Adam Wingard filmed 5 hours worth of Godzilla vs. Kong footage!

I mean, this is filmmaking 101. Most movies start with what's called "assembly cuts" that are just a bunch of scenes put in order with no ryhme or reason to the editing process. Almost every movie ever made clocks at 4-6 hours with these initial cuts. But once you're working on it in the editing room, you have to make tough choices to see what works, what doesn't work and, most of all, tighten the movie.

One of the reasons I loath the Snyder Cut of Justice League is because the director was so self-indulgent in his own footage and the length of the movie. He had no sense of cutting what was unnecessary.

Tighter movies are usually better and while I admit Godzilla vs. Kong is especially tight, sometimes directors simply realize a movie works better when you tweak plot points in post-production. Suddenly the movie becomes something completely different than planned, but still works.

@G. H. (Gman) About GvK, I definitely agree with you. About the Snyder Cut, not as much. This probable not the best Forum site to discuss this, but the intent of the Snyder Cut wasn't to make an actual movie like it would be released in cinemas. The point of the Snyder Cut was to show Zack's complete (and with some extra's) vision of a movie which he was tragically forced to leave and which was turned into a Frankensteins monster 4 years ago.

Realistically, If Snyder finished his version of the movie 4 years ago, a lot of the run time would have been reduced to the length of other movies because like you said, that's how movies are made. It helped that it was on a streaming service instead of in cinemas, the movie itself was even divided in chapters to make it easer to either take breaks or to even watch it like a show. I'm sure somebody will either calculate or even edit the Snyder Cut down to a tighter movie with a shorter run time.

KaijuBuildz,
Yes, but even Director's Cuts need not be so self-indulgent.  remember James Cameron filmed an entirely different ending for Terminator 2. The scene was completed, but James Cameron felt it was, "too neat" and didn't fit the movie. When he was allowed to do his Director's Cut of Terminator 2, he still left that scene out because he had the wherewithal and self-control to do away with unnecessary fluff and scenes that didn't work.

The Snyder Cut wasn't even entirely what Snyder envisioned--He added that awful, unnecessary epilogue scene, and Martian Manhunter (who was originally supposed to be Green Lantern), in reshoots.

Director's Cuts don't have to be that self-indulgent. Directors can think objectively about their work as well.

Issues with GvK aside, I respect Wingard sticking to his guns for a tighter piece.

#ReleaseTheWingardCut

Not even Wingard wants to release a Director's Cut:

"For me, this is the version that worked the best, and I don’t see any reason to do a director’s cut. Probably the only thing if, 10 years from now, somebody said, ‘Hey, do you want to do a director’s cut of Godzilla vs. Kong?’ I would probably just use that time to have another 40 days in the sound mix, because I just love that kind of thing.” - Adam Wingard [source]

*Sigh*