One weekend past the premiere of Thor: Love and Thunder and Director Taika Waititi talks about the cut before editing. While several blockbusters have released theatrical and director’s cut versions, Waititi has an opinion towards the version before it goes to the cutting table.
In an article from Deadline, Waititi explains why its better to leave scenes at the cutting table. While his original run may actually be 4 hours, he knows the final cut is the best cut.
In his words from an interview with NME:
Director’s cuts are not good. I’ve been thinking about director’s cuts. I watch director’s cuts of a lot of other directors. They suck. Director’s cuts are not good. Directors need to be controlled sometimes, and if I was to say, ‘ah, you wanna watch my director’s cut? It’s four and a half hours long!’ It’s not good, at four and a half hours. There’s a lot of cup-of-tea breaks in there, you don’t even have to pause it.
Taika Waititi Says No Thor: Love and Thunder Director’s Cut
Image: Marvel Studios
He also answered what a director’s cut of Thor: Love and Thunder would look like and he said:
I’d say my cut would probably have a few more jokes in there.
There might be a couple of deleted scenes, but as I always say, a scene is deleted because it’s not good enough to be in the film. I think the deleted scenes section on the DVD, not that they use them anymore, should just be a list of the scenes and no links so you can’t click on them!
For some fans, they may have differences in points of view with regard to director’s cuts. Taika Waititi emphasizes that the final cut on the theaters should be the best and only cut. However, there are those that think other movies get better “meat” in story with the longer version.
In fact, if ever there is the chance of showing the four hour movie version, Chris Hemsworth commented that it was “Batshit crazy”. More specifically:
[it was the most] Batshit crazy, wild, four-hour cut I’ve ever seen… It was about four hours. It was like a Monty Python sketch… I wouldn’t call it a movie… the story was sacrificed for jokes.
Taika Waititi Says No Thor: Love and Thunder Director’s Cut
Image: Marvel Studios
One can’t also deny that the reason there exists longer versions is that certain details get more clarification. The story would be the same but some scenes may add impact to the effect to the whole thing. And the reason why the scenes are cut is to lessen theater time so that they can run it for more tickets. Usually the “more explained” scenes are better released for home videos.
In terms of the idea that the theatrical cut is the best cut and the only cut of the project, Taika Waititi is not alone in this opinion. Matt Reeves’ vision for his Batman movie is the same. He has said that The Batman will not have a director’s cut. The theatrical cut is his movie.
Perhaps that is also for the best. If the movie that is in the theaters has a better version that will be released for later, the better version should have been the version initially released from the get-go.
Catch Thor: Love and Thunder, now in a cinema near you!
