Even though I did see the original cut of Rebel Moon – Part One: Child of Fire (2023) and Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver (2024), I did not get the chance to watch the director’s cut. After reactivating my Netflix subscription to catch Frankenstein (2025) and the final season of Stranger Things (TV 2025), I found myself in the right mood to finally watch the director’s cut of both movies.

I remember it felt as if a lot was cut from the original release of the Rebel Moon movies. We could have spend more time building up and bonding with the characters. I had hoped the director’s cut would offer just that. Especially since both movies get at least an additional hour of runtime. With a whopping total of almost 6.5 hours, surely it would be a better experience. Right? Well.. not really. It might actually made it worse.

WARNING: This post contains spoilers !

Plot

Rebel Moon is set in a fictional galaxy ruled by the imperialistic Motherworld, whose military, the Imperium, threatens a village on the moon Veldt. Kora, a former Imperium soldier, ventures on a quest to recruit warriors from across the galaxy to make a stand against the Imperium before they return to Veldt.

Thoughts

When I first caught a glimpse of Rebel Moon, I got quite excited. It’s not every day a filmmaker attempts to bring a whole new world to life. It seems that Zack Snyder put a lot of thought into the universe of Rebel Moon and how he wanted to bring his vision to the screen. After watching the director’s cut I also dived into Creating a Universe: The Making of Rebel Moon (2024). Seeing all the concept artwork, costume design, how the sets were build up. It’s clear a lot of love went into making these movies.

The director’s cut not only renames the Rebel Moon movies to Chapter One: Chalice of Blood and Chapter Two: Curse of Forgiveness, the movies also change ratings from PG-13 to Rated-R. It shows! There’s a whole lot more blood, gore and additional spicy scenes with Sofia Boutella (Kora). I had hoped the additional footage would satisfy my longing to spend a bit more time with the characters and truly make me care for them more. However it did not. I think Sofia is a beautiful woman, but the spicy scenes felt forced and made me cringe. Oh don’t even get me started about the bad guy and the tentacle thing.

While watching the director’s cut I got more and more agitated. Even though there was a lot of additional footage, it had no meaningful impact on the story. It only irritated me more that there had to be a director’s cut in the first place with a whole rating change. I started to wonder what type of deal was struck with Netflix and why it wasn’t made into a limited series. Especially since Zack Snyder had been thinking of creating Rebel Moon since his time in college. I know now he decided to compromise to strike a deal with Netflix, but what if he had not or simply chose another way?

On paper Rebel Moon doesn’t sound that bad. It has extensive lore and backstory. The ensemble cast is actually pretty decent. The story is a bit simple, but telling an unoriginal story isn’t always bad. People weren’t super impressed by the plot of Avatar (2009), but James Cameron managed to pull the audience in and make them fall in love with his universe. A universe he too started to conceptualize when he was still in college. I know, I could dive into a whole rabbit hole. Lamenting the hubris of filmmakers banking on director’s cuts or how streaming services destroy cinema.. but I won’t.

Ultimately I did not enjoy the director’s cut of Rebel Moon, because it made me think of how things could have been different. I normally wouldn’t get hung up about a movie that looks super stylish but feels lacking overall due to a weak plot and non-existent character growth. Knowing there’s such an extended universe behind Rebel Moon and choosing a different strategy could have prevented it from being cancelled by Netflix. It’s just painful to think about.

Verdict

If you are a first time viewer and do not mind style over substance, you might still enjoy Rebel Moon. I’m hesitant to fully vouch for the director’s cut with a total runtime of 6.5 hours for both movies. If you’re up for it, go ahead. Wondering if you should give Rebel Moon another chance by watching the director’s cut. That’s definitely NOT worth it! Your time is better spend rewatching a true favorite or explore new releases.