Last night I watched The Amazing Spider-Man 2. I didn’t expect much from the widely-panned movie, and my expectations were more than met. It had too many villains, not enough plot, and no cohesive purpose or vision at all. Add to that how little the film cared for Gwen Stacy, given the results of her intelligence and bravery*, and I pretty much hated the movie.

But you know what the biggest problem this junker had to contend with? It’s 2 hours and 22 minutes long.

TWO HOURS AND 22 MINUTES! That is just too damn long.

I’m sure you’ve noticed this problem, too. I can’t be alone in wondering just how this crap has gotten so long.

Here’s the thing about movies. If you are telling a great story well, the film can be as long or short as that story demands. No great movie is ever too long, Roger Ebert once said. A great story well told deserves the respect and time of its audience. Sitting in the theater, watching an engaging story in the hands of a talented group of movie-makers is an indescribable experience. I had it recently with Snowpiercer; I remember thinking, oh, I hope this movie is three hours long.

But if you are a Hollywood Studio making a franchise film that is going nowhere (and I suspect this is pretty easy to know early on in the process), then you have the burden, dare I say the responsibility, to step in and tell your director (or editor): This is too long. Ninety minutes, that’s all you get.

Think about the 90 minute version of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. That could be okay. It would be: Gwen and Peter. Harry and Norman. Electro. Gwen and Peter and Electro. The end. Swift, effective, fun.

Remember the old saying: With great amounts of money to blow on unnecessary rhino-mech suits comes great responsibility.

Because 2 hours and 20 minutes is too long for a bad movie. This is not exactly a new problem (how long has Peter Jackson been making movies?) but it really seems to be getting worse. Transformers Age of Extinction is 2 hours and 45 minutes long. Who let that happen? Seriously. Michael Bay? Who? That is irresponsible.

The Pirates of the Caribbean sequels suffered this same fate. The first Pirates risked running over, but it was charming and Johnny Depp carried the movie’s length on his back by sheer force of weird. Then came Part 2 at 2 hours 25 minutes and Part 3 at 2 hours 30 minutes. With no novelty, the Pirates sequels were exposed for what they were: stupid movies, made worse because they never fucking ended.

Even movies that are pretty good, like The Dark Knight Rises, are running absurd lengths. TDKR is 2 hours 45 Minutes. That’s just too damn long! These examples are just off the top of my head. I know this list could go on and on and on.

And on.

And on.

There is another way around this problem, which is to make better movies. But that’s much a more difficult path, one that few studios seem to be interested in taking. So in light of that, Hollywood, just make shorter films. Because your movies are too damn long.

*I wish movies would stop killing women in order to torture the hearts of their boyfriends. This is a problem.