Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon Co-Writer Doesn't Care About Your Negative Reviews
Netflix's "Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire" has been greeted with a reception as icy cold as the depths of space. Zack Snyder's latest movie has a terrible Rotten Tomatoes score, with critics lambasting the science-fiction flick for its messy story and lack of well-developed characters. However, writer Kurt Johnstad, who worked on the script with Snyder and Shay Hatten, isn't letting the low scores get him down.
Variety asked Johnstad about what some critics have said regarding "Rebel Moon," and he played it off, saying, "I don't read the reviews, I never have. Critics have a job to do. We live in a democracy. Everybody gets to vote. If people watch the film, they'll have an experience, and they will either enjoy it or they won't." It's a diplomatic response, and to be fair, the response from reviewers isn't entirely indicative of the screenplay Johnstad and the team wrote. Netflix is already teasing a longer "Rebel Moon" director's cut, which will likely expand on areas that could've been improved upon in the initial version that ran on the platform.
Johnstad continued that such reviews don't necessarily translate to how an audience will receive a film, "In my career of 20 years doing this, reviews have never equated to performance. A movie will either perform or it won't." Will "Rebel Moon" overcome its negative perception? It remains to be seen, but with "Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver" coming out in a few months, Netflix is clearly banking on the franchise being a hit.
Kurt Johnstad also thinks there's value in Rebel Moon being an original property
Kurt Johnstad's perspective on critics makes sense when looking at his filmography. He wrote another Zack Snyder movie, "300," which fared better on Rotten Tomatoes with a score of 61% from professional reviewers. That movie was a big hit, taking in over $450 million at the global box office. Even his lesser-known works have overcome frosty receptions, like "Act of Valor," which has a 28% on the Tomatometer but took in $82 million worldwide against a budget of only $12 million. As such, he's correct in that audiences may seek out a movie even if critics don't necessarily like it.
Elsewhere in the interview, he talks about how "Rebel Moon" being an original property gives it value, "Zack is trying to do something very different here that really hasn't been done in a long time. This isn't an IP. This is an original story. It's being created by hundreds, if not thousands of technicians. That's a really bold thing." Snyder is probably one of the few filmmakers who can get an original story of this scale off the ground. If audiences want more original science fiction, it may be worth checking out "Rebel Moon" regardless of preconceived notions.
Johnstad concluded by making his case for why "Rebel Moon" is worth watching: "It's a magnificent looking film. But I think that at the core of it, it's got emotion. There's an emotional engine and a currency that runs through the film that I think works." While the movie didn't work for most professional critics, their tunes could change for the director's cut or the sequel that fleshes out the characters more.