Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Rebel Moon Part Two: Director’s Cut’ on Netflix, Where Zack Snyder Amplifies The Violence On His Way To The Conclusion For His Lengthy Space Epic

If you already watched the PG-13 Rebel Moon movies on Netflix, and Part One of Zack Snyder’s director’s cut version , will you even have the bandwidth for the nearly three-hour runtime of the XXL Rebel Moon: Part Two ? If not, you should make the time. With her team gathered and galvanized in what they have to do, Kora (Sofia Boutella) will face the onslaught of the Imperium’s dreadnought, hopefully save her village on Veldt, and maybe – for her and her friends – achieve some kind of retribution along the way. Snyder directed and co-wrote Rebel Moon , which stars Boutella alongside Djimon Hounsou, Michael Huisman, Doona Bae, Ed Skrein, Fra Fee, and Anthony Hopkins, whose voice role as a robot warrior figures more prominently into part two of the proceedings .

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Rebel Moon Part One: Director’s Cut’ on Netflix, Zack Snyder’s Extra Long Take On His Already Unwieldy Sci-Fi Epic

The Gist: Part one of Rebel Moon ended on a high note, with Kora and her companions freed from certain death and raining destruction on the forces of the Imperium, including Admiral Atticus Noble (Skrein). But here in part two, their triumphant return to the Veldt on Urakiback is cut with images of charred human remains being shoveled into furnaces. It’s an aspect of the second portion’s deeper look at what sustains the incredible, near-universal reach of Balisarius (Fee), the despotic Regent, and his Imperium forces, who feed the Kalies that power their spaceships with the bones of those they’ve conquered. The Kalies are eminently powerful, alien giants who pulse with electricity and the ability to travel across vast reaches of space. But they were imprisoned by the Motherworld’s aristocracy, and now their strengths are used for ill-gotten gain. Like returning Noble fully back to the land of the living, for example. Kora and her team are prepared to fight. But are they ready for the already psychotic admiral to be emboldened by his newfound durability?

‘Rebel Moon: Director’s Cut:’ More Blood, More Sex, and a More Comprehensible Plot

As General Titus (Hounsou) says, “death is not always deterrent enough for the designs of the Motherworld.” And on Veldt, Kora and the villagers soon learn that a dreadnought is inbound. (They’re also under surveillance by a mercenary team, but don’t worry, the warrior bot voiced by Anthony Hopkins is watching those guys watch them.) While Titus, Tarak (Staz Nair), and Nemesis (Bae) instruct the villagers in building defenses and training for battle, Kora prepares to infiltrate the dreadnought with the dropship she used to escape the Motherworld. (She also makes it official with Gunnar, after his lifesaving heroics at the end of Rebel part one.) There’s gonna be a showdown, with the odds not in Veldt’s favor, even with the participation of Kora’s brave fighters. But in the tradition of The Magnificent Seven , the underdogs will use their spirit, their wits, what weapons they have to the best of their advantage.

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“You don’t become the most wanted criminal in the known universe simply by running away.” Rebel Moon Part Two also completes a Kora backstory that was only hinted at previously. How Balisarius preyed on her loyalties to engineer his coup. How she was left powerless to protect a royal who envisioned peace, not chaos. And whether she herself represents a prophecy with implications for rule over the galaxy and ultimate vengeance for the Kalie who were forced into servitude.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Who doesn’t love a big standoff? Especially when we’re rooting for the little guys? Rebel Moon Part Two is mostly this, which keeps it mostly on track, including a finale with battle action on land and in flight that feels very MCU -adjacent.

Performance Worth Watching: Wherever he appears, Djimoun Hounsou does the little things to be great, and it’s the same with Rebel Moon Part Two . Hounsou brings a fullness to General Titus that’s expressed more through what we don’t see than the fierce battles and heavy-handed character monologues that we do.

Memorable Dialogue: The Imperium served injustices on each member of Kora’s team, leaving them struggling to rectify their warrior selves with their own humanity. She is no different. “ More than a weapon,” she tells Gunnar. “It’s what we’re all trying to be.”

Sex and Skin: While Kora’s sex with Den (Stuart Martin) in Rebel Moon Part One was mutually transactional, the big love scene added to the director’s cut of Part Two is more substantial and more tender. Kora has finally allowed herself to be loved, even as she reveals her scars .

Our Take: Guilt. Honor. Justice. Revenge. These are the beats recurring in Rebel Moon parts one and two. “There is a difference between justice and revenge,” Nemesis told the group when they first met, and all of the warriors Kora recruited have been living their lives in between those two poles. What’s cool about Part Two is how they each find better footing for thriving in their own way, while not deadening the fire that drives them toward vengeance on the sadistic Imperium. This gives us something to follow, even as the second half of Rebel Moon dwells far too long on the threshing of wheat as some kind of new age religion. It keeps us on track, even as the film periodically veers into standalone soliloquies, where Anthony Hopkins renders the emerging righteousness of his mechanical knight character, or we view entire other storylines in miniature through the origin stories of each fighter. That stuff matters, but its waywardness makes it an odd fit for a movie that already felt too long in its PG-13 version.

Which is why it’s exciting when a good old fashioned battle begins. The bulk of Rebel Moon Part Two is taken up with this, as the village defenses rack up thrilling W’s and majorly bloody L’s against the Imperium’s infantry, and Kora takes the fight to the steam-bathed passageways and gridded metal walkways of the dreadnought. (The interiors of every galactic empire in the history of film always appear the same.) Not everything works in Rebel Moon Part Two . But it lands enough molten laser shots that we’re encouraged about seeing more of this world. Just a note for next time, though: just release it as a hard R and be done with it.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Like its companion film, Rebel Moon Part Two: Director’s Cut at times suffers from somehow doing too much and too little at the same time. But there is more clarity to what’s at stake for our heroes, a lot of terrific battle action, and a better understanding of the sci-fi universe – complete with more sequels teased – that Rebel Moon is trying to build.

Johnny Loftus ( @glennganges ) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.

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