Zack Snyder Gives Hope For Rebel Moon Continuing 4 Movie Trend After 21% Rotten Tomatoes Disaster

Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire‘s disastrous 21% Rotten Tomatoes score was cause for concern, though Zack Snyder provides hope that the film will continue a four-movie trend for the filmmaker. With Rebel Moon: Part Two‘s story on the horizon, many will be revisiting the first movie to re-familiarize themselves with the world created by Snyder. The ending of Rebel Moon: Part One adequately teased a continuation, though the quality of the movie was somewhat lacking for many.

Rebel Moon’s poor movie reviews saw the film released on Netflix to a lowly 21% Rotten Tomatoes score. This was certainly unexpected after the endless ways Snyder hyped up his latest release and the years spent working on the project. Zack Snyder’s recent Rebel Moon box office comparisons have made it clear the director is attempting to defend his maligned production, though there seems to be only one way the perception of the movie can be reversed. The filmmaker has long spoken about a director’s cut, which could prove Rebel Moon to continue a four-movie trend for Snyder.

Zack Snyder Has A Long History Of Director’s Cuts That Are Better Than The Original

Snyder’s theatrical releases are rarely his best.

The trend in question is that Zack Snyder’s movies are often improved in director’s cuts. While not every film by Snyder, such as 300, Man of Steel, or Army of the Dead, possesses a director’s cut, these are usually the projects that were more positively reviewed. Concerning Snyder’s lesser-reviewed films, the director usually opts to release a director’s cut that – more often than not – improves upon the original release.

This has been the case for four prior Zack Snyder-helmed movies, with each one having a director’s cut that either significantly or slightly improved the theatrical version. The first case was 2004’s Dawn of the Dead. While the director’s cut of this movie only adds around 10 minutes to the runtime, it includes slightly more character development and much more gore than the theatrical release did. Despite not being a significant jump in quality – given that the 2004 remake is one of Snyder’s better movies – the director’s cut still marks a subtle improvement.

Snyder then released a director’s cut of Watchmen after the film’s 2009 theatrical release. From including vital character-driven scenes and a few action sequences not found in the original cut, Watchmen followed in Dawn of the Dead‘s footsteps by being improved with the director’s full vision on display. This continued with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice‘s so-called Ultimate Edition.

Several changes to Snyder’s director’s cut allowed Batman v Superman to simply make sense in a way the theatrical version did not. From extended scenes in the opening regarding Lois’ African excursion to further fleshing out Clark’s beef with Batman, the overall plot of the film was more logical in the Ultimate Edition. Complete with rectifying Superman’s failures to stop a bomb in the somewhat controversial courtroom scene, the Ultimate Edition of Batman v Superman marks the most drastic improvement of one of Snyder’s theatrical films.

The same can be said for Zack Snyder’s Justice League over 2017’s Justice League. The former is much better than the latter, holding a consistent tone, a more compelling story, and much improved character development of heroes like The Flash and Cyborg. The “Snyder Cut” movement was long thought to be cult-like fans clamoring for something that did not exist, but the drastic improvement of the film found in Zack Snyder’s Justice League proved this to be wrong.

Why Rebel Moon’s Rotten Tomatoes Score Was So Bad

What critics didn’t like about Zack Snyder’s movie.

Concerning Rebel Moon: Part One, there were several reasons why the movie did not receive a positive reception from critics. Given that the film began for Snyder as a Star Wars pitch, it is no surprise that several of the film’s many negative reviews dubbed it as a poor imitation of George Lucas’ franchise. A.A. Dowd of Digital Trends stated Rebel Moon is “Star Wars but cheaper, and – given the man [Snyder] responsible – grimmer and grayer, too.” William Bibbiani of TheWrap also dubbed the film “A hugely expensive but uninspired ‘Star Wars’ knockoff…”

The film has also been described as hollow, emotionless, and without any sense of fun, with many criticizing Rebel Moon‘s pacing, lack of narrative cohesion, and expository dialogue. Screen Rant‘s own Rachel Labonte stated that only one character receives more than a sentence of expository development, and even then, Sofia Boutella’s Kora has a journey that feels emotionless. As was a sentiment shared by many critics, Labonte stated that “Snyder prioritizes worldbuilding over character and plot development… without strong characters to root for, what will make us tune in for the sequel?“

Will Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon Director’s Cut Fix The Movie?

There’s hope, but will it do enough?

Given the reviews of Rebel Moon‘s initial cut and the subsequent hyping up of the director’s cut from Snyder and other creatives involved in the production, many are wondering if the latter can fix the former. One thing Snyder has mentioned at length regarding Rebel Moon‘s director’s cut is that it will be R-rated, not unlike the Ultimate Edition of Batman v Superman. This promises more violent action, something that could help differentiate Rebel Moon‘s director’s cut from Star Wars and lessen the negative comparisons between the two sci-fi franchises.

Aside from potentially removing the criticisms of Rebel Moon‘s derivative nature, the director’s cut could also fix another of the film’s major problems: character development. In an interview with THR, Rebel Moon‘s co-writer – Kurt Johnstad – outlined how the director’s cut of the film will improve its characters. Johnstad mentioned that several characters – including Anthony Hopkins’ Jimmy, Sofia Boutella’s Kora, Ed Skrein’s Noble, and Sky Yang’s Aris, among others – will have entirely different introductions to the world.

Johnstad explained that more character moments will be included not only in the film’s opening but throughout Rebel Moon: Part One‘s director’s cut. He stated that, if everything had been included in the original cut, it would have been nearly four hours long. This comment also provides hope that the director’s cut will fix Rebel Moon‘s pacing problems. The original cut of the movie felt the strain of being a “Part One,” with the pacing suffering from slowly building a team before suddenly cutting to black to build anticipation for Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver that felt unearned.

With an extended runtime, Rebel Moon‘s director’s cut may make this less egregious. If more time is developed to fleshing out the characters, building the world of the film, and allowing the script to breathe, Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire could feel much more satisfying as the first half of a sci-fi epic. While none of these “fixes” are guaranteed, Snyder’s history with director’s cuts provides hope for those wishing to see his sci-fi epic improved, though whether the divisive filmmaker’s additions will be enough to overhaul the film’s negative reception completely remains to be seen.