Everybody becomes a professional editor though. I’ve rarely agreed with people on “what should’ve been cut” or what deleted scenes “should’ve been put back in”.
Let the filmmakers decide all that, and then we’ll say if it worked for us or not. I would never touch a movie the filmmaker is happy with even if I thought it was too long or too short. It is what it is.
That’s what it comes down to online. People will say this movie should be an hour shorter but they won’t be able to tell you which scenes should have been cut. You’ll see. OR (like with The Batman) they’ll ask for specific scenes to be cut and my response is usually “umm that sounds like a different film now..”.
If the director wants it to be 4 hours, there should probably be some digital or physical release that makes that director happy. Same thing if they want their movie to be 90 minutes. Luckily we live in a time where a studio cut and a director’s cut can both come out. We have options: theatrical, streaming, blu ray/4k whatever. Everybody wins.
We all have to be realistic and understand the studio’s perspective. At this point I say compromise. Release a director’s cut on blu ray and just trim it down for the cinema if you’re asked to. I can see purists like Nolan being like “nope, the theatrical version HAS to be the only cut I ever release of my movie!” which is like ughhh shut up. The true fans will buy your extended “real cut” on a disc because they’re curious/hungry fans. The casuals will live with whatever is released. They don’t give a damn. The cinema is the great way to debut your film but home release is how your art lives on forever.
I get it when the studio wants a movie to be shorter but at the same time, I don’t understand when a “customer” complains that it’s too long. You’re already there for 2 to 2.5 hours. You’re telling me a half an hour longer is too extreme? Lol it’s really dumb. Where do you have to be? Why is everyone in a rush to go nowhere? It’s longer than usual? Ok...get to a earlier show? Or wait for it to come out online so you can split the film in half over the course of two nights? You’re going to tell a filmmaker (as well as the studio) to put out a shorter flick before you’ve even seen the movie...JUST because you have a short attention span? Or because you got ants in yo pants and gotta get up early in the mornin’!? LOL it’s like get over yourself.
Let the artist and business men/women make those decisions, then take the film as its presented. THEN complain if you think some scenes were unnecessary and it dragged. But the reason why I get annoyed is this: anytime ppl complain that a film (like The Batman for instance) is too long...they were the ones who expressed the same opinion weeks/months before the movie dropped. They saw the run time and got spooked. Anytime I’ve ever seen ppl watch the movie blindly without being told the run time...their reaction is “oh! That was almost 3 hours? Didn’t feel like 3 hours!”. People see higher numbers and it gets in their head. Yet it’s A-okay to marathon 8 hours of Stranger Things in one night (its all I’m hearing on twitter tonight).
Midsommar’s regular cut is my favourite version. The deleted scenes weren’t necessary IMO. But I said that AFTER I saw the film. If they originally announced that a 3.5 hour cut of Midsommar would be released everywhere, I’d be like ok cool...I’ll either go to the cinema when I have time or I’ll wait. This automatic “omg wayyy too long and unnecessary!! Must cut down!” before seeing it is LUDICROUS.
