Excellent main characters, but...

Rating: 7/10 (22 October 2009)

I liked Inglorious Basterds for the most part, but I wasn't blown away. Maybe my expectations were too high. I mean, there was a lot of hype around this movie, but it didn't quite deliver on my expectations.
My favorite parts of the film were the characters and the acting. Christopher Waltz was superb.
The story was fine. Not great, but not bad either. The dialog was quite good, as expected.
But the one thing that impacted my enjoyment of the movie the most was how long it was. I would'veg enjoyed it much more had it not taken over two-and-a-half hours to tell the story. I mean, seriously, 2.5+ hours is simply too long. Had this been a Lord of the Rings type of epic, then maybe I could understand--but it isn't.
For example, two scenes in particular drove me nuts because they were just way too long for me: the introduction of the 'Bear Jew' and a scene where the Shosanna character was getting ready to implement her big plan.
They both should have been shortened, at the very least, and the Shosanna scene seemed so long and irrelevant, I don't know why it didn't just get edited out.
In the scene where they introduce the 'Bear Jew' character, there was some sort of 'ode to old school cinema' build up that just seemed to take forever. I thought it was way too long. The scene would have been better if it were shortened. Instead, I got tired of waiting for the guy to reveal himself, and the fact that it dragged on so long turned me off for some reason.
The camera was facing some dark underpass or cave or something, and all you can hear is the sound of a bat hitting up against something. Then it pans to the other characters, and back to the dark entrance point--over and over. As if to build up the tension over how terrifying the infamous 'Bear Jew' is.
It was fine at first, but then it just got ridiculous. All I kept thinking was, "alright already, dramatic effect complete, let see him already." But alas, the bat sounds kept coming much to my dismay.
The Shosanna 'getting ready' scene was most confusing. This seemed like another 'ode to old school cinema' type of scene. But it just seemed like a forced version of old school cinema more than anything. There was just no important point to it, which detracted from what it appeared he was trying to accomplish with the scene.
It seems like it takes forever to watch her put on make-up, her hat and veil and everything else she put on for her big night. But why did I have to go through that? Why? Was it really that important that I go through that? Again, I was squirming in my seat at this point, hoping she would just finish already so the next relevant scene would come--and it did, but only after I was already turned off, again.
Brad Pitt's character was sufficiently entertaining, but I had a hard time reconciling the redneck in Europe who wants to kill Nazis, and *on behalf* of Jews, no less. I haven't known may rednecks that fit this description, so that was a bit of a disconnect.
With more attention to editing, this film could have been much better.
Now, if there are back-story or sequel films made about Lt. Aldo Raine and/or Col. Hans Landa, then I'd be interested in seeing that.
As long as it's not 2.5+ hours in length.