Rebel Moon – Part Two: Chalice of Blood Review

Similar to his work on DC’s ‘Justice League’, Zach Snyder has released an extended cut of his most recent project ‘Rebel Moon’. Both parts have been given new titles, with the first entry being called ‘Chalice of Blood’. Running at nearly three and a half hours, it’s certainly a much bigger movie, but is it better than the original cut?

In a lot of ways, it’s a replay of the theatrical version released late last year. There are a few small differences, but the main storyline is the same, and there aren’t any new characters or scenes introduced that have a big impact on the plot.

This could be seen as a win or a loss depending on your opinion on the original cut of the movie. I was disappointed with both ‘A Child of Fire’ and ‘The Scargiver’ and was hoping that the director’s cut might go some way to fixing the problems I had with those movies. While there are a few scenes that are welcome additions, a lot of them are just more of the same. Snyder hasn’t significantly changed anything here, and I don’t think he’s taken any of the criticisms of the first movies into consideration. Which brings the question of what the point of these new editions are? They aren’t a response to the poor reception of the theatrical version in the way his ‘Justice League’ was, yet they don’t significantly add anything that was lacking as, for example, the extended editions of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy do.

There are one or two good parts. The movie opens with quite a good action scene that we haven’t seen before, which is filled with gore, and I was led into thinking that this might indeed be a better movie, but it quickly falls apart.

Snyder continues trying to build character through flashbacks alone, even worse, they are all the same story of their family being murdered by the Imperium when they were young. This time it’s the turn of Aris, the young soldier who deserts to join the villagers on Veldt and help with their fight. It turns out he also has a tragic backstory, with Admiral Noble forcing him to kill his own father on the pretence he would let the rest of his family live. Unsurprisingly, he kills them all anyway, missing any opportunity to show the villains as something other than cartoon characters who are just bad for the sake of being bad.

One big fault with this franchise is the amount of things that are just dropped in with no explanation or logic, then quickly forgotten about when they’ve served their purpose. Despite having more time to explain them, Snyder doesn’t bother to. Indeed, he adds even more to the list. Now Noble collects his enemy’s teeth and adds them to a mosaic, the Imperium dreadnaughts are apparently powered by the corpses of the Motherworld’s victims, and there’s a pet monkey that can spontaneously combust. It’s all just random ideas that might look or sound cool on their own but don’t work when they’re put into the context of a wider universe, and with such a bloated runtime, there isn’t anything to keep them in check.

The usual Snyder tropes are here too. There’s lens flare, slow-motion, and even a few shots of wheat, all filmed with the same grey-brown color palette and blurry lenses that make it visually boring, even when there’s some good action happening.

If there’s one good point, it’s that Anthony Hopkins gets to say more lines as Jimmy, the warrior robot turned pacifist who spends his time out in the wilds, getting back in touch with nature. He has a lot more screen time, but not a lot of character, and his impact on the story is still largely insignificant. At least we get to hear more of that iconic voice, though.

In short, if you liked the original cut of ‘Rebel Moon’, you’ll love this; if you didn’t like the original cut, you’ll hate this. It’s mostly the same as ‘A Child of Fire’, but bigger, louder, and more Zach Snyder. There’s also a lot of stuff added to make its R-rating worthwhile, but none of it adds to the story and can feel self-indulgent, even childish at times. It’s dotted throughout for no good reason, and aside from a few harder battle scenes, there’s nothing to recommend its inclusion. With no emotional or narrative weight behind it, it’s all just stuff, and can even be laughably bad at times.

For the diehard Snyder fans, this will probably be a big win, but there’s nothing to recommend it to the more casual viewer, even if you thought the theatrical cut was entertaining, and at over three hours long, it requires a lot of investment to see it through to the end.