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.

Let's preface this by saying Djimon Hounsou is one of the most magnetic actors working today. The man has presence with a capital "P": he could read directly from the phonebook and make it sound like some rousing call to arms. Unfortunately, Hounsou is also one of the least appreciated. He's been wasted time and again in franchises as big as DC and the "Fast & Furious" saga — and that dismal trend continues in "Rebel Moon."

Hounsou appears as Titus, a disgraced general of the Imperium now infamous for a legendary mutiny against the Motherworld. His reputation effectively precedes him; before we ever get a glimpse of the man, he's basically touted as the one man who can save the villagers of Veldt from occupation. Countless characters wax poetic about his feats — the problem is, we never get to see those feats with our own eyes.

Characters like Kora are given hefty flashback sequences, while others prove their skill in side quests and brief boss battles. Titus gets neither, despite ample opportunity. (Kora finds him on a planet that's entirely dedicated to gladiator battles, for crying out loud! And we don't see him fighting in a gladiator battle at all!) Of course, there's plenty of time for Titus to get his Big Hero Moment very soon (if not in the extended cut of "A Child of Fire," then in "Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver").

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.

Michiel Huisman has played varying degrees of lovelorn throughout his career. The man has puppy-dog eyes down to a science, and that's part of what makes him feel so natural in "Rebel Moon." The "Game of Thrones" alum plays Gunnar in Snyder's space epic, defined as much by his (seemingly?) one-sided crush on Kora as he is by his role in the farming village of Veldt. It's his actions that inadvertently bring the wrath of the Imperium down on the rebellious moon, but he wastes little time trying to undo his mistakes by embarking with Kora on her quest to rally a rag-tag team of fighters.

As an impossibly naive farmboy dreaming of a bigger life, Gunnar is an interesting foil to Luke Skywalker. His motivations are complex, often doing a bit more harm than good — and yes, he's something of a coward at first — but that makes his hero moments in the latter half of "Rebel Moon" feel so well-earned. It will always be exciting to watch a character previously ruled by fear decide to step up and learn to take more chances. Sure, love is his main motivating factor so far, and he is more often than not relegated to a sounding board for Kora's backstory — but there's still a lot of room to grow and come into his own in "The Scargiver." Hopefully, "Part Two" won't drop the ball, but I don't see Huisman's "aww shucks" façade getting old any time soon.

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.

It doesn't get much cooler than Bae Doona, the South Korean actor who's made her mark in projects as diverse as Hirokazu Koreeda's "Broker" and the woefully short-lived "Sense8." Bae steals the show once more in "Rebel Moon" as Nemesis, a cyborg assassin with glowy swords that definitely aren't supposed to be lightsabers. At first blush, she's a pretty obvious stand-in for the detached Jedi-type with a jaded outlook on life. For all her outward coolness, however, the sword-for-hire has a soft spot that makes her one of the film's most sympathetic characters.

Like the other members of Kora's team, Nemesis is no friend to the Motherworld. Her aspirations of revenge begin and end with her role as a mother: though her children were lost during an imperial occupation, her maternal warmth is inextricable from her character. She meets most adversaries from a place of empathy — even Harmada (Jena Malone), a spider-alien that she's obliged to bring to justice, but isn't too happy about killing. Nemesis joins Kora's band of rebels full-time after their duel, and she doesn't get all that much to do (or say) from that point on, but her sidelining doesn't seem so egregious after such a compelling introduction.

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.

Yup. I am a Kai apologist. Sorry if that's disappointing, but are we really expected to take in those blue eyes and smarmy smile (decked out in grillz that shouldn't work, but absolutely do) and not be utterly charmed by him? You could argue that his last-minute betrayal carries such a sting because Kai is so damned charming. Even if you saw it coming from a mile away, you were probably rooting for him to prove your inner cynic wrong — and that's entirely by design.

From the moment he's introduced (in Snyder's riff on the infamous cantina scene from "A New Hope," no less), Kai is positioned as the Han Solo of the team. The swaggering bounty hunter is a little too eager to lend a hand (and lease his ship!) to a group of farmers with relatively little to offer in the form of payment. It defies all logic, but you want to believe it's possible anyway. You want to believe he's on an earnest path to redemption.

Alas, Kai is not nearly so honorable as Han, and it's not too long before the rug's pulled out from under us all. His last-act betrayal isn't ideal, but it's one of the things that makes "Rebel Moon" such an effective subversion of "Star Wars." Kai might be the most realized character in the film: he's the rare hero that Snyder actually takes a show, don't tell approach with, and "Rebel Moon" is all the better with him around.

"Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire" is currently streaming on Netflix. "Part Two: The Scargiver" premieres April 19, 2024.