Zack Snyder’s “Rebel Moon” is a cornball space adventure that’s like “Star Wars,” “Lord of the Rings,” “Guardians of the Galaxy” and a few dozen other signposts — a little bit of “Star Trek,” a dash of “Pirates of the Caribbean,” a hint of “Starship Troopers” — all rolled into one.
To its credit, it borrows from a solid slate of sources, and while it’s highly derivative, it’s also highly watchable. Its referential nature helps it clip along at an expedient pace, and while it never feels like you’re watching something new, it at least feels like you’re watching something familiar. “Rebel Moon” is like coming home.
In the movie — its full cumbersome title is “Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire,” and yes, a Part II is due out in April — a peaceful group of farmers on a far off moon known as Veldt is raided by an evil group of space Nazis known as the Motherworld. Its commander, Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein, appropriately dastardly, like if “Inglourious Basterds’” Col. Hans Landa was played by Cillian Murphy) wants the planet’s crops and puts everyone on notice: He’ll be back in 10 weeks, and he expects a full bounty. Clock is ticking.
Kora (Sofia Boutella), an ex-Motherworld soldier, leads a resistance against the tyranny, and along with Gunnar (Michiel Huisman), a Veldt farmer, she cruises around the galaxy to gather up a team to take a stand against the bad guys. This is where “Rebel Moon” picks up steam as the pair visits planets with names like Daggus and Moon of Pollux, the latter of which sounds like an ‘80s goth band, in side missions that feel like tiny episodes inside the larger whole. It moves so quickly that at one point Snyder stages an elaborate fight between a swordsmith (Doona Bae) and a spider-lady (Jena Malone) whom we’ve barely even met. Wait, who are these two again?
