Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey
Get our The Life Cinematic email for free
Netflix subscribers are making similar complaints about new film Rebel Moonwhich is currently the streaming service’s most-watched title.
The new fantasy film is the latest release from writer-director Zack Snyder (300, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), and it has shunted Aardman sequel Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget and thriller Leave the World Behind down the charts. Snyder’s epic is the first chapter of a two-part franchise, which will conclude in 2024.
Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire was added to Netflix on Thursday (21 December), and has received a deluge of negative reviews from criticsincluding The Independentwho called it “a borderline incoherent shambles” in a one-star review.
While other critics appeared to concur with this judgement, leaving the film with a paltry 23 per cent score on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, subscribers who have been watching the film seem to disagree. At the time of writing, Rebel Moon has an audience score of 69 per cent.
It’s perhaps unsurprising that the film is going down better with viewers than critics – Snyder is a director with a solid fanbase, and said fanbase has come out in full force to support his new film on social media.
However, even the most fervent Snyder fan appears to believe there is one issue with the film – thar it needs to be longer.. Social media is filled with messages claiming that Rebel Moon features pacing issues, and that Netflix should have released the director’s cut, which it held back in favour of a grand unveiling in early 2024.
“I think Netflix holding back a longer — and from what I hear, better — edit really backfired,” one viewer wrote, with another adding: “For me there were some slight pacing issues but I imagine those will be more or less fixed in the longer cut.”
Other subscribers agreed, with one commenting on X/Twitter: “So when is the extended version of Rebel Moon coming out? I still have 30 minutes left but I already want a longer version.” Elsewhere, another chimed in: “Not releasing the full “director’s cut” to begin with on Netflix is just gross and greedy.”
Find more reactions below.
Meanwhile, Forbes wrote how Rebel Moon will “suffer” because of Netflix’s decision to hold back the director’s cut in order to whip up interesting among Snyder’s fanbase.
Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video
Sign up now for a 30-day free trial
Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video
Sign up now for a 30-day free trial
Snyder has been vocal about there being an existence of an extended cut of the film that’s not suitable for younger viewers. He has revealed that Netflix asked him to make a longer version of the film, and he said the result is “almost like a different movie”.
He told AP: “It’s not an ‘extended cut’ of this movie – it’s almost a different universe that (the new cut) lives in than this movie.”
Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Firewhich Snyder co-wrote with Kurt Johnstad and Shay Hatten, follows an army of warriors who take on the Imperium, a military governing a fictional galaxy threatening a farming colony on the moon. It stars Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, Ed Skrein, Michiel Huisman, Doona Bae, Ray Fisher, Charlie Hunnam and Anthony Hopkins.
Doona Bae in ‘Rebel Moon’ on Netflix
(Netflix)
The film is available to stream on Netflix now, and Part Two will arrive 19 April 2024.
