Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon: Massive Scale, Lots of Slow-Mo and a Big Heart

Dirty Dozen meets Magnificent Seven... in space. This was the one-minute pitch Zack Snyder gave one of his professors while he was in film school, and ever since that professor replied ... Pretty good, he kept toying with his idea

Fast-forward over 20 years after the massive - and at times controversial! - successes of 300, Watchmen and Justice League, and Zack brought his idea to life in a massive 2-parter produced by Netflix

I was at the world premiere at the BFI IMAX in London yesterday and here are my first impressions

The scale is masssive: this is by far Zack's biggest movie in terms of scale. Bigger than Justice League. The set-pieces really give a sense of immense scale. There is a lot of slow-mo, which for me is always a good thing as he is the absolute master of pacing an action sequence and switching up slow motion and accelerated action. The story has a lot of heart and is really grounded in the characters' personal motivations. Anger, love, revenge. A sense of mission. It's all there

Tom Holkenberg's score was truly beautiful. The entire picture is very effects heavy but the heart of the story and the characters always keeps everything grounded. Performances are really, really committed. I loved Corey Stoll's character and Anthony Hopkins' voice sounds like silk. I do have a standout sequence but I can't talk about it now as we are still under embargo!

The biggest thing I took away is a sense of how big the histories of these characters in this world are. If audiences like this as much as I did - I think they will - and want to see more there really are all the groundworks for a sprawling saga around this universe

Zack Snyder is one of my favorite directors and his visual instincts are unmatched. The way he blends action and emotions are very unique and personal and I really, really liked Rebel Moon: A Child of Fire

Very much looking forward to the R-rated cut with sex and more violence. From what I understand that is going to be Zack's true vision for this story and this time it has already been prepared and ready for release

These quick sentiment takes are all we are allowed to share now - review as soon as embargo lifts!