Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon Has A Terrible Rotten Tomatoes Score (So Far)

Zack Snyder has pretty much always maintained a contentious relationship with critics. As a director, his filmography ranges wildly in terms of how his projects are received, and unfortunately for diehard Snyder fans, his latest effort — "Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire" — is looking to be one of his poorest-reviewed offerings, according to Rotten Tomatoes. 

While reviews will still pour in, the Netflix original sci-fi epic currently stands at a 25% rating on the Tomatometer, with 40 reviews being counted so far. That number could change as more reviews arrive in the lead-up to its streaming release on December 21, but it's not looking great. The consensus at this point seems to be that Snyder's illest-advised tendencies crop up in "Rebel Moon," with Clarisse Loughrey of the Independent writing, "It's a film populated by some of the 'Zack Snyder's Justice League' filmmaker's worst impulses: a mess of imagery, some of it attempting to shock, congregated largely around the idea of what might look good in a trailer."

Charles Bramesco of The Guardian was of a similar mindset: "Snyder mistakes exposition for world-building, the lugubriously delivered reams of backstory removing the audience from the fantasy rather than immersing them in it." It may look pretty and have some big ideas, but that's not enough for many critics, who believe the story and characters falter under the movie's massive scope. 

Zack Snyder doesn't exactly have a stellar track record when it comes to Rotten Tomatoes scores. His only film on the platform to be Certified Fresh is his feature-length directorial debut — 2004's "Dawn of the Dead" — which boasts a 76% rating. "Zack Snyder's Justice League," his director's cut of the superhero team-up film, also received good reviews, coming in at 72%. His other Netflix directorial venture, "Army of the Dead," didn't do too shabby, with a score of 67%. 

"Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire" is a far cry from those numbers at 25%, which puts it in striking distance of becoming Snyder's worst-reviewed movie ever. At the moment, that distinction belongs to "Sucker Punch," which has a score of 22%. More reviews will undoubtedly factor into the equation, and if they're more negative than positive, "Rebel Moon" could easily get lower than that. The next Snyder flick closest to "Rebel Moon" presently is "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," which has a rating of 29%.

Even if the sci-fi epic stays close to where it is now, there's still hope. A "Rebel Moon" director's cut is already planned, so if it delves deeper into the characters and clears things up, it may win some critics over. Snyder's director's cuts tend to be better than what comes out initially, as attested by "Justice League." But for the time being, "Rebel Moon" likely isn't changing the mind of anyone skeptical of Snyder as a director in the first place.