Zack Snyder films are near visual epics that could care less about the narrative. And that is okay for some. But they can be exhausting to watch if they have a very long runtime. While that may be true for most of his films, his departure from Justice League left many wondering if Joss Whedon, his replacement, will change anything.
As it turns out, a lot has been changed. In addition to the reshoots, it appears that Justice League will have a shorter runtime than originally expected. In fact, the former Marvel director has cut nearly an hour off the film, which will reportedly run at 121 minutes. More on the story below.
The rumor comes to us from Manabyte, who says his multiple sources, as well as major theaters chains like AMC and Regal, have verified the runtime. If the news is true, that makes Justice League the shortest DCEU film to date.
At the time that Synder was directing, there were rumors that he was targeting the film to clock in at 171 minutes, which would make make a near three-hour-long epic. It’s hard to say what would have been in it, but when Snyder vacated his duties as director, Whedon stepped in to fix some of the script issues, adding in a Wonder Woman-centric subplot while also giving some more screentime to Cyborg. At the same time, he reportedly whittle down the runtime to what is being rumored now.
If all of this is true, we will probably be getting a tighter, more focused story for Justice League, which is great, because DCEU films have been plagued by bloated runtimes. Man of Steel clocked in at 143 minutes, with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice running eight minutes longer at 153 minutes. This was followed by Suicide Squad which ran for 121 minutes – it felt a lot longer than that. Wonder Woman is 141 minutes long.
Two-hour-plus superhero tentpoles are the norm; in fact, it is ample enough time to tell a decent story that has superhero action in it. So it looks like Justice League may be the shortest superhero film in recent memory, but if the film can be great, then it would have done its job.
Here’s the official synopsis for Justice League:
Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s (Henry Cavill) selfless act, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) enlists newfound ally Diana Prince to face an even greater threat. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) work quickly to recruit a team to stand against this newly awakened enemy. Despite the formation of an unprecedented league of heroes “” Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and the Flash (Ezra Miller) “” it may be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.
Justice League is set to open in theaters on November 17, 2017.
[Source: Manabyte]
Bit concerned that the continuity will suffer from over editing in the same manner that BvS did. The directors cut of BvS made more sense, and there are 3 “origin” stories to cover in Justice League, as well as the main plot.
Comment by Dave Newman — October 23, 2017 @ 3:19 pm