Rebel Moon: The Director’s Cut – Chapter Two: Curse of Forgiveness

The additional run-time of this Director’s Cut allows the story a little more room to breathe, which (combined with the no-holds-barred, R-rated action sequences) makes this version a more satisfying viewing experience than the originally released version.

Premise:  After learning that Admiral Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein) isn’t dead as they believed, Kora (Sofia Boutella) and her band of gathered freedom fighters led by former-general Titus (Djimon Hounsou) must prepare the small farming colony on the moon of Veldt to defend their homes against the vastly superior military forces of the Motherworld.

Review:

Like with my review of Rebel Moon: The Director’s Cut – Chapter One: Chalice of Blood, the plot to Rebel Moon: The Director's Cut — Chapter Two: Curse of Forgiveness is essentially the same as the originally released Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver, so I won’t repeat here what I’ve already said about the plot in my original review.

This Director’s Cut adds about an hour of additional footage, but most of this is comprised of extended and additional scenes here and there, rather than entirely new sub-plots or character arcs.  In terms of new material, the main additions all help to further flesh out the character of Regent Balisarius (Fra Fee), who appears in a significantly extended flashback and a new coda sequence, as well as spending a bit more time (like in Chapter One of the Director’s Cut) with “Jimmy”, the robot-knight voiced by Sir Anthony Hopkins.  Jimmy still feels like an underdeveloped character that’s being set up for future instalments, but at least the additional time spent with him in the Director’s Cut means that he’s not quite the unexplained deus ex machina that he was in the originally released version.

“…add lots of weird & wonderfully idiosyncratic ideas…”

As well as upping the violence, bad language and nudity in the Director’s Cut, and fleshing out more of the characters’ backstories, another benefit of the Director’s Cut is that Zack Snyder has been able to add lots of weird and wonderfully idiosyncratic ideas, like the teeth-collecting religious scribes, or the sentient spaceship engines that are force-fed human remains, all of which adds to the intriguing world-building of the Rebel Moon universe.

Many of the flaws that were evident in the original version of Part Two are still present in Chapter Two of this Director’s Cut, but overall, the additional material does make this Director’s Cut a more satisfying and engaging viewing experience.  And as with Chapter One of the Director’s Cut, the stylised extreme violence in Chapter Two not only leans into the pulpy tone of the material, but it also adds more weight to the long-awaited confrontation between the villagers and the forces of the Motherworld led by Ed Skrein‘s Admiral Noble.

“…a significant improvement on the originally released version…”

Overall, the flaws in Part Two seem lessened in Chapter Two, and what worked well in Part Two works even better in Chapter Two, so for me, there’s no question that the Director’s Cut of the second film is a significant improvement on the originally released version.  It remains to be seen, however, whether the Director’s Cut of both films will win over many new fans, or just appeal to those who already enjoyed the originally released versions.