"Hero" (Dustin Hoffman, Geena Davis): Underrated gem, or am I missing something?

Okay folks, AndersonCuts here, back at it. Just rewatched "Hero" (the '92 one with Dustin Hoffman, Andy Garcia, and Geena Davis) and I'm feeling… conflicted. On the one hand, the premise is fantastic: down-on-his-luck guy Bernie (Hoffman) saves people from a plane crash, but then a more conventionally handsome guy (Garcia) takes the credit. Gold! And the media frenzy, spun by Geena Davis' character, is pretty spot-on even today. But something about the pacing feels off. Like we spend too long establishing what a loser Bernie is before the actual heroics. Did we really need the whole opening sequence with the stolen hubcaps? And then, after the crash, the film kinda meanders. I appreciate the attempt to explore the complexities of heroism and image, but did anyone else think they could have tightened this thing up by a good 15-20 minutes? I feel like the ending also kinda fizzles. Bernie's final speech thing is kinda off too, like it needed another pass to make it great. That said, Hoffman is amazing as always, and the commentary on media manipulation is surprisingly prescient. Anyone else feel similarly? Am I just being too harsh? Or are there other editing choices that bugged you guys? I'm genuinely curious if my pacing-obsessed brain is just overthinking this one.