The Best 'Rebel Moon' is a 5-hour remix of the Snyder and Netflix Cuts
A proposal for a new cut in-between the PG-13 and R-rated editions
In this short article, I want to share my impressions and criticisms of the director’s cut of Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon and argue that the best version of the film is a hypothetical edition that lies in-between the Netflix cut and director’s cut.
Table of ContentsWatching the Assemblage
What Works
What Doesn’t Work
The Best of Both Worlds
Watching the Assemblage
When watching a movie nowadays, I can’t help but pay attention to the editing, evaluating how well the film is edited, how tight it is, and if there are any moments that could be cut or, conversely, expanded, to improve it.
I’d argue that a lot of movies today, especially mainstream ones, suffer in the editing department. Some are too short, while others are too long. And most could really benefit from a bit more pruning - the removal of little bits and pieces of footage that don’t change a scene in a major way but make it faster and more concise.*
*The last mainstream picture I’ve seen that I think had a fully unified edit, with nothing extraneous or nothing rushed, was Aquaman (2018), but that’s another story.
All of these problems are demonstrated by Zack Snyder’s two-part sci-fi epic Rebel Moon, which has just been reissued in a 6-hour-plus R-rated director’s cut after being previously released in a much shorter PG-13 cut, aka the “Netflix version.” Where the PG-13 Rebel Moon was, as a whole, way too short, the R-rated is way too long.
This is reflective of the principle differences between the Netflix Cuts of Part 1 and Part 2. While A Child of Fire was a choppy picture with poor pacing and obviously missing connective tissue, The Scargiver was a coherent, focused and unified action film that delivered solid payoffs to the Seven Samurai-esque setup.
The R-rated versions (now subtitled Chapter 1: Chalice of Blood and Chapter 2: Curse of Forgiveness) each feature an hour of new footage, give or take. But while the new scenes of Part 1 feel like vital additions that improve the film (with an exception or two), those of Part 2 have the exact opposite effect, needlessly distending it and largely derailing its momentum. Let’s break things down a bit more, shall we?
What Works
By far, the best addition across both parts is the extra blood and gore. The bloodless violence of the PG-13 Cut has been replaced with over-the-top dismemberment and arterial spray, meaning limbs are hacked off and heads are eviscerated or blown up in graphic, yet aesthetically pleasing fashion. This is what really sets apart from other big budget space operas and feels like a fulfillment of Snyder’s true vision for the film.
Another welcome addition is the reinstatement of three uncensored sex scenes, two with Kora and one with Admiral Noble. I could probably do without the hentai-esque octopus stuff, which, while funny and reflective of Noble’s depravity, is bit much, but the Kora/Den and Kora/Gunnar scenes play into the main character’s development, as well as patch up some obvious gaps in the movie.
This also allows Rebel Moon to truly feel like a subversive response to Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, both of which are very chaste when it comes to relationships. The Veldt in particular finally live up to the promise of being horny hobbits.
I love all the new material in Part 1 with the characters of Jimmy and Aris, who basically went missing after the first 30 minutes of the PG-13 Part 1. One of the bigger issues I’ve had just in terms of storytelling is that there logically should’ve been a scene that explains where precisely these two stand after helping Kora kill the Motherworld soldiers left to oversee the Veldt’s grain preparation.
These scenes really fill in a lot of obvious narrative gaps, make Part 1 more visually diverse (there are a lot of beautiful sequences of Jimmy communing with nature) and help imrpove the flow of the film as a whole.
The new footage, unfortunately, can’t fix the script problems with the faux climax that concludes Part 1. But it does build a little better to this climax, thanks to some extra material with Noble (we get clarification that he took his personal ship to apprehend Kora) and Kai, who has more interaction with everyone before the betrayal.
Finally, there are some neat little lore additions here and there. The tooth-gathering by the red priests and the Rue Kali goddess engine are nice touches that I appreciate seeing. And both parts just look a little nicer thanks to an altered color grade.
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What Doesn’t Work
Part 1 now opens with an extensive 19-minute prologue that I think should’ve instead either been used for Part 2 or remained on the cutting room floor. I appreciate that we no longer have to deal with a voiceover in the opening sequence that takes away the viewer’s sense of discovery, but the prologue itself both feels redundant, considering everything that comes after, and gives away too much by first introducing its villains.
This diminishes the gradual and suspenseful buildup to the Motherworld forces’ arrival on Veldt and makes General Noble’s murder of Sindri less impactful.
With the exception of the extra sex and violence, most of the additions to Part 2 feel superfluous and really slow down the pacing. For instance, there’s a new subplot featuring some sub-villains called The Hawkshaws that just needlessly drags things out and you really wouldn't notice it were missing. I also like the PG-13 Version’s climax more, as it made Kora’s destruction of the King’s Gaze ship a means to save the Veldt village at the last second. In the director’s cut, by contrast, Kora destroys the bridge first by taking control of the main cannon, so her destruction of the ship is now causally separated from saving the village and feels less significant.
My biggest personal peeve is that Snyder still left unaddressed the glaring narrative inconsistency in the extended Part 1 between the Sindri murder scene and Kora’s meeting with the Bloodaxes, which breaks immersion in the storytelling.
When he killed Sindri, Noble originally was supposed to reveal that he knew about Gunnar’s dealings with the rebels, which is what brought him to Veldt. This is why Kora later claims to the Bloodaxes that it was ‘‘because of that transaction” that Noble targeted the farmers. However, at some point, Noble’s line was removed, making it that he indeed arrived on Veldt only because his forces ran low on food. Logically, Snyder then should’ve in turn removed Kora’s line about the Bloodaxes being responsible. But he evidently overlooked this.
I was betting on him restoring the Noble line or taking out Kora’s line to fix the issue with the director’s cut. But he did neither, which amazes and annoys me to no end.* Little things like this can really break viewer immersion in the movie.
*I mean, really, did nobody notice this in the months between releases?
Side NoteI recently participated in a podcast conversation with my friend Elvis Dutan, where we discussed both the new Rebel Moon cuts of as well as the M. Night Shyamalan film Trap. For more of my thoughts on what works and doesn’t, please give it a listen here.
The Best of Both Worlds
For all these reasons, I believe the best version of Rebel Moon should be one that finds a middle ground between the R and PG-13 Cuts, retaining all the violence, sex, and connective narrative tissue of the director’s cut, while removing all the excess.
To derive such a version, which would be approximately 5 hours long, it would be necessary to make the following changes to the director’s cut:
Remove the 19-minute Aris prologue from Part 1 and make it the opening of Part 2. Or possibly leave it on the cutting room floor entirely. So, the film begins sans voiceover with Kora plowing the fields.
Prune the overlong scenes of Part 1. This includes trimming out individual lines of dialogue in conversation scenes and removing throwaway bits, such as when the Griffin creature kills its owner.
Remove the extraneous and nonsensical line of dialogue Kora has about how Veldt was attacked because of Gunnar’s dealings with the Rebels.
Remove from Part 1 the entire extended ending sequence where Noble is quickly recovered, resurrected, and then sent to have a mental conversation with Belisa-rius, so as to not to immediately undermine the Part 1 climax. (Part 1 would thus end with the shot of the Group arriving on Veldt, with Jimmy looking from afar. Noble’s revival would in turn be revealed a little later in Part 2, when Cassius informs him that they jumped to his location and recovered him.)
Reconstruct the PG-13 Part 2 using predominantly the R-Rated version’s corresponding footage, with a few changes here and there to account for the differences. The second sex scene, alternate gorier sequences, and Rue Kali material would all be included.
Possibly move the final Princess Issa flashback from Part 2 into Part 1 to give it more closure overall.
With these changes, I think Rebel Moon could become its best self. But, of course, this is just my personal, subjective opinion. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t make a fan cut of this movie, as it is not likely to ever become available on physical home video.
But what about you?Do you also pay attention to the editing when you watch a movie nowadays? Are there any films you’ve seen that you’d like to recut or that you think could’ve been better edited? If so, why? What’s a recent film that has great editing in your opinion? Please,
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Also, if you’re interested in reading more of my thoughts on Rebel Moon, please read:
