Reviewer’s note: The following is a review of the currently released cut of “Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire” as its own movie. A separate—possibly analytical—review of the film will follow once the director’s cut receives a global release.

In director Zack Snyder’s (“Army of the Dead,” 2021) tenth feature film “Rebel Moon,” Sofia Boutella (“Atomic Blonde,” 2017) plays Kora, a loner taking refuge in an idyllic farming commune somewhere in Veldt, a moon orbiting the gas giant Mara. When Admiral Noble (Ed Skrein; “If Beale Street Could Talk,” 2018) of the Imperium threatens the lives of its people, Kora will need to zip through planets with unassuming farmer Gunnar (Michiel Huisman, “The Haunting of Hill House,” 2018) to put together a team to help fight Noble’s incoming atrocities against the moon’s occupants. Dubbed “Part One: A Child of Fire,” the film is the first in a two-part narrative that sets up its universe’s key characters: General Titus (Djimon Hounsou; “A Quiet Place Part II,” 2021), Darrian Bloodaxe (Ray Fisher; ABC miniseries “Women of the Movement,” 2022), Nemesis (Bae Doona; “Beurokeo;” Eng. Title: “Broker,” 2022), former nobleman Tarak (Staz Nair; HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” 2016-2019), and a tag-along starship pilot and mercenary Kai (Charlie Hunnam; “The Gentlemen,” 2020).

Tom “Junkie XL” Holkenborg’s (“Three Thousand Years of Longing,” 2022) melancholic, contemplative “The Wolf Who Became a Woman” accompanies the opening moments of “Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire.” Set to a late-day vista of a farm in Veldt overlooking Mara, we’re introduced to Kora, who’s hard at work as an awkward Gunnar admires her from afar. The breathtaking visual artistry elevates one of the rare quiet moments that can move you while simultaneously setting up an overall feeling of immersion. The fact that it’s shot mostly wide open with CinemaScope anamorphic lenses customized for Snyder’s needs gives it the character of a vintage lens used in the likes of pulpy sci-fi fantasies of the ‘80s. The production design is vast and is realized dazzlingly with the help of a bevy of visual effects artists, led by supervisors the likes of Marcus Taormina (“Fury,” 2014) and John “DJ” Des Jardin (“Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” 2016).

Snyder’s entire toolbox is on display here. From the operatic bombast of its characters’ theatrical enunciation to the hard-rock chic aesthetic of its action set pieces, “Rebel Moon” boasts the greatest hits of its director’s stylistic flourishes. The grungy space opera doesn’t promise to convert any detractors of Snyder’s work, but to those who admire his singular filmmaking language, the film will not disappoint. While its pace isn’t as calculated and spaced out as in his director’s cuts for “Batman v Superman” and “Watchmen” (2009), for example, there’s a whole truckload of Snyder-isms to be hooked onto. Academy Award-winning film editor Dody Dorn (“Memento,” 2001), who returns to collaborate with the director for the third time since “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” (2021) and “Army of the Dead,” does an excellent job of balancing breakneck speed with the narrative beats required to follow and chew on the film’s various parts. One would suspect that her storytelling skills will be fully displayed once the director’s cut is out. Tom Holkenborg’s score is a delicious battle between pure bombastic beats and heart-wrenchingly contemplative underscores and flows like each scene needs it to.

While Boutella’s physicality isn’t a complete surprise—if her roles in “The Mummy” (2017) and “Kingsman: The Secret Service” (2015) have anything to say about her—it’s her quieter moments as an actor that really take the cake, ranging from anger to crushing heartbreak and undying malice; you’re able to see her performance really shine here. As Kora, you’re immediately drawn to know more about her, not just because Snyder and co-writers Kurt Johnstad (“300,” 2016) and Shay Hatten (“John Wick Chapter 4,” 2023) keep their cards close to their chests but because Boutella really sells her character to the viewers. Ray Fisher returns to collaborate with Snyder after his stint as DC’s Cyborg, this time with his enunciations given a Shakespearean flourish from his experience as a theater actor. He may be introduced quite late into the film, but his presence makes an incredible impact through the end of its runtime.

Sir Anthony Hopkins (“Armageddon Time,” 2022) plays Jimmy, a droid assigned to the soldiers to the Motherworld temporarily stationed on Veldt. Including his theatrical oratory set to Holkenborg’s “Prologue Antiphony,” his role might last all of five minutes. His soft-spoken exchange with Sam (played by Australian television actress Charlotte Maggi, who makes her feature debut in this film) carries phenomenal emotional weight. It gives a robot the most humanity you’ve ever seen on screen. His presence makes you want more of him in future installments and/or cuts. While Huisman, Hounsou, and Hunnam are excellent, the three biggest surprises of “Rebel Moon” are Icelandic actor Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson (“The Northman,” 2022) as Kora’s friend Hagen, Jena Malone (“Nocturnal Animals,” 2016) as the spider-like humanoid antagonist Harmada, and Bae Doona’s Nemesis, who in her establishing scene already ends up being the most compelling part of the team. Her quiet empathy and helplessness—even as she ends up victorious—successfully brings to the screen a lot of excellent nuance in her character’s writing.

However, this review would be incomplete if we didn’t address the PG-13-shaped elephant in the room. Save a couple of titles in his filmography, most of Snyder’s films have had a director’s cut that has either expanded on the theatrically-released versions or boasted a truckload of radical differences from them. While the text in V. Castro’s novelization of “Rebel Moon” does hint toward a weirder, wilder, and raunchier version lined up for its future, the acknowledgment of upcoming director’s cuts for both parts might cloud any judgment on the currently presented cut of the film itself. One could hypothesize that creating two separate cuts for both films is an attempt by either Netflix or Snyder to re-engineer the hype generated by fans of the director to #ReleaseTheSnyderCut. 

While that’s somewhat understandable in a vague sense, the notion that it’s engineered to generate engagement of the likes that led to “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” isn’t more than a potentially intellectually dishonest statement. “99% of my directors’ cuts existed a response to things that were demanded of me to take out of the theatrical version,” Snyder told the Associated Press in an interview this December. The director stressed, however, that in the case of both parts of “Rebel Moon,” the upcoming version would not be “[…] the extended cut of [the PG-13 film]; it’s almost like [the director’s cut] lives in a different universe than [the currently released version].” He added that it was Netflix’s idea to first “[…] do the PG-13 version, and then go nuts, we don’t care.” In the vein of the (pre-exit) production process of “Justice League,” the films are said to have sharply diverging dialogue, among other differently shot and additional scenes in his bona fide version. 

Unlike the turbulent production of “Justice League” that led to the making of its Snyder Cut, though, the PG-13 and director’s cuts both have Snyder and his team at the helm, conducting a simultaneous production for both versions with the studio’s blessing. Dorn’s razor-sharp edit drives the storytelling efficiency of the currently released cut for “Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire,” which remains both accessible for a wider audience and an entertaining intergalactic action romp, depending on what you were expecting from the film, of course. Should Netflix have released just one cut of the film? Sure, just like with most movies, but in this case, the studio’s quid pro quo puts both the brand and the director in a win-win situation, allowing the director to preemptively fashion two separate movies from the ground up.

As it stands on its own, though, “Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire” is a solid space opera, a delicious slice of hard-rock dieselpunk that gives its characters the grounded realism they deserve while throwing some levity—from Gunnar’s awkwardness to Kai’s cocky swagger and Sam ribbing Kora’s implied casual affair with Den (Stuart Martin; “Army of Thieves,” 2021)—in the mix when needed. Balancing operatic bombast with intimate, grounded realism, Snyder, his co-writers, and the entire cast and crew give us what’s essentially a great time at the movies (or, in this case, in front of your screen of choice) with immense rewatch value for fans who can’t wait to explore its overall image system and many almost-invisible storytelling nuances as they go. Thoroughly recommended to watch on the most giant screen you own, with the best sound system possible.