“Rebel Moon” star Sofia Boutella told Vulture that it was hard to endure the critical beating the film took when it arrived on Netflix late last year. A passion project for writer-director Zack Snyder, “Rebel Moon” is a two-part space opera starring Boutella as a former soldier who recruits warriors to fight back against the evil Imperium when her farming colony is threatened. “Part One: A Child of Fire” earned pans and boasts a 21% on Rotten Tomatoes, while “Part Two: The Scargiver” is coming in April.
“I always thought that I was fully armed to take on those punches, and then I read the critics thatcame down on ‘Rebel Moon’and it really affected me,” Boutella said about the extremely negative reviews. “I’m just gonna be honest about it. I feel like I’m carrying it for everybody that cared so much about this project, and that’s what affected me. Not the way I look. If anything, I’ve been pretty lucky and people like my work in it, but the movie was criticized.”
“It really affected me for all of those who put so much heart, tears, and sweat in this project,” she continued. “It’s hard to see something being demolished to that extent. I’m proud to have been part of it, and if there is no more‘Rebel Moon,’ it will be a very important part of my life that I will defend forever.”
“Rebel Moon” started as a “Star Wars” pitch that Snyder originally offered to Lucasfilm. PvNew chief film critic Owen Gleiberman called the film “insanely derivative” in his review, saying it “knocks off ‘Star Wars’ and a dozen other sources … It is a movie built so entirely out of spare parts that it may, in the end, be for Snyder cultists only.” While Netflix is releasing “Part Two” later this year, it has not announced release dates yet for Snyder’s planned director’s cuts of each installment.
“The journey of Kora in ‘Rebel Moon’ — I think I found moments in scenes where I could bring vulnerability that wasn’t written,” Boutella told Vulture about her personal contributions to the film. “The beauty of working with Zack is that he allowed me to go there. I watch the film now, and I’m like, [Sighs.] ‘Did I do too much? Did I try to make a meal out of it?’ In movie No. 2, you find out something about her past that for me was fun to go through, but I did not know how to forgive the character. Like, how do you keep on living with yourself? … she carries a massive, massive guilt that needed to show.”
“Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver” is scheduled for release on April 19.
