Rebel Moon-How to fail at Character development
In Dec 2023 Zack Snyder came out with his very own sci-fi epic, Rebel Moon: something, something Part 1, that released on Netflix. It is clear that, when left to tell a story on his own he is all style and no substance.
There are certain elements that are crucial in good storytelling. You would expect a Hollywood movie maker with a huge budget to know those key elements inside and out but that expectation has been proven wrong over and over.
Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire Poster
Zach Snyder has had some big name projects under his belt like Watchmen, 300, and Dawn of the Dead but all of these were based on existing franchises and also had screenplays. His job was to make it look cool and he does that well.
He excels at making visual eye candy but when given the responsibility of writing, producing and directing it becomes clear that he doesn’t seem to grasp one of the biggest parts of storytelling; character development.
Interactions with others is how we learn about characters.
Characters are how we as an audience connect to the story. The more we learn about the characters the more we connect and care about what happens. Without that it’s like watching fireworks. Oohh! Ahhh! Then it’s over.
Characters in Rebel Moon have nothing resembling a personality and they had nothing for us to relate to. They were all somber and boring and there was no reason for it. Remember how interesting and fun it was watching the characters come together in Guardians of the Galaxy? They all had different skills and personalities and watching them conflict with each other as they learned how to work together made for memorable moments and gave us a reason to care when one of them got hurt.
None of that exists in Rebel Moon. One after another, after another each character is introduced in some visually exciting way that has no bearing to the plot. Not once do we see any of these characters interact with each other with the exception of a single short scene with the space cowboy rebel and Kora.
None of the characters even seem to have a purpose. They enlist a retired general to join their cause yet he not only doesn’t lead, strategize, or do anything a General might do but he barely speaks after his introduction scene. Zack doesn’t seem to care about anything making sense or logic as long as it looks pretty.
In the climax one of the characters sacrifices himself to destroy the giant ship in a slow motion leap with a spear! You read that right. Remember how much planning went into destroying the death star? How it took everything Luke had learned to make the shot. Why bother with any of that, just have a dude do a giant leap with a spear.
Added to that, it’s impossible to care because we just met the character 10 minutes prior and know absolutely nothing about him. Some other character screams and cries at his death but I don’t know her or her relationship to him. Was she his lover, sister, niece? Who knows.
The main protagonist, Kora, is just as lifeless and dull as all the rest. During one of her boring monologues, she explains that she doesn’t know if she could love or be loved because the evil empire beat it out of her saying it was a weakness. Then a few scenes later in another monologue, (there is so much clunky exposition in this crap ass movie) she states that at the academy they were told to find a lover for those moments when abstract conquests didn’t bind them. Wait? Wtf? Which is it?
This film spends most of it’s time collecting the group of characters who should have all the potential to be very interesting but they aren’t because Zack doesn’t do anything with any of them. Now, some of you might say, “this is only part one, the rest of the story will be fleshed out in the next part. To that I say, NOOOO! A movie that is over 2 hrs should be a complete story. Every episode of any tv show has the ability to do this so why should I expect less from a multimillion dollar 2 hr movie?
Some suggestions for improvement.
As mentioned, Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Wars a new hope, which this movie heavily leans on in, both do a great job of introducing many characters and making us give a damn about them by the time the climax of the story comes. So let’s use those as a roadmap.
Stories are about characters changing and growing. When we are introduced to Luke Skywalker we quickly learn of his hopes and dreams of a life being a fighter pilot. We relate to that because most people can relate to having aspirations. But what does the main protagonist of Rebel Moon desire? She plows fields and is comfortable where she is at until it is threatened by the Motherworld. She seeks to find others to help her destroy a planet killing ship and save her village.
Luke is introduced to the force and needs to adapt, change and learn how to use it to finally destroy the death star. This is called a character arc. There is what the character wants and then there is what they need. They usually know what they want but must discover what they need. In Guardians, the main protagonist Star-Lord goes from Outlaw to hero by changing his ways. Kora from Rebel Moon doesn’t change at all. She started as a brooding and somber soldier and remains that. The villager that goes with her however is a great candidate to be the main protagonist. He knows nothing about the world outside of his little village and Kora could serve as his mentor. An archetype that this story does not currently have because no one has anything to learn.
Doing this would eliminate the need for all the monologuing about Kora’s backstory, instead it could remain a mystery. This comes tomind because I am using this approach in Mythica. Kimberly is the naïve young girl with no experience and Riley Scott is the mysterious bad ass along with Magnus the cunning soldier who help her to learn and grow into a hero.
Fixing the other characters
One of the things that makes the ensemble cast of both Gaurdians and A New Hope work is the diversity in the characters learning to work together. Where we see this in both movies are in the in-between. Traveling through space Obi-wan teaches Luke about the force and we learn what Han thinks about hokey religions and ancient weapons. In another scene traveling through space we learn that Peter Quill only has 12% of a plan but has enough heart to rally the troops anyway. Rebel Moon needs some scene like this to allow us to get to know the characters.
The Plot
The plot of this whole movie is very similar to a New Hope but it is missing some of the key elements. Rebel moon has an evil empire on the hunt for a rebel leader and new hope has them already captured the rebel leader and Luke is brought along with Obi-wan to rescue her. The evil empire destroys Leah’s whole planet. It becomes personal because Lea knows Obi-wan and Luke is mentored by him enough that he is eager to learn more when suddenly Obi-wan is killed. The gang then plots and plans an attack to destroy the death star. In Rebel Moon the rebels deliver themselves right in to the hands of the empire and then escape while simultaneously destroying the planet killer with no training or plan or even working together. It’s just luck.
Imagine if the group in Rebel Moon did manage to escape but the evil empire destroyed one of the planets of the characters. They would have even more motivation to destroy the thing and their first attempt didn’t work because they didn’t work together so they must learn to do that to succeed. Again, this mirrors what I am setting up for Mythica.
Characters and character development are what make us care. Without it all you have is a light show spectacle. If you liked this movie you probably like style over substance. If you want to know how to have better character development and have people actually care about your story then be sure and subscribe to this blog because I’m going to get in to it even more.
Did you see it? What did you think of Rebel Moon? Leave your comments below.
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