'Rebel Moon' review: Zack Snyder's 'Star Wars' imitation needs to go far, far away

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Stop us if you've heard this before: In a galaxy far away from our own, a band of rebels gathers to fight back against militaristic oppressors, an empire bent on intergalactic conquest and subjugation.

These rebels include a farmer, a smuggler trying to go straight, a former general and various warriors. They're led by a hero with deep ties to the evil regime. Oh, and there's a talking robot.

If the world of Zack Snyder's “Rebel Moon” sounds an awful lot like a “Star Wars” castoff, that's not only because the “Justice League” filmmaker once pitched it to Lucasfilm.

The finished product, set to be unveiled in two parts (the first of which, subtitled “Part One — A Child of Fire” is now on Netflix) as well as a director's cut, plays like the Bizarro World version of a “Star Wars” movie.

The hero in question, named Kora (Sofia Boutella), has abandoned her life as a highly trained soldier and the adopted daughter of the evil senator Balisarius (Fra Fee), who now lords over the movie's version of the Empire, called the Motherworld.

Kora has traded it all for life in a simple farming community. But her idyll gets shattered when Balisarius' right-hand man, the sadistic Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein), lands there, kills the community's leader (Corey Stoll) and threatens the rest with a violent return unless they compensate him with most of their grain.

So an interplanetary recruitment trip must begin, with Kora joined by the farmer Gunnar (Michael Huisman) on a search for the right collection of resistance fighters. Cast members also include Djimon Hounsou, Charlie Hunnam and Anthony Hopkins, who gives voice to the aforementioned robot.

MY SAY There's nothing fundamentally wrong with pursuing a “Star Wars”-adjacent project. So much of modern sci-fi today still remains shaped and inspired by that universe.

But even as Snyder attempts to construct a world of his own in “Rebel Moon,” it's so similar that it becomes hard to take seriously on its own terms. Throw in some of the classic Western genre tropes that also inspired George Lucas and are about as old as the movies themselves, and you're left longing for any number of dozens upon dozens of better options.

Were one able to get past all that, there's still the endless exposition to contend with and dialogue that consists in large part of endless droning monologues that have a knack for sapping out any semblance of suspense or tension.

Throw in a good measure of slow-motion action, the same stuff Snyder has been known for since he directed “300,” which came out in 2007.

Add to it a general aura in which everything feels impossibly overdone, with some of the creatures of this universe crossing the line from creative and cool to downright unsettling, and you wind up with a picture that feels more like a bad episode of cosplaying than a compelling new vision.

BOTTOM LINE An unfortunate “Star Wars” imitation.