Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon saga began in December 2023 with the release of Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire. Just weeks after its release, however, Snyder confirmed that Rebel Moon would receive a director’s cut. Its sequel, Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver, was released four months after the first installment, and director’s cuts of both movies were made available on Netflix in early August 2024. The director’s cut is quickly becoming Snyder’s bread and butter, following Zack Snyder’s Justice League after the troubled production of the 2017 DC epic (including a change of director partway through filming).
Curiously, though, Snyder and Netflix had been keen to emphasize the fact that the director had creative control over the Rebel Moon films from the start, making director’s cuts seemingly redundant – perhaps he had double creative control over the new versions. Despite this, Snyder insists that the new edition director’s cuts of Rebel Moon are the definitive versions of the movies – and different films altogether, rather than merely re-edits of the original releases. This means that there are some substantial changes between the different versions of the films as well as minor differences, which are bound to excite fans of Snyder’s newest cinematic saga.
It’s one thing to have a director’s cut because of studio meddling of the theatrical release, and it’s another to have one despite the director having creative control of both versions. What’s the point? Cash grab? A way to make an excuse if the film bombs? It’s not like his director’s cuts are any better. They’re meh at best.
Take Villenueve’s films. They don’t have director’s cuts because per him, the theatrical version IS the director’s cut and his vision of the film.
The original versions of Rebel Moon were a 4 hour snooze fest. I’m not wasting my time watching yet another 4 hours (or longer) of the same film that likely is the same quality.
It’s one thing to have a director’s cut because of studio meddling of the theatrical release, and it’s another to have one despite the director having creative control of both versions. What’s the point?
In this case he wanted to do an R rated film but the studio wanted PG13. They agreed that the first release would be PG13 he would also get to make his R rated cut for later release.
Justice League was completely different tbf. He got one for two reasons, because his name power has toes to a directors cut and also to make an R rated version.
I will get around to watching Rebel Moon but struggle to get enthusatic enough to do it.
Maybe there’s something more to the “Director’s Second Cut for no particular reason other than that’s his thing now”, but good god-damn, the first version of the first one was terrible. Imagine the crappy scriptwriiting and line delivery of the Star Wars prequels, the lazy worldbuilding of the Star Wars sequels, the inexplicably awful production values of the last Ant-Man movie, and enough blood-soaked 13-year-old-boy “badassery” to make Elon Musk proud. Then imagine all of it padded out with dozens of tedious slow-motion scenes that make you actually question how many pages he managed to write.
It’s fucking awful. Not in a good way, it’s just bad. Don’t bother.
I love sci-fi but it was so bad.
Haven’t seen the directors cut yet but I liked the movies. It’s cool action scifi, you’re not getting Nolan level brain teasers but it looks sick as fuck and it’s a wild ride.
Watch it when you’re in the mood for a spectacle.
There’s a huge difference between the detailed and believable world building that JRR Tolkien does, and having a bunch of mystery boxes you don’t flush out.
I think the movie tried the lazy version of building an epic universe by lots of low effort references to things that aren’t defined, but nothing feels like it’s actually connected or thought through.
I waited to for the director’s to watch this in the hopes it was better than the poorly reviewed original cut. Unfortunately so far it feels like he must have filled in all the extra runtime with more slow motion shots. Like so many slow motion shots. Maybe if he’d cut some of those he would have had less need for all the exposition dumps.
Like so many of his films Rebel Moon is a collection of beautiful moments with very little to hold them all together.
Well fuck now I have to waste another entire work day to watch the updated version and hate it even more
You can still hate it without it consuming your time. You’ve got my permission. Waste time doing something else perhaps.
Sorry
This is the sort of movie that I’ll watch only if it’s free and only if it’s on while I’m washing the dishes or mopping the floor or something.
It’s only worth watching when you’re not home and your dog is bored.
I really enjoyed both films despite their shortcomings. They definitely felt censored with lots of character buildup missing.
Just gotta find the time to watch these directors cuts!
