Filmmaker Zack Snyder has been stretching his franchise wings at Netflix in recent years with the “Army of The Dead” series and his current “Rebel Moon” space opera. However, the former zombie actioner seemingly got a warmer reception than the more recent two-part sci-fi fantasy pic loosely inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s “The Seven Samurai,” repurposed from a “Star Wars” pitch. While speaking with Empire, the director briefly commented on the disastrous critical response to the first “Rebel Moon” film (21% score on Rotten Tomatoes), asserting that his movies “for whatever reason” have become “polarizing” to critics and audiences.
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“I don’t really have a rebuttal to the reviews,” he recently told Empire Magazine. “For whatever reason, the reaction to my movies is very polarizing, and it always has been. The movie, it doesn’t seem like there’s that much in it that would warrant such visceral responses.”
The director promises his unrated cuts coming to Netflix this summer will be mature as it gets, “all the gore and the hard R-ness and the nudity and the violence and crazy shit.” “They’re insane,” Snyder adds and predicts he’ll enjoy shocking critics. “It’ll be interesting to see what the [critics] say about the director’s cuts. That’s a different kettle of fish.”
Snyder could be genuinely perplexed or simply trying to insulate himself from criticism, which is understandable, at least on a human level. Some of his questionable choices include an icky suggestible gang rape scene in a barn in “Rebel Moon,” a PG-13 movie, which was undoubtedly offputting (sexual violence becoming a common theme in Snyder films like “Watchmen” and “Sucker Punch” too). These darker choices could be why they’re unleashing these unrated cuts, to begin with, alongside the more audience-friendly PG-13 versions. Let’s hope the R-rated versions don’t veer too far off into this territory, if only for the sake of the discourse, if not our eyes.
Meanwhile, before the R-rated versions arrive in August, “Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver” debuts on Netflix on April 19, 2024.