Rebel Moon
On Friday I posted 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 didn’t have it in me to watch another 3 hours for Part 2, based on that that I did saw
It seems that relatively few critics are up to it, but so far, from both professionals and audiences alike, the Rebel Moon Director’s Cut is surpassing the first films, although the cuts still rank as Snyder’s worst.
Rebel Moon Part 1’s Director’s Cut it has 29% from critics and 61% from audiences. This is from 22% of critics to 56% of the public. Part 2 has 40% from critics and 68% from audiences, up from 17% from critics and 48% from audiences. This reflects (to a lesser extent) the criticism of Snyder’s Justice League better than the butchered original.
When the original couple came out, I went back and tried to disprove the idea that critics hate all of Snyder’s movies, when half of them are actually positive. But these director’s cuts are not added to this 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
As I suspected, there wasn’t really going to be anything that turned these movies from really bad to good. But is are they better than the originals? It is, if for no other reason than a few characters have more time and story compared to the first film, which certainly feels rushed in retrospect. With a running time of 6.5 hours for these, it seems like this should have been an R-rated miniseries from the start.
As far as “uncensored” content goes, you can take or leave the nudity or the f***s, but all the fight scenes work so much better when the moaning is allowed as it was ridiculous editing in the first film to try to avoid it. Here, everything 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 aren’t good by any means, even if those scores have (deservedly) been bumped up a bit.
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