Are The Rebel Moon Director’s Cuts Better Than The Original Movies?

Summary

• The director’s cuts of Rebel Moon saw improved Rotten Tomatoes scores from both critics and audiences.
• Adding gore and nudity didn’t magically fix the flaws in the film, as critics still found the narrative and character development lacking.
• While neither version of Rebel Moon is great, the director’s cuts are closer to Zack Snyder’s original vision.

Zack Snyder has been hyping up his R-rated director’s cuts of the Rebel Moon movies since the two-parter was first announced, but are the new versions any better than the original cuts? When Snyder made a deal with Netflix to essentially turn Heavy Metal magazine into a live-action movie, they disagreed on the rating. Netflix wanted a PG-13 sci-fi actioner they could market to younger viewers, but Snyder wanted to make an R-rated movie for immature grown-ups. They compromised by making both, first releasing PG-13 versions and later supplementing them with R-rated director’s cuts.

When the PG-13 versions were released in December 2023 and April 2024, the Rebel Moon films got eviscerated by critics and the audience response was lukewarm at best. There was hope that the R-rated director’s cuts, which fulfilled Snyder’s complete vision for the project, would be an improvement. Now that the director’s cuts, dubbed Rebel Moon – Chapter One: Chalice of Blood and Rebel Moon – Chapter Two: Curse of Forgiveness, have been released, it’s time for a verdict. Are the director’s cuts better than the original movies?

Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon Director’s Cuts Seemed To Improve The Movies (According To Audiences)

The director’s cuts have slightly better Rotten Tomatoes scores than the originals

According to their Rotten Tomatoes scores, the Rebel Moon director’s cuts have improved on the original versions of the movies. In its original iteration, Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire earned a dismal “rotten” 22% approval rating from critics and 56% from audiences. The director’s cut has an ever-so-slightly better critics’ score of 33% and a warmer – even fresh – rating of 66% from audiences. These scores indicate that critics and audiences both deem Part One’s director’s cut to be the better version of the movie (an extra 10% from each group).

The original version of Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver, on the other hand, earned an even more dismal (and even more rotten) critics’ score of 17% and a kinder audience score of 47%. The director’s cut of Part Two shares Part One’s critics’ score of 33% and has a slightly fresher audience rating of 68% (which almost sounds good). Both critics and audiences agree that Part Two’s director’s cut is better than its predecessor, but the critics’ score is still pretty low. This critical reception suggests the director’s cuts improve on the movies – but not by much.

Snyder has plans for a trilogy of two-part
Rebel Moon
films, which would amount to a total of six movies.

Why The Critics’ Reviews For The Rebel Moon Director’s Cuts Are Still Low

Just because Snyder added some gore and nudity, it didn’t magically make Rebel Moon a story worth telling

The critics’ reviews for the Rebel Moon director’s cuts are still pretty negative because recutting a film as an R-rated sex-and-violence fest doesn’t magically make all its flaws go away. Just because Snyder has added some gore and nudity to the films, it doesn’t suddenly make Rebel Moon a story worth telling. Whether it’s rated PG-13 or rated R, Rebel Moon is still a lazy, uninspired nothing of a narrative that takes two movies to cover a story that Akira Kurosawa nailed in one. It’s derivative of countless better sci-fi stories, from Dune to Star Wars to Heavy Metal.

The biggest problem with the PG-13 version of Rebel Moon wasn’t that its sex scenes weren’t graphic enough; it was that the characters were completely one-note. They were all based on the same stoic archetype, and they were each as underdeveloped and unengaging as the last. In the PG-13 Rebel Moon movies, the audience had no reason to care about the characters or connect with them emotionally – and that remains the same in the R-rated versions. It’s hardly surprising that the R-rated Rebel Moon movies haven’t won over critics, because the films’ fundamental flaws are still there.

Why The Rebel Moon Director’s Cuts Were Better Than The Original Versions

No version of Rebel Moon is a good movie, but the director’s cuts are closer to Snyder’s original vision

Neither version of Rebel Moon is a particularly good movie, but the R-rated director’s cuts are much closer to Snyder’s original vision. The PG-13 versions of the Rebel Moon movies offered a sanitized, watered-down version of the story. It’s understandable why Netflix wanted a PG-13 version, so their investment could reach a wider audience, but it’s clear that the PG-13 versions aren’t the movies that Snyder wanted to make. There’s much more heart and passion in the director’s cuts (even if they still tell the same lazy, derivative story with the same boring, one-note characters).

The PG-13 versions are perfunctory, but the R-rated versions are passionate. Of course, they’re also much longer. The PG-13 versions were mercifully brisk, telling their stories in just over two hours. A Child of Fire ran for 134 minutes and The Scargiver ran for an even more forgiving 122 minutes. The director’s cuts, on the other hand, have runtimes comparable to Lawrence of Arabia. Part One runs for a whopping 204 minutes and Part Two runs for a slightly less taxing, but still very long 173 minutes. Viewers with a short attention span might struggle with Rebel Moon’s director’s cuts.