Rebel Moon's 'Seven Samurai' Team Ranked

This article contains spoilers for "Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire."

Hear me out: "Rebel Moon" isn't actually as bad as you might think. Sure, Netflix's latest team-up with bro auteur Zack Snyder can feel more like a love letter to older, better movies than it does a story all its own. The streamer's request for a more family-friendly version of Snyder's vision also didn't help, as the PG-13 cut of the film seems woefully incomplete in some respects. But even with the knowledge of a reportedly better, R-rated cut of "Rebel Moon" sitting hostage on some Netflix executive's hard drive, there's still a lot to like about the film as is.

With "Rebel Moon," Snyder set out to remix epics like "Star Wars" and "Seven Samurai" — and if you squint, his liberal homages serve this story quite well, especially where the characters of "Rebel Moon" are concerned. The film follows Kora (Sofia Boutella), a former soldier whose self-imposed exile on the eponymous moon of Veldt is interrupted by a sudden imperial invasion. Kora teams up with lovestruck farmer Gunnar (Michiel Huisman) on a quest to find warriors that can aid their village in the fight against the forces of the Motherworld. By the end of the story's first half, subtitled "A Child of Fire," the unlikely duo has brought together a formidable crew. We get to know some members of this rag-tag team a bit better than others, though, which contributes to the film's uneven nature.

Hopefully, things will even out in the film's director's cut, but for now, let's take a look at which characters made the most of their limited screen time — and which got lost in this expansive new world.

Aside from a stunning...ly long sequence involving the taming of a crow-griffin hybrid, Tarak (Staz Nair) doesn't get a whole lot of time to shine either. The fact that he's also an exiled prince far from home ought to lend something to his characterization; at the very least, it goes a long way in slotting him into a mildly exciting sci-fi trope. But there's little to define his character beyond some surface-level quirks, a trope that's long been one of Snyder's biggest weaknesses.

Through Tarak, Snyder reinforces his appreciation for the human form. There are plenty of objectively gorgeous people in "Rebel Moon," but the camera clearly loves him the most. Unfortunately, there's not much to the character otherwise. Snyder forgets to add any significant depth to Tarak, dumping most of his characterization in strategic (yet tedious) exposition. We know he's a man of honor because he tells us as much; ditto with his vaguely-defined fear of his own inner darkness. But that's not quite enough to offset his role as stately eye candy — which is a real shame, as it's clear there's so much going on beneath the golden abs and Tarzan-esque locs.

The PG-13 cut of "Part One" leaves a lot to be desired. Its plot is held together by bone-crunching action and a dream, most of it facilitated by Sofia Boutella's reluctant hero Kora. True to her role in the ensemble, Kora gets the most backstory of any character in "Rebel Moon" — but that's not the reason she ranks so highly here. Though the totality of her shameful past is laid out in a series of dour, speed-ramped flashbacks — all spoonfed to Gunnar so he can understand exactly what type of person he's crushing on — they do little to get us to actually care about Kora in the grand scheme.

It's in her knock-down, drag-out brawls with other members of the Imperium that Kora truly comes alive as a compelling hero. That badassery kickstarts on the moon of Veldt, with a stand-off that sees Kora dispatching a small squad of imperial soldiers. Yes, it's preceded by the threat of sexual violence (an unfortunate staple of Snyder's work), but at least we get to watch Kora beat the everloving snot out of a gaggle of jarhead rapists — and do so with balletic aplomb.

This scene tells us more about Kora than any ounce of dialogue that comes after. That's not so much a knock on Boutella's ability to deliver her lines with pathos and grit as it is on the script she's left to work with. "Rebel Moon" is at its best when it allows its characters' actions to speak for themselves, and nowhere is that more apparent than in Kora.

Of the key ensemble, Ray Fisher's Darrian Bloodaxe might just have the least screentime in "A Child of Fire." Yet, ironically, his presence might be the most impactful. As a character who (spoilers!) nobly sacrifices his life to disable the Imperial starship threatening Veldt, Darrian is pretty much required to make an impact in a short amount of time. It's an unenviable task, one that Fisher wastes no time achieving.

From the moment he steps onto the scene with his sister and fellow rebel, Devra (Cleopatra Coleman), Darrian's presence is palpable. Fisher imbues the character with all the eminence of a gravity well; he's as physically imposing as any late '80s action star and as commanding as a hero of the Blaxploitation era. He slots so perfectly into this dour, self-serious world that Snyder's built, and his reverence for The Revolution — itself still a bit poorly defined — more than makes up for the muddy motivations we encounter up to that point. Like so many of the film's best characters, Darrian reaffirms the beating heart of a world that's otherwise dominated by a somewhat hollow rule of cool. It's not likely we'll see the character in action again, and that's a shame. Still, his appearance, however brief, went a long way in contextualizing the stakes at play for the war to come.