Critics Are Ripping Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon to Shreds; What Do Fans Say?

Summary:

• Zack Snyder’s new movie Rebel Moon: Part One is supposed to start a new massive sci-fi franchise.
• Critics were displeased with the film, claiming that Snyder failed to create compelling characters and stories.
• Fans are generally hyped by Rebel Moon and are eager to see the second movie and the first installment’s director’s cut.

Zack Snyder promised us an adult and high-rated Star Wars franchise, and Zack Snyder delivered on his promise. Rebel Moon: Part One is already out, though it’s surprisingly not R-rated, and it’s just about as divisive as we predicted. The movie is either loved or hated with no in-between and as usual, critics and viewers can’t agree with each other.

How Did Critics Rate Rebel Moon: Part One?

Over on Rotten Tomatoes, Zack Snyder’s new movie is not looking hot in terms of its critic score: as of the time of writing, Rebel Moon: Part One has a terrible 25% general critic score and an even more underwhelming 4% top critic score. The reviews from critics are as ruthless as it gets, annihilating the new franchise’s start.

“Not only is Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire a pale imitation of the George Lucas and Akira Kurosawa films that inspired it, but it’s a structurally unsound mess that fails to inspire any excitement for its planned second half, let alone the trilogy that’s supposed to follow. It’s a blunder of Hobbit proportions,” Observer’s Dylan Roth wrote.

Other critics tend to agree. While they generally praise the movie’s action direction and spectacular visuals, they claim that Rebel Moon: Part One’s pacing is off, storytelling lags behind artistic vision, and world-building is merely a pale imitation of the grand franchises Zack Snyder’s new universe is being created after.

Long story short, critics hated Rebel Moon’s premiere and rated it poorly, to say the least. But in this case, the Rotten Tomatoes score difference between critics and the audience has the largest gap — so let’s see what the other side has to say.

How Did Fans Rate Rebel Moon: Part One?

As of the time of writing, the movie’s audience score is much higher: it’s sitting rather comfortably at 72%. That’s quite a leap from the 25% and especially 4% the top critics rated Rebel Moon for; still, they provided genuinely sound explanations for their opinions. What do fans who watched the movie have to say about it?

“When Star Wars first aired back in the 70s, it was panned by critics only to become one of the most loved movie franchises of all time. History repeats in Rebel Moon. <...> Rebel Moon: Part one is a spectacular space fantasy that creates a unique universe and sows the seeds of what can become a spectacular space fantasy series,” Gordon M. wrote.

Other fans en masse agree with them. While some point out various weak points (too little character exploration and weird pacing, in particular), they are generally excited for the second part and, even more so, for the director’s cut of Rebel Moon: Part One that Zack Snyder is currently working on. That’s right: there will be one.

To put the discussion to rest, we’d say that it’s too early to judge. Few franchises are as stellar at their start as they grow to become later, and Rebel Moon may yet either prove its critics wrong or dissolve fans’ dreams of a new generation of sci-fi epics.

For now, Part One turns out to be a divisive movie, and there’s little else to say.

But if you’ve watched Rebel Moon: Part One, let us know what you thought of it! Are you on the side of critics or viewers in this (yet another) Rotten Tomatoes score war?

Sources: Rotten Tomatoes, Observer