The Dark Knight Rises Dark Knight Running Time almost 3 hours

[Sharkboy]

You could probably have taken the character of Lau out entirely and skipped the whole unnecessary trip to hong kong, which only really established the basis for his sonar vision later on.

No not really, Lau was the only way to take down the entire mob, he's pretty much the McGuffin for the first half of the film, the whole point of Joker's infiltation in the police station was to get Lau out to get the money.

And take out the Hong Kong scene? take out an IMAX batman centric scene in a batman film...yeah, ok.

Sometimes, I'm certain all people see in TDK, is Batman vs Joker and that's it.

 

[Gianakin_]

Exactly. Many people just don't get the movie outside the Batman vs Joker parts of it.

 

[Bruce Malone]

The theatre in my city has incredibly uncomfortable seats, so... I don't necessarily look forward to that aspect of this particular experience. But, hopefully it will be worth the discomfort. I expect it will be. Still, probably best that I bring some Motrin, just in case.

There is only one theater in your whole "city"? What's the pop.?

 

[croboy82]

Hoping the runtime is true

 

[Perfect Cell]

There is only one theater in your whole "city"? What's the pop.?

About 75,000.

 

[Syncope]

Wow, 165 minutes. Absolutely incredible for a superhero movie to reach that length. It's going to be epic.

 

[DasFeuerSteigt]

No not really, Lau was the only way to take down the entire mob, he's pretty much the McGuffin for the first half of the film, the whole point of Joker's infiltation in the police station was to get Lau out to get the money.

And take out the Hong Kong scene? take out an IMAX batman centric scene in a batman film...yeah, ok.

Sometimes, I'm certain all people see in TDK, is Batman vs Joker and that's it.

Keeping it in simply for being IMAX is stupid. It needs to add something to the story and it doesn't really do that. It's simply an excuse to explain some technology which will become important later on (even if it is a bit of a cheap way to find the joker and also completely implausible). I really enjoy the hong kong scene, but I do believe it is largely unnecessary from a storytelling point of view.

 

[Gianakin_]

The Hong Kong subplot is one of the most important pieces of character development for Batman in TDK. I'm glad it was there.

 

[AnneFan]

The Hong Kong sequence is right up there as one of my favourite sequences from the film. Love it.

 

[DasFeuerSteigt]

The Hong Kong subplot is one of the most important pieces of character development for Batman in TDK. I'm glad it was there.

How so? I don't see how he is any different after it than before Though the sonar technology established there shows later on that he is willing to go to extreme lengths to stop the joker, him going to hong kong actually had little impact on the character.

 

[Gianakin_]

How so? I don't see how he is any different after it than before Though the sonar technology established there shows later on that he is willing to go to extreme lengths to stop the joker, him going to hong kong actually had little impact on the character.

"Batman has no limits". He's so obssessed that he's now crossing borders to finish his crusade and have a normal life, further solidifying how much foresight he lacks by ignoring the Joker. He literally goes to another country, leaving Gotham ripe for Joker to prepare for his rise.

 

[DasFeuerSteigt]

"Batman has no limits". He's so obssessed that he's now crossing borders to finish his crusade and have a normal life, further solidifying how much forsight he lacks by ignoring the Joker. He literally goes to another country, leaving Gotham ripe for Joker to prepare for his rise.

Okay I guess you could see it that way. It just never had much storyline impact for me, though I love the scene.
Perhaps if someone on screen had expressed doubts (as Fox later does) that Batman may be going too far by blatantly ignoring another country's sovereignty and jurisdiction, but everyone just rolls with it.

 

[Doctor Jones]

Goodfellas and Dances With Wolves were both substantially longer than 2hrs and came out in the same year. If they didn't 'make that the 'norm', why would this film do that?

They haven't changed a standard with this movie...they just made a longer movie than most. the success of the franchise and the filmmakers involved has afforded them that extra courtesy, but it has not sent a message to other films to follow suit as normal procedure.

It's nice that Nolan has the pull to get a movie of this length out, I agree, but it is a generally special case, and films of ant genre aren't being held back by the 2hr length or what have you.

Hey, stop using your good reasoning in this thread.

 

[Gianakin_]

Okay I guess you could see it that way. It just never had much storyline impact for me, though I love the scene.
Perhaps if someone on screen had expressed doubts (as Fox later does) that Batman may be going too far by blatantly ignoring another country's sovereignty and jurisdiction, but everyone just rolls with it.

Like you said, Fox does later - twice. And people rolling with it fits with what Dent says at the press conference: that everyone whistled innocently while Batman was doing the state's job, but now they're up in arms because of a few casualties.

 

[DasFeuerSteigt]

Like you said, Fox does later - twice. And people rolling with it fits with what Dent says at the press conference: that everyone whistled innocently while Batman was doing the state's job, but now they're up in arms because of a few casualties.

That's a very valid point, I'd never seen it like that.

 

[Art Damage]

Wow, 165 minutes. Absolutely incredible for a superhero movie to reach that length. It's going to be epic.

This!

 

[Jack O Lantern]

Why do people think run time has anything to do with quality? Or epicness?

Or anything other than how long it is?

 

[KalMart]

Why do people think run time has anything to do with quality? Or epicness?

Or anything other than how long it is?

Q: Why do we order the Super-Size?

A: So we can gorge ourselves up again.

 

[Mace Dolex]

Absolutely not. The normal running length for a superhero movie shouldn't be any different than the normal running length for any movie...which is around 2hrs. If you're going to make it longer, then you better make it special/unique and worth it. Otherwise, no genre deserves to standardize on a different average/normal length moreso than any other.

I agree with you 100%, only certain movies that merit from a good story can go past the 2 hour mark, not all 3 hour movies that I've seen have all been good.

When it comes to comedies the norm for me 90 minutes tops! Yet I hate when Judd Apatow makes his movies go over that length.

 

[Keyser Soze]

Honestly I don't know about this running time, I mean I think TDK has pacing problems.

The Dark Knight might have pacing problems if you try to apply a classic 3-act structure to it. But when you realise the film has a 5-act tragic structure, it becomes clear that it's paced perfectly.

 

[Blue Sugar]

I love the pacing of TDK.

 

[Broker]

Q: Why do we order the Super-Size?

A: So we can gorge ourselves up again.

Yeah, but sometimes your eyes are bigger than your belly!

 

[Sharkboy]

I don't think any batman should be three hours long, it's just unnecessary. 2 hour 30 or a little bit above should be perfect for any batman film. Remember who this film is for this isn't Lawrence of Arabia.

 

[BuddhaWasABat]

I don't think any batman should be three hours long, it's just unnecessary. 2 hour 30 or a little bit above should be perfect for any batman film. Remember who this film is for this isn't Lawrence of Arabia.

Speak for yourself, I would be happy with 4 hours.

 

[Sharkboy]

Keeping it in simply for being IMAX is stupid. It needs to add something to the story and it doesn't really do that. It's simply an excuse to explain some technology which will become important later on (even if it is a bit of a cheap way to find the joker and also completely implausible). I really enjoy the hong kong scene, but I do believe it is largely unnecessary from a storytelling point of view.

Did you even read what I said, or did you just pick out parts and reply to fit with your argument? You said Lau was unnecessary and I explain how important he actually was, the whole point of the Hong Kong scene was Lau, making the scene very important story wise. More importantly it's to establish what makes Batman different from the cops, he isn't bound by red tape, or jurisdictions, international law doesn't bind him. The sequence shows you he has the tech, the skill and essentially the balls to go to hong kong himself and grab Lau all in the space of a day. It's important because it shows how batman goes to work, how he manages to create an alibi for bruce, how he collaborates with lucius in his tech etc etc....this is called storytelling.

Let's forget about the fact that you are arguing against the presence of an action scene in an action film.

Speak for yourself, I would be happy with 4 hours.

So would I, heck if i had my way split it into two 3 hour portions, but it still doesn't stop it from being unnecessary and kinda silly.