Once the twist that Houser is a bad guy and he was created as Quid to flush out the enemy, the movie should have ended soon after he frees himself.
But it keeps on dragging on about the politics of Mars and the freedom fighters.
That storyline is of little importance to the audience.
It should have wrapped up much sooner.
I disagree since I think that Total Recall is a well-paced movie to begin with.
After he gets captured we get the big reveal and he quickly escapes, kills twenty or so people, sends his party RSVP to Richter, activates the alien reactor, Melina kills Cohaagen, and the planet gets saved in time for corn flakes.
Also, he needed to save the planet and be a hero to the inhabitants since that was part of the whole Total Recall spy package (regardless of whether it was real).