Zack Snyder’s new Netflix film is out and it is receiving the worst reviews of the director’s career to date.
Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver hit the streaming platform last Friday (April 19), the sequel to its 2023 predecessor.
It stars Sofia Boutella as a former soldier who recruits warriors from neighbouring planets to fight back against the evil Imperium when her farming colony is threatened.
On the reviews aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, the film is currently sitting on a 17 per cent rating, surpassing his previous low, which was the first Rebel Moon film at 21 per cent.
Some of Snyder’s previous films, including his DC Extended Universe entries Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the original cut of Justice League, are all certified rotten on the site, at 56, 29 and 40 per cent respectively.
His highest-rated directorial project to date is his 2004 debut Dawn of the Dead at 76 per cent, followed by his 2021 extended cut of Justice League at 72 per cent.
In a one-star review, The Times said, “You’d sell your granny for a sci-fi brain gizmo that could wipe the entire mess from your mind for ever”.
The Telegraph, meanwhile, declared that, “We’re given hundreds of details about this galaxy far far away, but no reasons to care about any of them.”
Snyder himself has hit back at the negative reviews for the film, saying he’s perplexed by the hostile reaction.
“I don’t really have a rebuttal to the reviews. For whatever reason, the reaction to my movies is very polarising, and it always has been. The movie, it doesn’t seem like there’s that much in it that would warrant such visceral responses.”
While Snyder has said he doesn’t let the negative reviews get to him, Boutella has admitted that she is deeply affected by them.
“I always thought that I was fully armed to take on those punches, and then I read the critics that came down on Rebel Moon and it really affected me,” she said. “I’m just gonna be honest about it. I feel like I’m carrying it for everybody that cared so much about this project, and that’s what affected me. Not the way I look. If anything, I’ve been pretty lucky and people like my work in it, but the movie was criticised.”
Earlier this month, Snyder revealed that the only film in his back catalogue that he still wishes he could make changes to is Sucker Punch.
“It never really got finished correctly,” he said. “Even the director’s cut is not really the correct cut. It’s really just an extended version. If I had the chance, I would fix that movie.”
“I have the footage already shot: they just have to let me put it together. We ask every now and then. We have to ask again. I think there has to be a window when no-one’s got the movie.”
Last year, Snyder spoke about his desire to work on a director’s cut of the film, adding that the original ending was changed as Warner Bros. thought it was “too weird”.