Reviewer’s note: The following is an atypically longer and slightly more technical review of “Rebel Moon – Chapter One: Chalice of Blood,” and may contain possible spoilers.

I’ve been thinking of the best way to describe “Rebel Moon – Chapter One: Chalice of Blood”—director Zack Snyder’s (“Army of the Dead,” 2021) definitive cut of what was previously dubbed “Part One: A Child of Fire” (2023)—and I’ve found the music industry (of all places) to harbor the closest (if overtly simplistic) analog one could make regarding the presence of both the Netflix-mandated and director’s cuts of “Rebel Moon.” Often, when artists release singles, record labels drop a radio edit that isn’t just commercially viable to maximize airtime efficiency and keep it relatively free of elements that could—for lack of a better phrase—accidentally reach demographics they aren’t supposed to. Months later, when the same single is re-released, it’s part of a complete album and retains its original intent and length.

Sure, it’s not a one-to-one comparison, considering—among other things—the difference in formats themselves. Still, it’s the only one that shares the most similarity to the deliberately planned-out release cycle of the “Rebel Moon” films currently out on Netflix thus far. “Chapter One: Chalice of Blood,” on paper, does share its narrative bones with “A Child of Fire”—a loner with a dark past (Sofia Boutella; “Climax,” 2018) finds her refuge in harm’s way and elects to hire a bunch of warriors to save it from the Goliath that is the Motherworld—except, Snyder’s cut is roughly an hour longer and brings with it not only context and depth but a sense of quiet emotional resonance. It also makes its intentions known from the first 20 minutes, as we see what will become the detritus of a nameless planet’s thriving empire and its ruler.

While the opening set-piece works as a solid establishment for Aris (Sky Yang; “Paramount+ series “Halo,” 2022-2024)—who would later be inducted into the Motherworld’s military—it also telegraphs how high the stakes are going to get for the people of Veldt. The viewers are also invited to the unceasing internal nightmare of Kora’s life, whether through her backstory or battle scars, external or internal. The now-included sex scene between Kora and her fling Den (Stuart Martin; Sky One’s “Jamestown,” 2017-2019) does the triple-job of setting up her view of sex as a pure need, her constant bouts of dissociation whenever Den moves his eyes off her face, and the physical scars she might never be rid of—a subtle shade of tragic irony for when the final act reveals what she’s really called by the Motherworld.

Probably the most significant win “Rebel Moon – Chapter One: Chalice of Blood” has over its PG-13 counterpart is how the added space to breathe allows viewers to fully appreciate the technical film craft that went behind it. Film editor Dody Dorn fully flexes her stronghold over structural and momentary editing and brings back a key component missing from the version initially released last December: cuts that prioritize emotion in line with the Rule of Six. Snyder’s cinematography receives its trademark color palette here, where the colorists swap the more punched-up look of “A Child of Fire”—with blue greens in the shadows that betray the camera’s color science—for a gold-washed bleach-bypassed film emulation reminiscent of the color information you’d find in movies filmed using the popular Kodak Vis2/Vis3 500T film stock.

Tom “Junkie XL” Holkenborg’s (“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” 2024) bold, baroque influences in his tantalizing fusion of electro, hard rock, and classical opera are primarily retained in the director’s cut, with a notable difference being Kora’s leitmotif “The Wolf Who Became a Woman” now modified to add shades of “The Land We Breath”—itself a recurring motif in “Part Two: The Scargiver”—making returning viewers feel like they’ve returned to the lived-in universe of the initially released cuts. The visual effects team, headed by VFX supervisors Marcus Taormina and John “DJ” DesJardin, and VFX producer Tamara Watts Kent—help make “Rebel Moon” and its worlds feel jaw-droppingly immersive, with the added length allowing us to witness its true, unleashed potential when movie sets have a strong vision and possibly open communication lines.

Packed with a raw sincerity that feels very human, “Rebel Moon – Chapter One: Chalice of Blood” is a breathtaking exercise in immersive storytelling that uses every second of its 204-minute runtime to build a successful image system for its narrative. With a lineup of well-acted protagonists and antagonists—most of whom deliver bankable performances that respect the “opera” of the space-opera subgenre as equally as the “space”—the key players who receive a transformative expansion in the film are Ed Skrein, Sir Anthony Hopkins, and Yang. Skrein’s Noble here is unleashed, with a compelling change in critical dialogues swapping sneering theatricality with a pathological sense of entitled apathy, noticeable particularly in his exchange with Kora before the third-act set piece in Gondival. 

These decisions work phenomenally in distinguishing the overall aura each cut is going for, the former being an accessible dieselpunk-inspired hard rock fairytale that retains some of its dark-fantasy elements and is benefited with overall classical Shakespearean enunciations that are easier to notice when the cuts are compared, and the latter marking a stylish return of magical realism in Snyder’s visual storytelling toolbox mixed with wild swings that can only remind you of the intensity of dramatic conflict and tragedy in opera. “Chapter One: Chalice of Blood,” while a space opera in the literal-most sense of the word, manages to effortlessly balance its massive scale with moments of unnerving emotional honesty that ground the film. This is its biggest strength.

“Rebel Moon – Chapter One: Chalice of Blood” is a towering achievement in filmmaking and a phenomenal setup to the potential payoff in “Chapter Two: Curse of Forgiveness.” This is Snyder creatively unleashed, rich in worldbuilding, and packed with oodles of filmmaking style that take its steampunk inspirations to form a heady maximalist movie cocktail. It’s a visual and narrative masterpiece with a bleeding-heart emotional sincerity you rarely see in current-day blockbuster filmmaking. Highly recommended.