How Not To Steal Star Wars — Rebel Moon

Rebel Moon is a blatant copy of A New Hope, but the issue goes far deeper than you might think.

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A massive thank you to my $10+ patrons:
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Written, narrated & produced by Henry Boseley
Edited by Brandon Reardin

Music provided by Epidemic Sound & @Vindsvept

[TheCloserLook]

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Keep writing!
- Henry

[AmiliaCaraMia]

This movie is just "and then and then and then." It felt like random clips just firing off.

[kylespevak]

They really told ChatGPT to put Star Wars and Seven Samurai together

[dahakaguardianofthetimelin]

I can't wait for Zack's 14 hour director cut to reveal that the water girl that almost got wrapped by the soldiers was secretly Martian Manhunter all along, tying this poetic story together somehow

[humanbeing]

There’s a piece of advice that applies here that goes “Don’t follow in their foot steps, Seek what they sought” from Marty O’Donnell. Instead of stitching together disparate elements because you like them, it asks you to figure out what the point, what the goal of the story you like is, then ask yourself how you yourself would solve that problem. It’s an almost effortless way of creating something with your own spin because now you have a compass to decide whether or not something should be in your story

[maepletea]

17:01 After that scene with the giant bird creature was over, I remember saying out loud "That was just the scene from How To Train Your Dragon but bad."

[TheBlueArmageddon]

The plot felt like an RPG where you pick up side characters along the way, but with just the cutscenes and none of the gameplay

[dax]

rebel moon is like trying to build a brick wall without cement you’re stacking all of the bricks on top of each other but not reinforcing them, or binding them together with cement so eventually no matter what it will all collapse

[alexander-rugd]

the beauty of SW is that it lifts so many references and remixes them altogether, it becomes something entirely new and entirely familiar.

[shockmesane]

Snyder's visual style was fun and interesting one time in 300, just like M Night's twist writing worked once in sixth sense. You need more than one trick.

[jacktheartisan]

I'll always remember this quote from George Lucas. When ILM was making the Hoth Battle scene for The Empire Strikes Back, Joe Johnston (the storyboarder for the scene) was having a discussion with Lucas on what the scene should be (this was before the script was even finished). Lucas suggested that Johnston and company take influence from ice battle scene in the Sergie Eisenstein film Alexander Nevsky (1938). But Lucas speciffically instructed Johnston saying "I don't want it to look like this, I want it FEEL like this".

[eugenetzigane]

"Good artists copy, great artists steal." As a student of classical music, I was taught that Stravinsky said this! 😅

[captainblighe]

10:15 best way I’ve seen those two covers described.

Reznor’s version is a suicide note.

Cash’s is a eulogy.

[atogon_art]

My spite for this movie was elevated by the fact I watched Seven Samurai a literal week prior.
It literally felt like they were trying to make Star Wars if the plot was based off that instead of The Hidden Fortress.

[vitod]

Paul Schrader said that inspiration should be like shoplifting. You always wanna shoplift from a different store so you never get caught.

[DynaStaats]

I laughed so hard when you talked about a Bug’s Life, because every time I sit down to watch a Bug’s Life I think, “Hey, why don’t I watch Galaxy Quest instead, it’s basically the same movie and it’s funnier.” So then I sit down to watch Galaxy Quest and immediately think, “Wait, let’s watch the Three Amigos instead, it’s basically the same movie and it’s funnier.” And then I’m happy I did because the “My Little Buttercup” scene makes me laugh every. single. time.

[half-lifer]

22:39 — I’m far from the first one to point this out, but that moment in FOTR is a beautiful demonstration of how to use slow motion correctly. Up to that point, Boromir’s fighting has been shown at normal speed to show off his strength and courage as he fights the Uruk-Hai. It gets our hopes up, as a flawed man strives to redeem himself after being tempted by the Ring (to the point of almost killing Frodo). Then the arrows start to pierce him, the scene goes into slow motion, and we realize that Boromir is doomed. The lingering reaction shots of him wincing in pain as each arrow hits home use slow motion to emphasize the tragedy and sorrow of a brave man paying with his life while trying to atone for his mistakes. The visual technique wasn’t used just because Peter Jackson thought it looked cool. It was used for specific, story-based reasons, which was why it had so much emotional impact.

Another great example: the Matrix Trilogy. In the first movie, the shot of Morpheus staggering and falling after being punched into a bathroom wall by Agent Smith is in slow motion not just because the Wachowskis thought it looked cool, but because it emphasizes the peril our heroes face. In the sparring scene, we saw Morpheus mop the floor with Neo. So it’s jarring, and deeply frightening, to then see Morpheus get smacked around like a piñata — and the slow motion in that specific moment after Smith punches him and he flies backwards into the wall, collapsing to the floor in visible pain, helps emphasize that. Later, in the subway duel, the shots of Agent Smith punching holes in the concrete pillar are shown in slow motion — once again, to graphically display how overmatched Neo is and to heighten the tension.

In the highway scene in Reloaded, there’s a slow motion shot in which Morpheus uses a katana to slice through the tires of the Albino Twins’ car, then spins around holding the sword in one hand while using the other to hold a Glock 18 while mag-dumping into the car’s gas tank as it flips over. The moment works so well not just because it looks cool, but because it’s the satisfying conclusion to an entire sequence in which the Twins have been relentlessly chasing Morpheus, Trinity, and the Keymaker; and almost killing them too many times to count. It’s a thrilling “yeah, how do ya like me now?!?” payoff after several minutes of unrelenting tension at the hands of two seemingly invincible enemies.

In other words: take notes, Zack!

[jenniferc]

Related: it's easier to get away with lifting ideas in the 1970s with an audience that only has books and three channels of network TV than it is in 2023 when just about any piece of media made in the last fifty years is instantly available online. But as you say, some do it far better than others. :)

[K.Arashi]

there's probably a crossover fanfic out there that does what rebel moon wants to do, better than snyder ever could

[joshkaid]

Your explanation of "Inspiration vs Plagarism" is why I don't agree with people that Star Wars is a ripoff of Dune.