The problems with turning Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon into a franchise

In the past few months, Zack Snyder has introduced audiences to a brand new world with his Rebel Moon movies. So far there have been two films telling the story of a small village on a distant moon standing up against the might of the evil Motherworld and its military arm, the Imperium. But Snyder has plans for more, hoping to expand the franchise into television, comics, and beyond, not to mention more movies. "[N]ow that you’re four hours into the Rebel Moon universe, with another potential six hours coming for you, it’ll be fun to see where we go after that," he told The Hollywood Reporter.

That's not going to be easy, though, and might even be impossible to do successfully because of how this world is built. Both of these movies have been misses with critics, but that isn't the real problem. There's an army of Snyder fans willing to defend his work, and the fact this is a Netflix franchise means there's a passive audience ready and waiting who might well watch a film they're getting for free, no matter how bad it is. The real difficulty here is that Rebel Moon simply lacks any of the features needed to make a successful, long-running franchise that will grab audiences again and again.

Rebel Moon isn't what you might call a "tribute" or "callback" to older movies like Star Wars; it's more a poor-quality imitation. Rather than taking some elements, incorporating them into its own world and putting a new spin on them, it copy and pastes whole chunks from other movies and shows, leaving it devoid of any originality.

This is clear in its premise of a bunch of plucky rebels fighting off an oppressive interstellar empire, and while there are a lot of movies that work off that basic plot, Rebel Moon doesn't do anything to make this version new or unique. It also copy-pastes from the 1960 western The Magnificent Seven (which itself is a reworking of the 1954 film Seven Samurai), having a village in peril that's being protected by a group of mercenaries. None of it is different enough from anything we've seen done before, and done a lot better.

The fact that the story centers around a small farming village doesn't do anything to help set up the larger world. Right from the start of Star Wars, it's clear that the Empire is ruthless. Grand Moff Tarkin literally destroys an entire planet just to make a point, and the omnipotence of Stormtroopers even in backwaters like Mos Eisley lend the feeling that you can't escape from their authority. Here, the Imperium is apparently interested in the grain harvest from a few hundred farmers, which doesn't make it seem powerful at all, more like desperate.

Kora and the rest of the protagonists are only interested in defending the small moon of Veldt. There are no galaxy-wide consequences for what they do, and while it's a victory for them, blowing up a single ship and killing an admiral will have little to no impact on the war machine of the Motherworld. In his Dune movies, Denis Villeneuve also sets his story almost entirely on the desert world of Arrakis, but it doesn't matter as much because Arrakis is vital to the operation of the whole galaxy. It's the only planet that contains the powerful spice needed for space travel, which makes it a strategic necessity for any powerful empire. While the Fremen are fighting for their home planet, they are fighting against powers that have a good reason for wanting to control the world, and the outcome holds the fate of the known universe in the balance.

Veldt feels small and isolated in Rebel Moon. We don't get much sense of galactic politics or the power plays going on behind the scenes. We don't see much of ordinary life outside of Veldt, or how oppressive the Motherworld is. It leaves the story feeling half-finished and unsatisfying.

Holding out for a hero(es)

Even if future movies were to correct this, the franchise stills lacks any real characters to get behind. After two long movies, we know little about any of the main cast other than their basic backstory. None of them are engaging or interesting enough to carry a story on their own, which makes it hard to believe a film could focus solely on them and have any emotional heart. Rather than them being at the center of events, they are servants of the plot, going where it tells them, not driving it along with their actions.

All of this leaves the worldbuilding hanging by a single thread which proves too weak to hold it alone. Unlike other franchises such as The Lord of the Rings, there's no cohesive design quality to the world. In The Lord of the Rings, it's easy to distinguish the various cultures at a glance, from the rustic simplicity of the Hobbits to the natural elegance of the Elves to the angular strength of the dwarves. Everything is designed around the unique histories of these civilizations, enhancing their believability. Rebel Moon, on the other hand, operates by a "that would look cool" philosophy. Veldt has the appearance of mediaeval Northern Europe, the Imperium is mid-20th century militarism, and one world has a strange late-Victorian London aesthetic, none of which feel natural.

Things are randomly thrown at the screen with no explanation. The Imperium dreadnought is stoked by men using hand shovels, the plasma swords are just lightsabers by another name, and people ride gryphon-like creatures even though there are spaceships and speeders. All of this leads to a disjointed look and feel, and it's hard to get immersed in the world or understand how it works. It doesn't make you want to know more, because there's no singular idea or principle underpinning the way this world is designed. There's no understanding of the technology or its limitations, which means practically anything can be designed to serve as a plot device with no explanation.

With the lukewarm response to Rebel Moon parts one and two, it's hard to know whether there will be any more stories set in this universe, or whether it will fall before it goes further. Either way, the franchise is off to a bad start and hasn't done any of the important work needed to ensure a memorable fictional world, meaning any future projects will be built on very shaky ground, with nothing particularly interesting to hook viewers and keep them wanting more. It is a shame, because with a bit more hard work, Rebel Moon could have been something great, but now, it's been demolished by critics and viewers alike and it's not likely to ever recover from that, no matter how much it expands.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel.