Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire (2023) review

The farmers on the moon Veldt are threatened by troops from the resource-starved Motherworld, led by Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein), who demand they turn all of their food over, so they ask former soldier Kora (Sofia Boutella) to seek out individuals willing to help fight for them, including dodgy mercenary Kai (Charlie Hunnam), warrior Nemesis (Doona Bae) and General Titus (Djimon Hounsou).  This is quite clearly "inspired by" Star Wars and unimaginatively "uses" some of the elements from that space opera - there's a Cantina-esque scene, a lanky robot like C3PO, Hunnam is basically Han Solo, Kora has an evil father, etc. - but also shows that world building is exceptionally difficult: characters implausibly agree to join the rebellion rather quickly after being told about it ... and roughly three quarters into this dreadful slog it's still going through plot exposition.  The opening scenes made me wonder if this might be an allegory for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but that's giving it a lot more credit than it deserves - a friend, who's a legitimate fan of the director, texted me that he thought this was a "rough watch."