Zack Snyder has hit back at the negative reviews for his Netflix sci-fi epic Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire, saying he’s perplexed by the hostile reaction to the film.
In a new interview with Empire ahead of the release of Part Two, the writer-director expressed his surprise at the critical response. The film, which has been branded “disaster”, currently holds a score of 21 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.
“I don’t really have a rebuttal to the reviews,” Snyder said. “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.”
Rebel Moon was originally pitched to Lucasfilm as an idea for a Star Wars movie. 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.
While Snyder didn’t let the negative reviews get to him, Boutella admitted that she 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,” Boutella told Vulture about the extremely negative reception. “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.”
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“It really affected me for all of those who put so much heart, tears, and sweat in this project,” she continued. “It’s hard to see something being demolished to that extent. I’m proud to have been part of it, and if there is no more Rebel Moon, it will be a very important part of my life that I will defend forever.”
Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver will arrive on Netflix in April. Additionally, Snyder is also set to release R-rated director’s cuts of each instalment at a later sate.
He told Empire that these cuts have “all the gore and the hard R-ness and the nudity and the violence and crazy shit. They’re insane. It’ll be interesting to see what the [critics] say about the director’s cuts. That’s a different kettle of fish.”