Reviews for Rebel Moon, Zack Snyder’s new Netflix space opera, have gone live – and so far, it’s resulted in the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score of the director’s career.
The first of Snyder’s sci-fi two-parter has just kicked off its limited theatrical run today (December 15), before hitting Netflix next week. While it was originally conceived as a Star Wars pitch, it became an original story and the launchpad for a new franchise under the streamer.
Part One: A Child of Fire follows Kora, a former Imperium soldier who leaves her life of war behind on a faraway farm on a distant moon. However, when the Motherworld (think the Empire, with a stronger Nazi aesthetic) threatens her village, she travels across the known galaxy to gather warriors to fight back.
Snyder’s filmography is notoriously divisive, but the reception to Rebel Moon’s first chapter has been exceedingly negative out of the gate.
Rebel Moon has Zack Snyder’s lowest Rotten Tomatoes score
Rebel Moon is currently sitting at 17% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the lowest-rated movie of the director’s oeuvre.
Below is a full ranking of Snyder’s Rotten Tomatoes scores (based on movies he’s directed) from worst to best:
- Rebel Moon: Part One – 17%
- Sucker Punch – 22%
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – 29%
- Man of Steel – 56%
- 300 – 61%
- Watchmen – 65%
- Army of the Dead – 67%
- Zack Snyder’s Justice League – 72%
- Dawn of the Dead – 76%
We should note, this is based on 24 reviews, with 20 classified as Fresh and four categorized as Rotten. The score could increase as further reviews are added to the website, and we’ll keep you updated with any major changes.
In our two-star review, we said the franchise is “DOA… it doesn’t give much life to the sci-fi genre – but may leave a scar on Snyder’s filmography, earning a rare, dishonorable distinction: it’s dull.”
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The Independent wrote: “It’s a film populated by some of the Zack Snyder’s Justice League filmmaker’s worst impulses: a mess of imagery, some of it attempting to shock, congregated largely around the idea of what might look good in a trailer.”
Variety also wrote: “Rebel Moon, while eminently watchable, is a movie built so entirely out of spare parts that it may, in the end, be for Snyder cultists only.”
In its 4/10 review, IGN wrote: “Despite a great ensemble cast, Zack Snyder’s space opera is let down by a derivative patchwork script, mediocre action sequences and a superficial story that fails to live up to its expansive promise.”
Critics who gave the film a positive write-up weren’t exactly effusive with praise, either. “Snyder’s passion project risks becoming subsumed by its own self-importance, but delivers bombastic mayhem and grandiose visuals by the bucket-load,” Total Film wrote.
Film Stories also wrote: “A Child Of Fire is helplessly dragged down by the plot only serving to set up The Scargiver, but there is plenty to enjoy here too, depending on your opinion on Snyder, of course.”
Rebel Moon is in cinemas now, and it’ll premiere on Netflix on December 22. You can check out our interview with the cast here.