A film I found enjoyable but frustrating

Rating: 6/10 (27 November 2019)

The Irishman left a lot to be desired for me, firstly let me just start by saying that the technical aspects of this film are fantastic, the cinematography, score, editing and the de aging technology are all fantatsic to me as well as the acting. De Niro, Pacino and Pesci are all awesome in very different ways, Scorsese is a fantastic director and it shows in this film. The whole 3rd act of this film is near masterclass storytelling especially a 20 minute sequence within this third act which was mesmerising to watch.
However I do not think this film is a masterpiece, the 3 and a half hour run time is near ridiculous and you definitely feel it, also for a film this long it does have some very rushed sequences that explain way too much in that time and expects you to remember all of it when they reference it 2 hours later. I do think the screenplay is the weakest and most inconsistent part to this film. I think that the film needed to make use of visual storytelling a lot more instead of having a character explain something in a monotonous voice over a sit down conversation. Also when the film is starting to hit its emotional points of the story you feel burnt out due to the run time you just want things to wrap up and whilst these scenes were great it doesn't leave the desired impact in my opinion, I am certain that if an hour had been cut out of the run time it could have left that impact.
Overall, I did enjoy the film but I do think a whole hour of it could have been taken out and it needed to make use of more visual storytelling rather than just heavy exposition the cast is fantastic, the technical aspects are fantastic and the 3rd act is masterful. Not a masterpiece but a film I enjoyed and just wished it could've been more efficient in the way it told its story.