Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver recently hit Netflix with overwhelmingly negative reviews. A 14% score makes it Zack Snyder's worst-reviewed movie to date, though its predecessor - Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire - didn't fare much better with 21%.
The hope is that this summer's director's cuts (which are expected to clock in at over three hours each) improve on the current versions and perhaps deliver Snyder's true vision for his sci-fi franchise.
"Tonally, they’re completely different. They're each an hour longer," the filmmaker admitted in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. "They’re three hours each, and there are tons of scenes that aren’t in the initial versions. We went so far into the weeds with it to the point that even within the body of the movie, a line that was the same in PG-13 as it is in R might be a different take of the same line."
"Emotionally, it's more like a parallel universe than an extended version. Things happen that in the R-rated version that don't happen in the PG-13. The event order is all different, so it's really an interesting exercise."
Snyder would even go so far as to say, "We definitely made four separate movies. There’s no doubt about that."
It's surprising to hear just how different these lengthier versions of Rebel Moon will be, though we can't help but wonder what that means for their budgets. Given the tepid response to the first cuts, it's surely now only going to be hardcore fans of the director who tune in for his "Snyder Cuts."
Whether that level of viewership will mean the Justice League helmer is allowed to continue telling stories in the world of Rebel Moon is unclear. Ultimately, it will depend on what sort of return A Child of Fire and The Scargiver have already given them on their investment.
Addressing his threequel plans, Snyder added, "That was four years ago that Kora supposedly killed Issa, so the idea is that she would be 17 now, floating around somewhere out there in hiding. She’s basically their Joan of Arc, and they’ve got to find her. For Jimmy especially, the idea that she might be out there really solidifies his mythological worth and turns him into a thing of meaning."
"The video game’s in the works still, they're plugging away," he said of additional plans to expand Rebel Moon. "And then the making-of books, of course, are coming. There are two, one’s out already and the second one should be out soon."
Both Rebel Moon movies are now streaming on Netflix.