Review by C.J. Bunce
Fans of the world and characters of Zack Snyder’s multi-film, James Cameron-inspired sci-fi franchise Rebel Moon (reviewed here) can now dig deeper into Snyder’s original vision for the series. But it’s nothing like you’d expect. As you’d find in any novelization Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire–The Official Movie Novelization (available now here at Amazon) is an opportunity to learn more about that Dune and Star Wars-inspired sci-fi story found in the Netflix movie. But this adaptation of Zack Snyder’s original story borders on NC-17 rated or worse, including a gory scene of a boy bashing his father’s brains in, a full-on sex sequence and other elements that are nothing like the PG-13 movie you’ve seen, and definitely not for the PG-13 crowd. Were they simply nixed by Netflix, or is this an eye into the movie Snyder wanted to make?
Written by V. Castro (Aliens: Vasquez), this expansion and adaptation is laced with bizarre new elements of smut–the kind you’d once find in bad romance novels that at times makes the book feel like erotic fan fiction, as if the movie was padded with the irrelevant shock, sex, and violence of an HBO-Max production. As for violence, the reader gets pummeled with all kinds of graphic horrors. But the movie was billed as sci-fi, action, adventure–not sci-fi horror like in the Alien franchis– delivering at most the level of violence seen in Cameron’s Alita: Battle Angel. An opening sequence will leave readers thinking Aris was entirely miscast in the movie–the actor revealed none of the propensity for his character’s horrible past on the screen.
I had to go back and re-watch the film because the opening chapters were entirely unfamiliar. The scenes I viewed as key, like the Seven Samurai-inspired round-up, the bet involving riding the giant bird Gandalf-style, Anthony Hopkins’ reprogrammed robot, Jena Malone’s spider woman, and the snatching of the heroes via mechanical traps, all gets glossed over for over-long dialogue and barraging the reader with the villains and their nastiness over the heroes’ journey. Kora, the series lead played by Sofia Boutella, is treated more like a supporting character, with Ed Skrein’s one-note villain given the most attention, creating a more Emperor Palpatine-inspired story driver, with an economics-spun plot more like that of The Phantom Menace and The Last Jedi than the good stuff fans flock to sci-fi for. It’s too much backstory and not enough forward action.
For a science fiction story that by all accounts is trying to be the next Star Wars or Dune, the novelization of Rebel Moon strips away at the toned-down, mainstream elements that made the movie at a minimum serviceable or watchable. I can understand that the story hinges greatly on Roman history, borrowing Latin phrases and character names from a basic Ancient Roman history text. And so the idea of parroting Janus introducing the new season and year, and the time for fertility, laying seeds, etc. fits with that. But do we need it so graphic? You might throw out Barbarella as mixing sex and sci-fi, but this is not that.
Note that there are some basic editing quirks in the novelization, as if the author provided a final draft and someone, maybe at the studio, edited sentences out without anyone going back to neaten things up, leaving behind tense problems, word choices issues, and page after page of sentences that could either be removed or more artfully written. It’s very clunky writing for a published work. A few times a character will ask a question and another speak as if he didn’t hear it. Other times the object of a sentence appears to be missing. It’s easy enough to skip over for most people to get to the end, but you’d think something with Snyder’s name attached would be better vetted and presented.
If this story is truly mostly Snyder’s and pulled from his notes and early draft screenplay, then it could explain a difference between him and James Cameron, whose work clearly inspired much of the film. Cameron, as shown in Tech Noir and his Story of Science Fiction book and TV series, is well-read in science fiction, and that comes through in all his films. Snyder seems to be less so, providing a bare, superficial genre level and relying on visuals in his works instead. For this book, those visuals don’t get showcased enough, and there aren’t enough sci-fi or fantasy elements to elevate it to the level of the classics that inspired it.
Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire, the first movie in the series, is streaming now on Netflix. An R-Rated director’s cut is expected later this year, and if the book is any indication, the franchise will probably be done after the second film, Rebel Moon: The Scargiver, which arrives in only a few weeks–look for it April 19, 2024, on Netflix. The entire franchise is an example of why big-name creators need scrutiny, too. Some of Snyder’s good ideas could have been highlighted and the rest reined in at the studio. The novelization Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire–The Official Movie Novelization is available now here at Amazon, with Part 2 available for pre-order here.
