Netflix's 'Rebel Moon' Director's Cuts Are Outscoring The Dismal ...

Rebel Moon

Netflix

On Friday I published my review of Zack Snyder’s R-rated Director’s Cut of Rebel Moon, the first part, at least, which was 3.5 hours and I did not have it in me to watch another 3 hours for Part 2, based on what I saw.

It seems that relatively few critics are up to the task, but so far, both from professionals and audiences, the Rebel Moon Director’s Cut is outscoring the first movies, albeit the cuts still rank among Snyder’s worst.

Rebel Moon Part 1’s Director’s Cut has a 29% from critics and a 61% from audiences. That’s up from a 22% from critics at a 56% from audiences. Part 2 has a 40% from critics and a 68% from audiences, up from a 17% from critics and a 48% from audiences. This mirrors (to a lesser extent) Snyder’s Justice League cut reviewing better than the butchered original.

Back when the original pair was released, I went back and tried to disprove the idea that critics hate all of Snyder’s movies, when half actually skew positive. But these director’s cuts are not adding to that category. Here’s the new list, though it will change as more reviews come in.

Dawn of the Dead (2004) – 76% Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021) – 72% Army of the Dead (2021) – 67% Watchmen (2009) – 65% 300 (2006) – 61% Man of Steel (2013) – 56% Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (2010) – 52% Rebel Moon Director’s Cut: Part 2 – 40% Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016 – 29% Rebel Moon Director’s Cut: Part 1 – 29% Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire (2023) – 23% Sucker Punch (2011) – 22% Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver – 17%

Rebel Moon

Netflix

As I suspected, there really was not going to be anything to flip these movies from very bad to good. But are they better than the originals? They are, if for no other reason than a few characters get more time and backstory compared to the first movie, which certainly seems hurried in hindsight. With the running time at 6.5 hours for these, it seems like this should have just been an R-rated miniseries from the start.

As for the “uncensored” content you can take or leave the nudity or f***s, but all of the fight scenes work much better when there’s allowed to be gore as there was ridiculous editing in the first movie to try to avoid that. Here, that all flows much better, and there are some scenes up there with say, 300-style action, I’d say. But the rest? The poor script is still there, and that’s the biggest problem. And so these movies still are not good by any measure, even if these scores have (deservedly) ticked up a little bit.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.