Netflix's biggest movie of the year is also one of its worst rated

The review embargo for Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon has broken and critics have not been kind. The film is the biggest of the year for Netflix and one of the most expensive movies it has ever made.

Based on an idea that Snyder had for a Star Wars movie, the plot was re-jigged into its own IP and the movie has been split into two parts, with second part coming out in April 2024.

The first part tells the tale of Kora (Sofia Boutella), a stranger who is tasked to build a rebel band of warriors to help battle the tyranny of an evil king.

So far so Star Wars, but it seems that Snyder's re-imagining of a story of rebel forces doing what they can to stop their world being consumed by evil has not captured the minds of the critics.

Rebel Moon: Part One - A Child Of Fire has a 24% Rotten Tomatoes rating currently, making it the second-worst rated Zack Snyder movie of all time. Sucker Punch in the bottom spot, with a rating of just 23%.

While it isn't the worst reviewed Netflix movie of the year - that goes to the 23% carrying Pain Hustlers - it's not the reaction Netflix would have wanted for such its tentpole movie, one which will be taking over the Netflix homepage when it's released.

Here's what the critics are saying:

Deadline says: Another Zack Snyder movie, that deals with the same old issues. Quality production values with scatterbrained, incoherent storytelling. I feel like a broken record.

The Wrap notes: A hugely expensive but uninspired 'Star Wars' knockoff with some thrilling action sequences, and some truly ugly moments that taint the entire thing.

The Guardian writes: Snyder mistakes exposition for world-building, the lugubriously delivered reams of backstory removing the audience from the fantasy rather than immersing them in it.

IndieWire says: A movie that feels like a million isolated storyboards without a single thing welding them together.

Hollywood Reporter believes: Just seconds into the leaden sci-fi saga Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire, it’s clear the director is back to indulging his worst tendency for self-serious bombast.

Variety thinks: 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.

Screen International reckons: Nostalgia only takes this dreary space opera so far, and it lacks the indelible characters and riveting adventure that made George Lucas’s blockbusters so resonant.

There are some who are fans, with Looper explaining: It doesn't work entirely, but there's a thrill to seeing a movie operating on this scale that hasn't been sanitized within an inch of its life.

JoBlo is also a fan, reckoning: While undeniably derivative (more of The Magnificent Seven/ Seven Samurai than Star Wars), Rebel Moon is nonetheless wildly entertaining and a very solid space opera.

The good news is that the audience score is currently at 71%, which makes sense given fans of Snyder's work are passionate and rarely agree with what the critics think.

It's likely that when Rebel Moon makes his streaming debut on Netflix 22 December it will head straight to the top spot.

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