Rebel Moon – Part 2: Director’s Cut

It is confounding that the extended robot scenes were relegated to the R version, as they really should have been worked into the PG-13 cut. We also have the full reveal of the most spectacular visual showpiece of the film, which is the starship drive that looks like a titan in bondage. It is the kind of magnificent surreal image with massive grandeur that has Snyder’s signature all over it. It is visionary work like this that makes Rebel Moon – Part 2: Director’s Cut unique among the endless sea of space operas.

It is just a shame there aren’t more images like it in the extended hour of extra material. The only other grand tableau is the genius chessboard-colored home world of Prince Tarak, with its neo-Edwardian dress code and griffins that act like big kitty cats. And that was in the PG-13 cut. Yes, the rest of the sci-fi visuals are breathtaking in their beauty and detail, but not in their uniqueness. Doing a great job with more of the same isn’t going to cut it.

Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver. Ed Skrein as Atticus Noble in Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver. Cr. Netflix © 2023

“…the commitment by the talented performers here is squandered…”

The other big addition to the R cut is a gratuitous sex scene that is corny beyond belief. I understand the emotional crescendo of releasing all that built-up tension between the characters, as well as after all the s**t they have gone through that they deserve a break today. However, the commitment by the talented performers here is squandered with tinker-toy blocking and tacky presentation. Every position is for display purposes only, defeating whatever empowerment was being attempted.

In a post-exploitation landscape, we do not need to mannequin actors anymore for sex scenes and have the freedom to break from the usual pantomimes. Also, it goes on and on way too long, like the fight between Roddy Piper and Keith David that marred the otherwise perfect They Live. There is a much hotter after-sex scene that shows Tarak’s appreciation of maturity and hits the nudity nail on the head. Overall, the long-anticipated strong sexual content of the R versions is an Al Capone’s vault level let down.

I was not expecting Snyder to do a space Caligula, but I was expecting a more imaginative incorporation of sexuality into the science fiction elements. Or even go the Light Years route and normalize the nipple with topless characters throughout in a non-sexualized way. In this vein, it electrifies the mind, imagining what a Snyder adaptation of the classic underground comic series The First Kingdom would look like.

Yes, Rebel Moon – Part 2: Director’s Cut is the superior version, but we still are left with a bloodier version of the kid’s table instead of the dirty daiquiris that were hinted at.