seven. You have a thief and smuggler, a former general who is an outlaw, a former prince, other revolutionaries, and a deadly assassin with two swords that are good substitutes for lightsabers.

Yes, we’ve seen this story before, and it doesn’t matter…. the hero’s journey is easily displayed within the movie and it’s a hero’s journey that we have seen a thousand times in movies, whether the main character is Luke Skywalker, or Aragon, or Willow and Madmartigan. The story doesn’t have to be unique to still be enjoyable. What makes this movie work is that you get a great cast. Sophia Boutella is great as the vivacious and deadly warrior Kora. Charlie Hunnam does a great job as the Han Solo-type thief. And DJimon Hounsou is always fantastic on the big screen, he plays General Titus. And I love the fact that Anthony Hopkins voices the Droid which is an easy replacement for C3PO in this movie. But of course, you’ve got to have a good villain and Ed Skrein does a wonderful job as the Admiral. In fact, the entire cast is great. There’s a lot of great action and fight scenes that will make you sit on the edge of your seat. We get to visit different worlds and the film is very stylish as all Zach Snyder films generally are. In some ways it feels like you could be playing a video game and that’s not a bad thing. But even though this is only part one of a bigger story, it gives us a great hero’s journey that we can all get behind and characters that we can easily connect to just like in Star Wars. I make a lot of comparisons to Star Wars because that’s essentially what this movie is, and it shouldn’t be a criticism.  Other movies have tried to copy Star Wars and haven’t been that good. The action in the fight scenes is the big driving force that makes this movie entertaining and a great adventure movie can only be great with some memorable catchphrases and great one-liners. Check! Rebel Moon. has all of those things!

Now I’m not going to tell you that the movie is great, or it is the next big thing…not at all. Zack Snyder made a stylish movie that feels very familiar and nostalgic. Yes, he did what J.J .Abrams does all the time, but we can’t fault Zack Snyder considering even though it had familiar things, this was supposed to be a unique story in the Star Wars universe and introduce new Star Wars characters that we could fall in love with. Well, if you don’t get to make a Star Wars movie, make a movie like Star Wars that fans can enjoy. I find no fault with what Zack Snyder did because it’s what a lot of filmmakers do. They make movies that feel familiar based on what inspired them to be filmmakers. A hero story is always familiar especially if you’ve read or watched a lot of movies with a hero’s journey. The biggest fault of this movie is that it never got to be an actual Star Wars movie because it would have been great. We get everything that we could want in a big science fiction action adventure. And you know what’s even more amazing, we have a female warrior that we connect with more than we did with Rey in Disney Star Wars trilogy, which is no fault of Daisy Ridley, but when you write bad characters, it’s hard to connect to them. Kora is the new female hero that we’ve been looking for in Star Wars! Well, too bad Disney, Zack Snyder came up with a better female hero than you did in the sequel trilogy. And while I’m not trying to be too harsh on Daisy Ridley or the character of Rey, when you don’t have a clear plan for the character, especially their origin story, the character isn’t as good they could be!

That’s not the problem in Rebel Moon. However, I do complain that we don’t know enough about the universe this story is set in, the flashback scenes only give us so much of the story and we still don’t know why Kora is a fugitive… I guess that will be explained in Part 2. There are certainly things lacking in this film considering it’s the first part of a two-part story and hopefully, that will be cleared up in the sequel. But overall, this is a good start to a much bigger story and a great way to introduce our heroes. Yes, this movie takes a few knocks because it’s not truly unique, but you can’t really fault Zack Snyder too much. Isn’t Rogue One just another Seven Samurai story or their version of The Magnificent Seven? Anthony Hopkins’ robot character, Jimmy does need to play a bigger role and we’ll probably see that in Part 2, but I feel like the character is short-lived after he tells this wonderful story about a legend that essentially sets up but this overall story is about. The harshest criticisms for Rebel Moon should only be that the movie feels too familiar and has too many movie tropes when telling a story of heroes… Then again, that’s essentially every John Wayne western!

No, Rebel Moon is not as bad as some critics have made it out to be. It’s a very enjoyable movie and it’s a lot of fun with great action. If you’re going into this movie expecting something unique, then yes, you’ll be disappointed! It almost feels like a B-science fiction movie compared to Star Wars or a cheesy Roger Corman rip-off, but those movies have their place and can still be a lot of fun to watch. We’re not getting 2001 Space Odyssey or Silent Sunning with this movie and as fans, we shouldn’t expect it to be either one of those great films, we should know that just from the trailer. What Zack Snyder has done is craft a good Star Wars-esque story that makes for a fun movie, but yes, would have been a much better actual Star Wars movie with new Star Wars characters. The harshest criticism should be on Disney for turning down this movie ideal especially when it could have been made into a rebel story set between Episode 3 and Episode 4. Familiarity is not the death of a movie as long as you’ve got a great cast to give wonderful performances and you can make a stylish movie that keeps fans glued to the screen… Zack Snyder did that! Sure, you might see your favorite Star Wars characters within the characters of this movie, but even Star Wars characters are rip-offs of other heroes from past movies that inspired George Lucas! I’m not defending Rebel Moon and trying to convince you that it’s the next great science fiction movie because it isn’t. Rebel Moon is more of a cautionary tale of what could have been a great Star Wars movie if Disney had decided to make it, but we get a similar movie that simply entertains us and you know what, that’s all we need! At least Rebel Moon feels like a copy of something else that’s great and we all love. It’s better than just remaking Star Wars: A New Hope with a film called The Force Awakens. So, should you watch Rebel Moon: Part 1 even if you’re not a Zack Snyder fan, yes, absolutely, because a Star Wars-type movie is still better than some of the Star Wars films we have gotten from Disney. It’s too bad, this movie didn’t get a big theater run because I’m confident you will agree, that it was better on the big screen than The Rise of Skywalker!  I liked Rebel Moon: Part One and can’t wait to see Part 2! My Verdict,  it’s 7/10!