More than a decade ago, when the Disney company bought the Lucasfilm studio with all its offal (in the sense of “Star Wars”), Zack Snyder appeared on the threshold of the “mouse house” with an offer to make his own film. A galaxy far, far away. Then nothing went right: Disney wasn’t interested in a movie rated R that didn’t feature familiar characters, and Snyder quickly realized that producers focused on family content wouldn’t let him fully develop. Instead, he continued to build the DC Extended Universe (this was during post-production on Man of Steel) and acquired the most insufferable fanbase in the world.
But the idea didn’t disappear anywhere, and years later it found a place in the streaming catalog of Netflix, with whom Snyder began a relationship after leaving Warner Bros.
Funny: No one is hiding the fact that this was actually supposed to be “Star Wars” or that the original pitch was “Seven Samurai” [Акиры Куросавы] It’s probably meant to be that way, because Snyder didn’t bother inventing anything more than that: it doesn’t amount to literal plagiarism, and God bless him. In fact, the director raked in $166 million from Netflix for an unofficial Star Wars fan fiction (here’s the real heist movie , not like your “Army of Thieves”).
There is either a vile desire to cultivate assets, or a preemptive strike against citizens preparing for the new round of the #ReleasetheSnyderCut campaign (SnyderCut’s Snydercut?), but it looks like there will be four “Rebel Moons”. : two “gentle” cuts and two “for adults” (“for adults”), according to Snyder himself, turned out to be completely different films – consider them from a different universe; fortunately, there is no mention of black and white versions yet). The second option (preemptive strike) is supported by the fact that Netflix’s ingenious financial model does not require attracting a wide range of people to theaters; This should, in theory, solve the problem of needing to castrate movies based on age ratings. But let’s leave the speculations behind.
No matter how many parts and kits we have in front of us, the project has only two problems. The first is that Snyder’s initial and main intention was precisely the desire to film “Star Wars” (and not, for example, tell an interesting story), the rest of which was later somehow put together around this axis. Second, Snyder doesn’t seem to understand Star Wars very well (which is hard to do).
“Seven Samurai” is a great film, and Lucas himself was inspired by Kurosawa, but its plot, about the defense of a small village, cannot be adequately scaled to the size of a giant space opera: it only works in one-episode form. of the TV series “The Mandalorian” (“Episode 4: Sanctuary”). But that’s exactly what happens in Rebel Moon. Star Wars was about systemic change and the fight to overthrow a dictatorship (plus it was an artistic expression about the Vietnam War). In “Rebel Moon” we are talking about a specific case of repression (i.e. a literally broken grain deal), the main characters are not very interested in the grand scheme of things. It has its own imperialists and rebels, but their confrontation—rather than serving as a semantic center—seems to be pushed to the margins of the narrative. These seven samurai are outside of politics.
As a result, it turns out to be incredibly difficult to get emotionally involved in the film, so regularly occurring moments where the viewer is expected to take a breath are yawn-inducing. It’s a deeply ridiculous film, its absurdity sometimes endearing but mostly frustrating: Snyder has somehow achieved a profoundly odd blend of the cartoonishness of Lucas’s prequel trilogy and the sprawling pathos of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune (here, too, by the way, a They give half a movie for the price of the movie).
Obviously, the director’s much appreciated quotes from the Bible are also included and one wants to be returned to the sender, as they say: Whatever happens, we find it. Or, in Snyderian terms, WHAT YOU TAKE FORM IS WHAT COMES OUT.