Well, let’s hope so.
Rebel Moon Part 1 is now out on Netflix and to be frank, it’s not good. The film suffers from massive character development, a slow arc, and a wonky story; I go over more in my review.
As it is Zack Snyder we are talking about, of course, there is a “Director’s Cut” and it’s learned from Snyder, that the R-rated Rebel Moon Director’s Cut is apparently a lot different than the PG-13 version currently on Netflix. Question: Why not just release the Director’s Cut as the only cut of the movie?
Extended cut has different scenes
So while talking to Netflix, Snyder reveals that when he first pitched Rebel Moon to Netflix, he pitched it as a two-parter, and then he told Netflix he wanted to do another version that has additional scenes not in the regular version. If you watch the PG-13 version, there seems to be a massive amount of either footage or story or both missing that really hurts the film.
Snyder told Netflix about his original pitch:
“Let’s make just two movies back-to-back because it’s too epic to do in one film. Oh, and let’s do an extended cut that we’re going to shoot different scenes for. Stuff that people just don’t do.”
Different movie, different universe
Snyder then chatted about the Rebel Moon Director’s Cut with the AP, and went so far as to say the Rebel Moon Director’s cut isn’t an extended version of the movie. Snyder gives a mind-boggling response and says it’s an almost different movie, almost set in a different universe:
“It’s not an ‘extended cut’ of this movie. It’s almost like a different movie. It’s almost a different universe that [the R-rated cut] lives in than this movie.”
Director’s Cut is the real version
Zack Snyder continues talking to the AP and further reveals the Rebel Moon Director’s Cut is actually the version he first finished (and intended?) and then from that version, he cut a PG-13 shorter version:
“The reason for that is because it’s such a philosophical thing to shoot a director’s cut of a movie before you finish this version. All of my director’s cuts exist as a response to the things that were demanded of me to take out of the theatrical version, right? With [Rebel Moon], that demand was never made. We knew this would be a PG-13 movie. In my heart of hearts, I always wanted it to be rated R, but you realize this sort of scale and cost of a movie and say, ‘Well, it’s not 100% responsible to have that demand.’”
Why go with the PG-13 version?
We also get the answer to the question of why a PG-13 version was released as Snyder adds that Netflix wanted the PG-13 version but was gracious enough to let him eventually release the R-rated Director’s Cut:
“I’m a good partner, in that sense. It was Netflix’s idea, they’re like, ‘What if we said do whatever you want over here? Do the PG-13 version and then go nuts [on the other cut]. We don’t care.’ That was a thing I’ve never experienced before. That’s when the dimensional rift happened [between the two versions] when that was said out loud.”
PG-13 version is garbage
I gotta be honest, I’m upset I watched the PG-13 version of Rebel Moon because, yeah, it’s that bad. I also have to say the editing of the PG-13 version is a definitely hack job and it’s awful. So now I’m supposed to be excited and go back and watch an extended R-rated Rebel Moon Director’s Cut with the hopes that the additional scenes make the PG-13 version a lot better? This is mind-blowing.
How about including all the scenes in the PG-13 version, and then if some of the stuff is R-rated, cut that out (like the gore), but it seems as if they cut out necessary footage and story elements, IMO. And again, it seems A LOT was lost in the editing down of the R-rated version to the PG-13 version. At least I hope so.
