Call me crazy, but I enjoyed Rebel Moon Part 1. Sure, it's pretty mindless, but it's heart is the right place and there's a lot of fun to be had, if you can switch you brain off.
We keep hearing about how this was originally pitched as a Star Wars movie and you can feel that, however, I'm glad it's not. It is to Star Wars what The Orville is to Star Trek. A bit of an homage/love letter, without the burden of existing continuity and characters.
Most of the (reasonable) flaws I've read are justified, but I also think they're getting blown out of proportion. They're nothing compared to the average Superhero movie.
The most basic question is, why would a giant starship be so bothered about the grain crop from a single farming village on a backwater world? They even establish there are more civilised towns elsewhere on the same planet! Which means there must be trading hubs of some sort. When deciding to do his 'Seven Samurai in Space' Snyder obviously took it a tad too literally. Battle Beyond the Stars, back in 1980, handled it far more sensibly by up-scaling from a small town to a planet trying to defend itself against invaders. That was already a re-imagining of 'Seven Samurai in Space', and itself made to cash in on the release of Star Wars.
And don't get me started on the idiot who managed to pierce a gunnery turret on a spaceship using a spear, which in turn ended up being the pilot of the ship as well, so that it crashed....
But, as I said, beside a few 'facepalm' moments such as those (which are nothing in comparison to even many of the 'best' superhero movies), it was fun ride.
Too many people are comparing it to Dune, when they should just enjoy it for what it is. A big, dumb, fun, sci-fi action movie to enjoy on your home cinema (And to be honest, I don't think even the recent Dune was as great as many think, and pales in comparison to Lynch's version).
So to sum up, is it big and frequently daft and mindless? Yes, but don't overthink it. It's also just good fun, and at least it's not a sequel, reboot, franchise destroyer.
We keep hearing about how this was originally pitched as a Star Wars movie and you can feel that, however, I'm glad it's not. It is to Star Wars what The Orville is to Star Trek. A bit of an homage/love letter, without the burden of existing continuity and characters.
Most of the (reasonable) flaws I've read are justified, but I also think they're getting blown out of proportion. They're nothing compared to the average Superhero movie.
The most basic question is, why would a giant starship be so bothered about the grain crop from a single farming village on a backwater world? They even establish there are more civilised towns elsewhere on the same planet! Which means there must be trading hubs of some sort. When deciding to do his 'Seven Samurai in Space' Snyder obviously took it a tad too literally. Battle Beyond the Stars, back in 1980, handled it far more sensibly by up-scaling from a small town to a planet trying to defend itself against invaders. That was already a re-imagining of 'Seven Samurai in Space', and itself made to cash in on the release of Star Wars.
And don't get me started on the idiot who managed to pierce a gunnery turret on a spaceship using a spear, which in turn ended up being the pilot of the ship as well, so that it crashed....
But, as I said, beside a few 'facepalm' moments such as those (which are nothing in comparison to even many of the 'best' superhero movies), it was fun ride.
Too many people are comparing it to Dune, when they should just enjoy it for what it is. A big, dumb, fun, sci-fi action movie to enjoy on your home cinema (And to be honest, I don't think even the recent Dune was as great as many think, and pales in comparison to Lynch's version).
So to sum up, is it big and frequently daft and mindless? Yes, but don't overthink it. It's also just good fun, and at least it's not a sequel, reboot, franchise destroyer.