Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon saga began in December 2023 with the release of Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire. Just weeks after its release, however, Snyder confirmed that Rebel Moon would receive a director’s cut. Its sequel, Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver, was released four months after the first installment, and director’s cuts of both movies were made available on Netflix in early August 2024. The director’s cut is quickly becoming Snyder’s bread and butter, following Zack Snyder’s Justice League after the troubled production of the 2017 DC epic (including a change of director partway through filming).
Curiously, though, Snyder and Netflix had been keen to emphasize the fact that the director had creative control over the Rebel Moon films from the start, making director’s cuts seemingly redundant – perhaps he had double creative control over the new versions. Despite this, Snyder insists that the new edition director's cuts of Rebel Moon are the definitive versions of the movies – and different films altogether, rather than merely re-edits of the original releases. This means that there are some substantial changes between the different versions of the films as well as minor differences, which are bound to excite fans of Snyder’s newest cinematic saga.
It’s one thing to have a director’s cut because of studio meddling of the theatrical release, and it’s another to have one despite the director having creative control of both versions. What’s the point? Cash grab? A way to make an excuse if the film bombs? It’s not like his director’s cuts are any better. They’re meh at best.
Take Villenueve’s films. They don’t have director’s cuts because per him, the theatrical version IS the director’s cut and his vision of the film.
The original versions of Rebel Moon were a 4 hour snooze fest. I’m not wasting my time watching yet another 4 hours (or longer) of the same film that likely is the same quality.