The Big Picture

Despite an expanded length and bloodier effects, the director’s cut of
Rebel Moon
makes both films worse.
The end product resembles a derivative fan film, filled with even more superficial characters and excessive exposition in futile search of an emotional heart.
The director’s cut again lacks anything approaching depth or well-constructed action, failing to offer anything worth revisiting despite adding another nearly two hours.

In life, there are only three guarantees: death, taxes, and a new director’s cut from filmmaker Zack Snyder. He did it once before with Justice League, which truly felt substantively different in many regards, though still packed plenty of its own problems. However, for all the flaws that superhero flick had, the latest revisiting of his work makes it look like a masterpiece by comparison. Even though it was only a few months ago when Snyder’s supposedly epic sci-fi series Rebel Moon came to a close with the pure space junk that was The Scargiver, he has now made a director’s cut for each of the two films that somehow makes both of them worse. While they rather drastically expand the length and scope of each plus throw in some awkward bursts of iffy blood effects, the fundamental issues at the core of the whole thing are still painfully present. These films remain so fundamentally derivative and dull that you can’t escape the feeling that you’re watching an extended fan film, which now goes on for nearly two-plus hours beyond the original runtime. Not only that, but all the details it attempts to fill in, from a shallow supporting character to halfhearted worldbuilding, only succeed at dragging the whole thing down even further. It all drowns in itself with nothing to show for it.

How Is the Director’s Cut of ‘Rebel Moon’ Different From the Original?

On a broad level, the films remain largely the same as we follow Kora (Sofia Boutella) as she gathers then works with the team of Gunnar (Michiel Huisman), Titus (Djimon Hounsou), Nemesis (Doona Bae), Tarak (Staz Nair), and Milius (Elise Duff) to battle the villainous Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein) whose Imperium forces invade the planet of Veldt to take their resources. Only now, instead of just resembling a poor imitation of Star Wars (which it originally was conceived as a franchise entry for), it also plays like it is ripping off elements of the recent Dune movies. Namely, we get a new intro to the first part surrounding an invasion that resembles the attack in Denis Villeneuve’s first film, only with more awkward staging and less compelling visual effects. It all looks incomplete and revels in the brutality right out of the gate in a way that feels forced rather than earned. All it does is provide another repetitive origin (you get a tragic backstory, and you get a tragic backstory!) to a superficial character from the original cut, who still ends up on the same tepid emotional trajectory. It explains why we kept cutting to him the first time around, but his journey feels like even more of a waste when it devotes this much more time to it. That this is one of the few substantial changes tells you all you need to know about how empty this director’s cut is.

Eventually, we get to where the original cut began and continue from there mostly as it all was before. Sure, scenes linger a bit longer and are edited together slightly differently, though sometimes what appears to be alternate takes being used actually showcases worse deliveries of lines that were already buckling under the weight of the sheer volume of exposition. Now, there is even more exposition and longer flashbacks that attempt to provide intriguing insights into the textures of the world. While this could help to create lore for people to dig into (hope you like guys pulling out teeth and a big robot head!), it fails to add any emotional or thematic heft to the affair. To even say what are basically deleted scenes bring something more to the film is a stretch, as it’s still misconceived and one-note from the jump.

There is more of Anthony Hopkins doing some voice acting here and there for those who wanted his robot made more central, though it just brings into focus how largely extraneous he remains. Rather than reshaping the film into something interesting or more thoughtful by making his character truly meaningful, it all plays like window dressing for what is now even more of a wearisome experience from start to finish. The first part is still better, but that’s not saying much. If anything, the only reason one can even say chapter one is better than chapter two is that you start with a small hope this could go somewhere at least moderately exciting.

The Director’s Cut of ‘Rebel Moon’ Is Bloodier but Not Better

Watching the films through a second time, though now with more weighing them down, no such hope for this going in a bold new direction exists. When it comes to discussions about the best director’s cuts out there, what Snyder has done here will always be at the very bottom of any ranking. Even for those who liked the original films, you’d likely be better off just going back to watch those instead. Many great cases have been made for directors making their best work with a director’s cut, but there is nothing to support such a case here. It’s all somehow even more half-baked and overcooked, never once eliciting more than a bemused raising of an eyebrow at how blandly ridiculous the tacked-on splatterings of gore looks.

No matter how much running around it does and the CGI blood bursts it throws at you in slow motion (which only makes it that much more cartoonishly bad), the lackluster choreography remains the same. It’s less a director’s cut that offers anything worth revisiting, and more Snyder’s glorified rearranging of deck chairs on the Titanic. You might see a new piece of furniture as it sinks down, but it only descends all the faster from the dead weight. While more resonant than anything that preceded it and the subsequent tiresome final stinger of an added scene that plays more like a threat of more, a new song of mourning near the end would be best if it served as a farewell to this sad attempt at a sci-fi epic for good.

REVIEW Rebel Moon – Director’s Cut Zack Snyder’s Director’s Cut of Rebel Moon not only adds nothing new, but it ends up being worse than the original cut.ProsThe ending song is nice if you imagine it as being a farewell to this sad attempt at a sci-fi epic so that it can be finally over. ConsAny addition the film makes either feels lifted from a far better work or just drags down the experience with dead weight.The action choreography, no matter how much CGI blood gets thrown in, is still lackluster.Rather than expanding or deepening the film, it all just sinks that much faster with nothing worth revisiting it for.

The Director’s Cut of Rebel Moon is now available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

WATCH ON NETFLIX