‘Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire’: Zack Snyder fails in the attempt to create his own ‘Star Wars’

The filmmaker has wanted to create his own space saga for years, and has even proposed the project to Lucasfilm. He found a willing collaborator in Netflix, who produced a film that turns out to be derivative of Akira Kurosawa and George Lucas

A moment of 'Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire.'

Dec 21, 2023 - 00:10CET

Zack Snyder is in a moment akin to that of the Adelantado don Rodrigo Díaz de Carreras, the protagonist of Argentinian group Les Luthiers’s mythic comedy-musical cantata: the explorer who “succeeded in founding Caracas in the middle of downtown Caracas … which was already founded!”

The director of 300, Watchmen and Iron Man, among other films, has often been referred to as “visionary” by his fans (and aligned members of the press), and is determined to participate in the Star Wars universe, having even presented an ambitious additional movie for the saga to Lucasfilm. This offering, rejected a decade ago by George Lucas’s company shortly after it was bought by Disney, wound up becoming its own franchise and a pair of films for Netflix. Its first chapter is called Rebel Moon Part 1: A Child of Fire and it makes clear Lucas and associates’ reasons for passing on the project. Just like Adelantado Díaz de Carreras, Snyder succeeded in founding a Caracas that was already founded, with his Star Wars movie that has already been done. It’s a double heist, because it was not enough to copy fundamental aspects of Star Wars’ first trilogy. Along the way, he also robs from Akira Kurosawa, who Lucas already pulled from in his day, although in a much more original manner.

At least Lucas looked to the characters and plot of a minor and, at the time, fairly unknown Kurosawa adventure to create the story of that galaxy far, far away: The Hidden Fortress (1958). The samurais become Jedis, Princess Yuki becomes Princess Leia, and coupled with Lucas’s never-before-seen visual imagery, the rest is history. Snyder plagiarizes nothing less than The Seven Samurai. The central story of Rebel Moon is identical to the Japanese masterpiece, of which there have been several official remakes and a few undercover ones, like Pixar’s Bugs, in which a farming community receives a violent visit by a spaceship full of evildoers belonging to a tyrannical power, who spare their lives in exchange for the eventual delivery of their crops, a timeline they take advantage of to look for warriors on neighboring planets to help them confront their oppressors. Naturally, the group is formed by seven individuals; among them, a mercenary who looks like a clone in both attitude and manners to Han Solo.

In an interview for the British magazine Empire during the summer of 2023, Snyder admitted that he wanted to make “The Seven Samurai in space” and that he “knew that the origins for George were a lot of those Kurosawa films.” He says it as a visionary would, as if no one previously knew this fact, as if he had discovered it, like the Adelantado Díaz de Carreras.

Sofia Boutella, in ‘Rebel Moon Part 1: A Child of Fire.'

Rebel Moon’s prologue, for its part, with its explanations of the state of the galaxy, tyrannical power and corrupt senators, smells so much like Star Wars that the pillage seems insurmountable. But the epilogue still has one more surprise in store, a “don’t leave yet, the plunder’s not over,” which we will refrain from revealing, but which steals one of the most emblematic moments in Star Wars regarding the relationships between its characters. As if nobody knew about it, as if he had discovered it, like the Adelantado Díaz de Carreras.

Meanwhile, visually, Snyder applies his own stylistic stamp: the slow-motion action sequences, the recruitment of a group of performers with imposing physiques and debatable acting ability. But we are far from the narrative solidity that he gave to the graphic novel Watchmen for its notable film adaptation, and from his spectacular debut, Dawn of the Dead (2004), which augured possible triumphs.

After seeing A Fistful of Dollars, directed by Sergio Leone in 1964, and seeing its numerous similarities with 1961′s Yojimbo, Kurosawa sent a letter to the Italian in which he told him: “Signor Leone, I have just had the chance to see your film. It is a very fine film, but it is my film.” And he sued him. With Snyder’s offering, Kurosawa wouldn’t even have the consolation of it being a very fine film.

Coda: Before the Yojimbo plagiarism case went to trial, a financial agreement was reached: its Japanese producers would get 15 percent of the total proceeds of For a Fistful of Dollars, plus exclusive rights to its distribution in Japan and South Korea.