Summary
- The Director’s Cuts of Rebel Moon offer longer, bloodier, and more detailed versions of Snyder’s sci-fi saga.
- Extended and altered shots enhance the unity between films, showcasing more intense battle scenes and graphic content.
- Key character backstories are expanded, motives for war explored, and a new cliffhanger changes the series direction.
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.
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10 Titles and Length
Obviously, The Director’s Cuts Are Longer
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The most obvious change from the original releases to the Director’s Cuts is that both films have been retitled. The first film goes from Part One: A Child of Fire to Chapter One: Chalice of Blood. This new title seems to reflect the Bloodaxe family, but is otherwise pretty meaningless. Similarly, the second installment is no longer Part Two: The Scargiver, but Chapter Two: Curse of Forgiveness. It seems like Snyder is using the ‘Chapter’ subtitle to make it clearer that these films are just fragments of a much longer narrative – one that could total four or even six movies.
If the Director’s Cuts keep coming, resulting in a franchise of six original films and six newer versions, these newer edits indicate it would be a hefty saga. Part One: A Child of Fire was only two hours and 14 minutes long and Part Two: The Scargiver clocked in at a healthy two hours and two minutes. Meanwhile, Chapter Two: Curse of Forgiveness hits 173 minutes while Chapter One: Chalice of Blood reaches an eye-watering three hours and 24 minutes, meaning it now takes almost half a day to watch all four films released in the series so far.
9 Extended and Alternate Shots
Some Scenes Are Altered
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Much of this new time is used to extend, re-order, or otherwise alter scenes which were in the first two films. Sometimes this is to bring more unity between the films – for example, while The Scargiver showed Kora hiding her previously-destroyed ship by a waterfall, Chalice of Blood expands upon this by detailing the discovery of the crash by the villagers from Veldt. This thread is then picked up in Curse of Forgiveness with a longer scene than the original.
These extended sequences don’t always seem to be for the benefit of clarity, though – Curse of Forgiveness spends even more time showing the villagers’ wheat harvest than its predecessor The Scargiver did. However, rather than intercutting these scenes with the preparation for battle, the shot order has been transformed, instead taking place chronologically, which boosts the stakes for the villagers a little – even if the scene is now even longer than it was before.
8 R-Rated for a Reason
The Battle Scenes Are Bloodier
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While both first releases managed to scrape through with PG-13 ratings, the Director’s Cuts have placed themselves firmly into the R category. With more blood, gore, and sex, the R rating is understandable and commended. There’s a chance that including adult content was the main draw for Snyder to release these editions, as there are now several sex scenes that have very little impact on the plot – including one moment where Noble has a fresh experience with a promisingly tentacled alien.
Similarly, these new editions are full of harsher battle scenes that don’t pull any punches. Blood is splashed over the camera lens, skulls are crushed to the accompaniment of toe-curling sound effects, and war is portrayed as more brutal than it had been previously. Perhaps the real reason for the renaming to Chalice of Blood is because of the sheer amount of blood shown in this new cut.
7 The Opening Sequences
Anthony Hopkins’ Narration Is Gone
A huge change made for the Director’s Cuts is the absence of Anthony Hopkins’ opening narration from each of the respective films. Instead of merely telling the story of what happened prior to the film, long extended sequences detailing the narrated content via action are shown, allowing viewers fully to immerse themselves in the world of the story. It’s a shame, as Hopkins’s voice is a smooth, interesting way into the films, but the displays of war and violence are thrilling and work as well.
In Chalice of Blood, Snyder shows off some more of the violence which he can now get away with by giving a fully detailed flashback scene packed with gore and gruesome moments to set up the backstory for Aris. Women are tortured at the hands of the Motherworld soldiers, and Snyder – typically – doesn’t shy away from nudity. These new opening sequences are certainly more fitting to the rest of the Director’s Cuts, even if they’re also a little more heavy-handed.
6 Introducing the Kali
Much More Detail Is Offered
The Kali were mentioned in the original version of The Scargiver, but far more detail about them is given in the new cuts. Chalice of Blood showcases the Kali on-screen, giving a glimpse into the strange creatures at the heart of the dreadnaught ships. These ships are powered not solely by machinery but by sentient, robotic entities known as the Kali. The design of the Kali is fantastic, feeling fresh and exciting, while their pain at being used to power a ship is horrifying and shows yet another dark side of the Imperium.
Curse of Forgiveness delves deeper, and the relationship that Kora builds with the Rue Kali (who powers The King’s Gaze) leads further down the mythological path of this new universe Snyder is building up. Fans of the Rebel Moon expanded media will already have known the secrets of the Kali, this is the introduction for the film’s audience. With Kora having a vision of the Rue Kali freeing herself and all the other Kali, this plot thread likely won’t be picked up until the Director’s Cut of the next installment, giving the fans something to look out for.
5 More Time On Screen
Jimmy Gets More Screen Time
While Anthony Hopkins may have been cut from being the first voice viewers hear when the films begin, his character – a robot called Jimmy – is allowed more time on screen in the new editions. In Chalice of Blood, he no longer vanishes for the majority of the film but now has his own side quest exploring Veldt. He’s a key part in helping to dig up Kora’s spaceship, which ultimately allows Kora and the team to escape Veldt and hide from the Imperium.
The extended runtime also allows for the main character, Kora, to have a more fleshed-out and detailed backstory than the original cuts of the movies gave her. Chalice of Blood shows a flashback to when her home planet was invaded, and the information given is far more detailed than in the first release. A better understanding of her politics and her desires can be gleaned from these sequences and will no doubt have gained Kora even more audience sympathy.
4 The High Scribes’ Teeth
A Deeper Exploration Of The Scribes
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While the majority of the Director’s Cuts’ plots are the same as their respective predecessors’, there are a few changes – one of which is the exploration of the Scribes, weird priest-like members of the Imperium. These figures are disturbing, their ritual involving teeth bound to put some viewers off. Wherever Noble goes, the Scribes follow. Whichever leader Noble kills, the Scribes pull out one of the leader’s teeth.
These teeth are then arranged into a collage forming a frame around a portrait of Princess Issa, which is just bizarre to watch. It’s one of the more visually interesting aspects of these Director’s Cuts, but it does feel a little inconsequential, acting more as a way to hint at the strange practices of the Scribes rather than actually informing the plot.
3 More Time for Backstory
Some Characters Get Better Fleshed Out
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Similarly to the additional screen time for certain characters, some of the key players in Rebel Moon are granted more detailed histories in the new releases, such as former Imperium general King Titus, blacksmith Tarak, and the cyborg Nemesis. In the original versions, the trio joined forces with Kora to fight the Motherworld without a massive amount of explanation, but the Director’s Cut of Curse of Forgiveness brings up their pasts much earlier than in The Scargiver.
Similarly, each of the three is now permitted a flashback scene all to themselves explaining how they were living before the Motherworld invaded each of their respective planets. This is how Tarak’s status as a former prince is revealed, and it allows each of the characters to feel more rounded and three-dimensional. Nemesis’s backstory is particularly emotional, her nature as a cyborg a shade darker than viewers may previously have thought.
2 Motives for War
The War Is Explained Better
Chalice of Blood offers far more direct explorations of the fraught relationship between the King, Balisarius, and Kora. The interpersonal politics form more of a backbone to the story of both installments than previously thought. The backstory for Kora and Balisarius, having gone together from planet to planet to kill their leaders, adds a new level of depth to both characters, tensions running even higher than they seemed in the original cuts.
Similarly, Balisarius’s coup against the King is explored further, explaining why Kora was used as a scapegoat by Balisarius. The King and Kora get a whole extra conversation, where actors Cary Elwes and Sofie Boutella respectively are given plenty of opportunity to exercise their range – a challenge which they rise to. There’s a more imminent sense of a crumbling power dynamic in the Director’s Cuts, and in retrospect, it’s something that feels missing from the original versions.
1 Curse of Forgiveness Has a New Cliffhanger
The Ending Is Considerably Changed
Going forward, the biggest change made in either version is the all-new final sequence for Chapter Two: Curse of Forgiveness. There’s now an implication that the Director’s Cuts and the regular versions of the films will continue down slightly different paths. While both The Scargiver and Curse of Forgiveness reveal that Issa is still alive, the latter includes an additional scene showing where Basilarius is left.
Hearing from one of his people that The King’s Gaze has been destroyed, and that Noble has been killed, Basilarius dons the crown and gloves in the King’s Palace. Stepping out in front of a huge crowd of people, his power is likely to be heightened in the next installment of the saga, leaving another door open for fans of the Rebel Moon universe. With so many changes between the original versions and the director’s cuts, these new edits are essentially mandatory viewing for Snyder fans.
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