SPOILER Rebel Moon

I'm really looking for Snyder's take on Star Wars. The new release date is December 21, one day before the original release date.

 

Watchmen was good because it wasn't written by Snyder and he pretty much just copied the comic panels.

I'm not a Snyder fan as well, and haven't watched many movies made by him. But people say Snyder is a terrible writer and his own written movies usually suck.

 

I'm a fan of most of Snyder's superhero movies (Man of Steel is a masterpiece IMO, BvS:UE is the sum of its parts, and ZSJL is amazing), but the non-superhero stuff I can leave behind. I really want this to be good. Not only for Snyder's sake (because Netflix WILL axe this before it's finished if it's not good), but also for Star Wars' sake. Star Wars, like many franchises, needs good healthy competition. It needs to be told that coasting in laurels will not suffice, because there's something right around the corner people can go to if the game isn't stepped up. (Not that I think this is currently the case, as Ahsoka and Andor were brilliantly done, but Star Wars does have a tendency to be self-pandering at times.) I also really just want the big space opera boom to keep going, and I wanted Rebel Moon to be part of it.

But it's looking like the movie isn't going to be good...sigh...well, if it's better than Ant-Man 3, that's better than nothing I guess.

 

No disrespect intended, comic panels is an awkward term, to me, because comic book artist rarely use that term, so it comes off to me as someone who isn't an artist in general, maybe an artist in a different field of work describing the comic book page, composition, or layout... the comic page is usually laid out in a Z formation. Comic panels is used, but as an artist its an awkward term.

There are comic panels, and gutters, gutters are the space between the comic panels. Syndicated cartoon strips like The Argyle Sweater, or Calvin and Hobbes usually has one or a few comic panels, not an entire comic book page.

I've never heard anyone that has worked in the comic book industry, or an instructor that works in the comic book industry in a formal comic book class setting use the word comic panel, or a youtuber instructing comic book construction, I've also read and own tons of books on comic book creation and that description isn't used often. When describing comic book page, its mostly referred to as the composition, similar to a photograph or painting. Comic panels is loosely used term as far as comic book jargon.

There are allot of critics I follow that don't like Blade Runner, Prometheus, or Return of Jedi, so I'll watch Rebel Moon Wednesday and make up my own mind whether its good or awful. The same critics liked Blade Runner 2049, which wasn't a good sequel for me subjectively.

MOS is by far my favorite Superman film; I'm hoping James Gunn has something good up his sleeve. BvS is good the only issue I have is that Doomsday was brought in too soon, Doomsday should have been brought in, in a later sequel, and also killing Superman too soon as well, other than that I liked the dark version of Superman and Batman. The first 2 Chris Reeves' Superman films were good too, for its time. A dark Superman or dark super hero is what a British writer Alan Moore introduced back in 1985, with the Watchmen, that changed the comic book world forever... Moore achieved success with a dark version of the Miracle Man and continued that theme with Watchmen.

 

I'm not an artist but the official definition of a panel is:
"A panel is an individual frame, or single drawing, in the multiple-panel sequence of a comic strip or comic book, as well as a graphic novel."

And that's exactly what I'm referring to. Snyder took single frames of a well established comic series and made a visual pleasing comic book adaptation.


But I get your reaction. I have similar ones in my profession of editing.

 

Thanks so much for understanding... comic panels is used, its a legit term, but the people I work with rarely use it, that was my point, and you certainly got it.

I own several versions of Snyder's Watchmen, because I'm big fan of the graphic novel, but his version doesn't do justice to the graphic novel, visually yes, but story wise no, IMHOP.

I own several copies of the Watchmen graphic novel, including the extended versions, absolute version, and I've recently discovered there is an Artifact version, 11x17 inch book version, actual comic book page size version, which I'll have to get when I've got some disposable income available.

 

Finally watched Rebel Moon, its definitely a Star Wars Story, and I liked it allot. Its not a great film, but a good action sci-fi flick. I've been a fan of Zac Snyder since he directed 300 (2006 film), 18 years ago time really flies, which was a comic book written by the legendary Frank Miller.

With the success of 300, Snyder could do anything his heart desired, so as a comic book fan, he decided to film his holy grail: Watchmen (2009 film), a comic book written by the famous British author Alan Moore. The Watchmen graphic novel was released in 1985, and is one of the greatest graphic novels ever written for DC Comics.

I became a fan of Snyder since he disclosed that he is a comic book fan especially a fan of Heavy Metal magazine. A magazine I bought during my teen years which was embarrassingly too close to the porn magazines on the rack. Heavy Metal magazine is an adult comic book filled with nudity and sex. The covers are painted by some of the best sci-fi illustrators in the industry: Frank Frazetta (RIP), Luis Royo, Olivia De Berardinis, Chris Achilleos, Serpieri, Sorayama, Jean Giraud ( Moebius), Boris Vallejo, etc... As an aspiring illustrator I always dreamed of painting a cover for Heavy Metal magazine:



Heavy Metal magazine is filled with weird sci-fi tales, some are rather good, and inspiring. Zac Snyder's Sucker Punch (2011 film) is a love letter to Heavy Metal magazine. Gorgeous sci-fi heroines with guns, it wasn't well received, allot of people say its Snyder's worst film, but I instantly got it. Its a weird sci-fi tale that you would read in Heavy Metal magazine. Other films inspired by Heavy Metal magazine include: The 5th Element, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, and Lucy, director Luc Besson is a fan of the Metal Hurlant. I also believe Total Recall by director Paul Verhoeven was inspired by Heavy Metal/Metal Hurlant magazine.

Heavy Metal magazine is the American version of Metal Hurlant, a European comic book magazine for adults.

Rebel Moon for me is part Star Wars but also inspired by Heavy Metal/Metal Hurlant magazine respectively. I look forward to Rebel Moon part 2 in April.

The only drawback is that Netflix took advantage of Zac Snyder, he was forced to make a Rebel Moon PG-13 version, so that Netflix can later market and promote a Snyder-Cut, or a "R" rated Rebel Moon cut. Snyder wanted to release his original Rebel Moon cut, but Netflix wants to take advantage of the success of the Justice League Snyder-cut, that's why they hired him to film his Star Wars pitch, to make a Snyder cut with Rebel Moon. Its all about money with the studios and streaming services.

 

@RockyRoadHux and I watched Part 1 for about an hour and then stopped. It's just not our cup of tea.

Personally the first hour felt like a collection of scenes from better stories/movies, which Zack Snyder likes. But the thing is these scenes weren't really connected with each other and thus didn't feel earned.

Furthermore the acting was pretty mediocre. Okay, that's probably becaus of the dialogue. To quote Harrison Ford here: "You can type this sh!t, but you can't say it."

Last but not least- the visuals. They just look bad. The use of the Volume is so apparent. Maybe filmmakers have to first learn how to use it, just like how they learned how to use green screen. For me only the latest Batman movie by Matt Reeves used Volume masterfully.

I'm also not a fan of Zack's use of camera lenses. It seems like you are looking through a milk bottle. The edges are so blurred and distorted. Kinda similar to a fish eye lense.

And please Mr Snyder, stop using slow motion. It's getting boring fast, especially because it feels so random.


Maybe the movie gets better in the second half, but I just can't get excited for it. I had low expectations for this movie. I had hoped that the film would be dumb fun, buts it's only dumb.

 

Hopefully, Rebel Moon's Snyder-cut will be better for you, but knowing how you feel about the film you won't be bothered to waste your time on that... I know allot of people who disliked Batman v. Superman (which I like very much), but like the extended version.

I like allot of films most people dislike or even hate; for example, Sucker Punch, films are subjective, it doesn't bother me that a movie I like someone considers dumb.

 

I haven't seen it yet. I saw it has a 24% critics rating and thought, "Yikes, that stinks. I was really hoping it was good."

However, when I discovered its RottenTomatoes audience score was in the 70s (currently its 69%.) That tells me its worth watching. Whenever there's a big discrepancy between critics and the audience, you can usually bet on the audience's opinion.

 

Rotten Tomatoes is one of the worst rating sides, mainly because of the audience section. Rebel Moon is proving it once more. The audience reviews mostly contain 5 and 1 star ratings. Zack Snyder fans vs Snyder haters.

Funny is that I most often side with the critics' score... Hmm

 

To each his own. I remember back when the critics panned National Treasure to the point where I was reluctant to see it. But I was pleasantly surprised to discover it was a lot of fun.

More recently, I found that to be the case with the Mario Brothers movie and the live-action Little Mermaid.

 

I liked the first two National Treasure as well. Nothing original or groundbreaking but entertaining. And this is the thing. Critics have to watch so many movies, and alot of those movies are pretty much the same. So, they tend to be much more critical than the casual viewer.
So, critics are looking for different things, whereas casual audiences are just looking for entertainment and most often don’t want anything challenging or too much outside of their comfort zone. And that’s perfectly fine, not everyone takes film that seriously. Obviously there are also many non-critics who have their own taste in movies.

 

I watched Rebel Moon last night. Was it a cinematic masterpiece? No. Was it fun? Yes.

The script wasn't anything to write home about -- which is why critics panned it. Viewers had to take a leap of faith regarding how all the gang got together. But the story's characters and the actors playing them were all compelling -- which is why audiences enjoyed it. Zack nailed it with the casting of Kora. She was great (the old version of her and the new.) I also liked Nemisis alot. She was another real badass. Her battle with the human spider was awesome. The baddie was also well done.

All in all, not too shabby! I can see why it's the #1 show on Netflix. I'm looking forward to Part 2.

Yikes. What a shame. This COULD have been an incredible SW project with some script tweaking.

 

I agree, its not an epic film, typical Snyder fair which I'm a fan of, my favorite Star Wars film is ANH, I definitely identified with the similarities, especially the cantina scene. The pilot is a dark Han Solo, with a touch of Lando's double cross narrative, for TESB enthusiast ( I could imagine the pilot coming back for redemption or a change of heart).

TESB is my favorite sequel of all time, but ANH will always be my favorite Star Wars film. If I made a Star Wars fan film it would have ANH references, because I have a fondness for the Jawas, the Tusken Raiders, and the cantina patrons, and maybe that's why I also enjoyed TBoBF & Mando season 3 with its weird denizens ( Jack Black & his Queen Lizzo reminded me of those old Flash Gordon comics which GL has an affection for as well... pure Star Wars), which so many dislike, but we must remember we all adore Star Wars for different subjective reasons, somethings resonate with some, other things don't.

From what I've heard, allot of people were sour on Rebel Moon because it wasn't the final version, knowing that there is a better cut out there annoyed many... why would one waste time to watch a tame version, if there is an exhilarating cut shelved for a later time? Is what most of the critics I follow spoke about. I own several versions of my favorite films, especially Star Wars, Watchmen, Blade Runner, Alien, Terminator... so not a problem, for me.

I'm glad you had fun with it, I certainly did, I'm looking forward to the Rebel Moon Snyder's cut, if it ever happens...

 

This is subjective. For example I have seen a lot of casual audience reactions/opinions saying the characters were one dimensional. Apparently the depiction of the characters is one the biggest points of criticism.
I've only watched the first half of the first movie, but for me the characters also felt emotionally flat. Especially because the characters only say how they feel but they don't show it.

She can definitely fight, but her acting was really mediocre, at same occasions even terrible. But she didn't have much to work with in the first place. Anyone looks bad when having to act with such a ridiculously bad written dialog.

Even though the movie is the number 1 movie rightniw, the movie didn't performed as good as Netflix hoped. Probably because a lot of people are disappointed. At least you may think so if you take a look at the general audience scores. Even on Rotten Tomatoes the score is at a declining 63.

Star Wars dodged a bullet here. People were criticising TFA for being an unoriginal remake of ANH. But 'Rebel Moon' is unoriginality in its purest form. There are so many ideas and even shots taken directly from other movies... Zack Snyder didn't bother to change the stuff he copied.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 29, 2023, Original Post Date: Dec 29, 2023 ---

Sorry for the rant. :3

 

Rebel Moon has all the flash you could possibly want - without any of that pesky substance getting in the way. It’s a $150M style exercise. In its own way, that’s actually pretty impressive.