Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon is f*cking beautiful
Written by João Guilherme Fidelis
During an interview for The Wrap to promote Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), James Cameron revealed that FOX wanted the flying scenes in Pandora removed from the first film because it didn’t add anything to the plot and he agreed with it because it was true. It wasn’t moving the plot, but it was allowing people to enjoy the moment. Later in the interview, he comments on how people forget to put beauty into a film and how movies are poluted by snarky remarks, sarcasm and jokes to dilute the dramatic tension.
I couldn’t stop thinking about this interview after I rewatched Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon Chapters 1 and 2 a few days ago not because the filmmaker is part of the problem mentioned by Cameron, but because he is not. Movie critics have always crucified Snyder for being humorless, for being too serious and for being “edgy”, a word that really lost its meaning in film discourse. They keep describing his films as fantasies of what a teenager deems as adult (sex and violence), insist on the backhanded compliment that he is just a good visual director and has no substance, are deeply bothered by slow-motion and of course, that he makes unnecessary scenes that don’t move the plot. For Rebel Moon, the farming scenes, the sex scenes, the gore, they all have been, in some manner, the new targets of those critics who loathe his work on an extreme level. Not to mention the insistence on being ignorant regarding the filmmaker’s deal with Netflix about the four cuts of the film.
What is rarely spoken about Snyder as a filmmaker is how he , like Cameron put it, allows people who engage with his art to enjoy the moment, how he put so much beauty into the film, how honest, genuine and sensible he is. He wears his heart on his sleeve and those who try to find any trace of irony, came to the wrong place. It’s no different with Chalice of Blood and Curse of Forgiveness. Snyder allows you to appreciate the horizon of Veldt, to experience the peace in the village, to feel the love and attraction between Kora (Sofia Boutella) and Gunnar (Michiel Huisman) and the way they long for each other at every single glance and small touch, to discover the purpose of existence alongside Jimmy (Anthony Hopkins) and experiment the same pain as our heroes in their flashback montages accompanied by narration. Snyder cares about what makes us human. He cares about beauty. Even though the filmmaker has described his original vision as a parody of the sci-fi genre just like Watchmen was for comic book movies, and there are many interesting subversions in it, Rebel Moon is as earnest as his Justice League. Instead of a movie that simply put warriors against evil, it’s a drama about broken people finding purpose in their lives and redeeming themselves from guilt.
To truly allow all the intensity, dramatic tension and reality of his story to flourish, Snyder chooses to show beauty in its totality. There’s more romance in this film than in the last 5 years of Star Wars and super-hero movies combined. In Rebel Moon, people are not only hot with their muscle and physical prowess beautifully highlighted by Snyder’s visual style, but they are also horny. As they say in Wachowski’s The Matrix “To deny our impulses is to deny the very thing that makes us human.” Many will deem the sex scenes between Kora and her two partners as unnecessary, as Snyder trying too hard to make a movie for adults, but guess what? To have such a negative view on sex makes you sound like a kid who says “Ew” when your parents kiss. And guess what again? They are essential pieces of storytelling to show us different moments of her journey: One in which she has not opened herseflf to love and the other in which she has opened herself to it and once she does this, Snyder doesn’t stop there. Kora and Gunnar are horny for the rest of the film as well, as horny as Neo and Trinity were in The Matrix saga.
Love is instrumental to this film. In Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), one of the characters believes that the Rebellion will win not by fighting what they hate, but by saving what they love. Star Wars is a movie series for kids and teenagers so obviously they would not like to teach the lesson of embracing hate. In fact, striking Palpatine down in that universe is seen as a very wrong thing to do, even though a bunch of stormtroopers obviously die in the film by the hands of the heroes. Love is love and hate is hate in Star Wars. In Rebel Moon, however, there are no kids you have to teach lessons to. Our heroes announce many times they will kill people. Nemesis (Donna Bae) is moved by revenge, she acknowledges the lack of honor in herself, but she is never villainized by the narrative. Her desire for revenge is never questioned and she is not turned into a monster because of this. She strikes down who she hates and she stills saves what she loves. Same for Kora, who brutally kills Noble not only once, but twice, kill even soldiers who try to argue they have a family, and yet, she is still a character empowered and inspired by her love for Gunnar and Veldt and Issa’s compassion.
Proportionally to how he shows beauty in it its totality, Snyder also makes sure horror is shown in its totality. The Motherworld’s Imperium are probably the most scary galactic fascist empire in fiction in a long long time and it has all to do with how the filmmaker presents their actions. Not a single table is left unturned. They brand women, they bash skulls of fathers and kings, they want to sexually abuse girls, they bombard planets and make them suffer a slow death, they pervert the message of a child savior and use her as justification for their cruelty, they want everything and Snyder makes sure we see it is in its entirety. The extreme violence of the film is a tool that creates a perfect constrast between peace and chaos and enriches the experience crafted by the filmmaker. The opening scene, much different of the implied threat through Jimmy’s narration in the PG-13 cuts, sets the dark tone of the narrative and its central discussion, something that the perverse Admiral Noble (Ed Skrein) lacks: Honor.
It is the word mostly spoken in both films and one of the most important themes. Some detractors of Snyder’s work like to say that he is an individualist, but the way he is praised by everyone who works with him as a very collaborative artist and his consistent interest on telling stories about people thriving only if they stand for something and work together tells me otherwise. Especially in Rebel Moon. Honor and the lack of it is represented by many moments and characters, but it’s through Gunnar that Snyder shows the dangers of making a deal with the devil and staying impartial before cruelty and horror. Just like the opening scene, the climax hinges on the choice of killing someone you love in order to preserve something, but different of Aris with his father, it is in order to ensure his own survival. Kai (Charlie Hunnam) is the anti-Gunnar, everything he can become if he chooses to not care about what he stands for. This was evident in the previous cut of Part 1, but works much better here because the scoundrel also shares the same attraction the farmer feels for Kora. Gunnar’s choice of saving Kora not only strongly reaffirms his love for her, but it’s a proof that the so proclaimed dead concept of honor is still alive.
The woman who struggles with admitting romantic feelings falling in love with the farmer instead of scoundrel feels like subversion of the original Star Wars trilogy. It’s not the only one for sure. Snyder smartly subverts the Baby Yoda effect too through a little cute creature who sacrifices itself and explodes many bad guys, but my favorite subversion towards to the famous space saga is the heroine’s relationship with the myth. “Luke Skywalker? I thought he was a myth.” are the words uttered with such childlike enthusiasm by Rey (Daisy Ridley) in Abrams The Force Awakens (2015). Throughout the course of three films, the character feels deeply inspired by the original heroes and the stories that come with them and it is never seen as something horrible or terrifying because the franchise wants a kid to believe they can be the hero of their lives. Even though they show Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) in the lowest moment of his life, Rey’s faith in his legend makes her a better person.
Snyder has always loved to portray our relationship with stories in his works. It’s in 300 through the retelling of a battle, in Legend of The Guardians through the discovery of legendary heroes, it’s in Sucker Punch through the creation of a fictional reality used by Babydoll (Emily Browning) to cope with her own reality and it’s in Rebel Moon too. Snyder takes the meta approach employed by Star Wars to a whole other level. Just like Rey with Luke, a young Kora finds comfort in the myth, in her case, Issa. Instead of looking up to all the many conquests of the Motherworld, to an adult, she looks up to someone who shares her age. Issa is the kid she dreamed to be, filled with kindness and love, the opposite of everything represented by the machine of the war that is the Imperium, but different of the sequel trilogy, Snyder doesn’t allow that inspiration result in his heroine becoming the myth. Instead of this, as an adult, she kills it in the desperate attempt of becoming it. Feeling inspired by something is not the same as following by its example.
Even though the legend and savior child is slayed by our heroine, Snyder gives her and every other hero a chance at redemption. Kora does not have mystic powers, she doesn’t have “the Force”, she has murdered a child, but she is still capable of standing up and fight for the same compassion and kindness Issa offered her, she is still capable of loving people and she can become as inspiring as Issa on her own terms. It’s a powerful arc on its own, but when you also take in consideration the xenophoby and racism of the Motherworld towards her, how her guilt made her believe in those terrible words about herself and how she overcomes the notion that she is an outsider, that she has found home, love and most importantly, that she made the white supremacist villain tremble to the point he sees her insurgency as a myth that can inspire people and dismantle his Empire, her story becomes even more powerful.
It’s fitting that Snyder only reveals Issa transcending death after the battle of the oppressed against the oppressor. Kora has finally become the hero she wanted to be, not through the machinations of her father, but through her love for her home and through her corage. She has reconcilliated with herself, now it’s time for her to reconcilliate with the myth. Only time will tell if Rebel Moon is Snyder’s magnum opus, but it’s definitely his most ambitious project. It’s the kind of film Hollywood would never allow him to make, not even when they still loved him for “This is Sparta”, but thank god Netflix allowed him to bring all his love for image, music, mythology, comics and human connection to this six hour journey. Less plots and more beauty such as this film, please.