Summary
- Rebel Moon Part One has received a low Rotten Tomatoes score of 23%, but the screenwriter dismisses critics and emphasizes the emotional core of the film.
- Many fans are unhappy with Netflix’s decision not to release the Director’s Cut of the movie and have expressed their frustration on social media.
- Despite the mixed reception, Rebel Moon Part One has become the top film on Netflix and will be followed by Part Two in 2024
- No release date has been announced for the Director’s Cut.
Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire arrived on Netflix a few days ago, and instantly divided audiences. As the first part of the sci-fi epic from Zack Snyder saw its review scores get off to a pretty dismal start, screenwriter Kurt Johnstad addressed the negative critical reception to the movie while speaking to Variety.
Rebel Moon is a movie that has gone through several iterations, having started out as a Star Wars pitch made by Snyder to Lucasfilm. While the studio ultimately decided not to go with Snyder’s story, the director sat on the idea for a while and now has had the chance to bring it to life on its own terms. But the response has not exactly been overwhelmingly positive.
As the movie’s Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score sits at a lowly 23%, Johnstad dismissed the initial response from critics in a blunt and direct reply. He told Variety:
“I don’t read the reviews, I never have. Critics have a job to do. We live in a democracy. Everybody gets to vote. If people watch the film, they’ll have an experience, and they will either enjoy it or they won’t. It’s flavors of ice cream. In my career of 20 years doing this, reviews have never equated to performance. A movie will either perform or it won’t. People will either love it and be connected to it, and I think what this movie has is an emotional drive and a core and characters that are vulnerable. And of course, there’s sequence and action and visual — it’s a magnificent looking film. But I think that at the core of it, it’s got emotion. There’s an emotional engine and a currency that runs through the film that I think works, so I’d invite people to check it out.”
Why Did Netflix Not Just Release Rebel Moon’s Director’s Cut?
One of the biggest complaints about Rebel Moon is that Zack Snyder has made it clear that a Director’s Cut of the movie will be coming down the line, and many fans have questioned why Netflix did not just release that version.
Exactly why Netflix chose to release two versions of the movie, with neither of them getting a cinematic release, is unclear. The version of the movie that dropped on the platform a few days ago has many issues with pacing, is very close to the PG-13 level of recent Star Wars movies, and fails to really create characters that anyone cares about in favor of epic visuals.
Snyder fans are always vocal on social media when it comes to their movie-making idol, and Rebel Moon has seen its fair share of disgruntled comments, many of which have been directed firmly at Netflix’s decision to make them wait, not only for the second part of the story, but also for making them wait to see the movie Snyder has been actively promoting in interviews.
While the audience score for the movie has been more positive, currently sitting on a 67% approval rate, it has not been a runaway success in terms of the final product. However, the film has soared to the top of the Netflix chart as expected, and that is exactly where the streamer wanted to see it. We can expect more of the same when Rebel Moon Part Two: The Scargiver debuts on April 19, 2024. There has been no release date for the Director’s Cut of Part One.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
