Running time

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Well, to me, both X2 and FC were epic, they are the best 2 movies of that franchise, and both were longer than any Marvel studio's movie has been so far, and both IMO were better than any Marvel studio movies so far.

 

[Spider-Fan]

But the runtime wasn't why they were epic and the others were not. Plot and pacing were. Though I think X2 is overrated.

 

[cherokeesam]

Higher runtime doesn't equal more epic. Writing and pacing do. I'd rather have a great 2hr movie than a decent 2.5 hour movie.

Definitely, writing is the final determinant of whether a movie is great or decent or just plain bad, and a really *great* script can make a movie epic regardless of RT. But if you *set out* to make an "epic" movie, then it's obvious that aiming for a longer runtime at the *outset* is going to give you a head start.

And I'm pretty sure Marvel is *aiming* at "epic" for the Avengers; so I'm going to be the doomsayer prophet and say that giving this movie the assembly-line less-than 2 hr. runtime would be disastrous for the film. In Joss We Trust and all that, but I'm not sure that he's proven that his scriptwriting is great enough to turn a rushed epic into box office gold.

 

[ThePowerCosmic]

Definitely, writing is the final determinant of whether a movie is great or decent or just plain bad, and a really *great* script can make a movie epic regardless of RT. But if you *set out* to make an "epic" movie, then it's obvious that aiming for a longer runtime at the *outset* is going to give you a head start.

And I'm pretty sure Marvel is *aiming* at "epic" for the Avengers; so I'm going to be the doomsayer prophet and say that giving this movie the assembly-line less-than 2 hr. runtime would be disastrous for the film. In Joss We Trust and all that, but I'm not sure that he's proven that his scriptwriting is great enough to turn a rushed epic into box office gold.

These are some of my worries as well. Does Marvel know what they have on their hands, and are they taking this seriously enough? Also, Joss is a great guy, but was he ready to take on a project like The Avengers? Hopefully the answer to those questions will be yes.

 

[S. Grundy]

Well, to me, both X2 and FC were epic, they are the best 2 movies of that franchise, and both were longer than any Marvel studio's movie has been so far, and both IMO were better than any Marvel studio movies so far.

Well, actually Hulk is the longest Marvel film at 138 minutes and the 2004 Punisher's extended cut was 141 minutes, but I don't know if you want to count that one.

 

[Spider-Fan]

Definitely, writing is the final determinant of whether a movie is great or decent or just plain bad, and a really *great* script can make a movie epic regardless of RT. But if you *set out* to make an "epic" movie, then it's obvious that aiming for a longer runtime at the *outset* is going to give you a head start.

And I'm pretty sure Marvel is *aiming* at "epic" for the Avengers; so I'm going to be the doomsayer prophet and say that giving this movie the assembly-line less-than 2 hr. runtime would be disastrous for the film. In Joss We Trust and all that, but I'm not sure that he's proven that his scriptwriting is great enough to turn a rushed epic into box office gold.

How is it rushed? They've been working on it for years!

 

[cherokeesam]

How is it rushed? They've been working on it for years!

Not "rushed" in production time; "rushed" in runtime.
If Feige guts it down to 1:40 or so to get more screenings, it's gonna look like an ADHD version of Independence Day or War of the Worlds.

 

[Spider-Fan]

Not "rushed" in production time; "rushed" in runtime.
If Feige guts it down to 1:40 or so to get more screenings, it's gonna look like an ADHD version of Independence Day or War of the Worlds.

And, once again, we don't know that. Also, Marvel has not had a movie that short yet. Thor and TIH were closest, and they still ran like 110 mins or longer each. You'd be surprised what you can do in 1:40 mins if you pace the film properly. Watch some multi-part episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel. They juggle as many characters as Avengers will attempt to expertly well in a shorter time span. I think Whedon can make it work.

 

[TheVileOne]

I wish people would chill the frell out about the runtime already.

The Fox movies are all mostly short. Besides a couple, most of the Marvel ones run longer.

 

[cherokeesam]

I wish people would chill the frell out about the runtime already.

The Fox movies are all mostly short. Besides a couple, most of the Marvel ones run longer.

And almost all the Fox movies are, not coincidentally, universally reviled. The X-films that generally get the best reviews from GA and fanboys alike --- X2 and XMFC --- are also, not coincidentally, longer than 2 hours (both at 132-133 min. RT).

So again, you're proving that short runtimes = worse movies, longer runtimes = better movies. So you're saying that you agree with me, then....?

 

[S. Grundy]

X2 is a chore to get through.

 

[TheVileOne]

cherokeesam, so worry about the Fox movies and not the longer ones that Marvel tends to make. Iron Man, Iron Man 2, and Cap all ran over two hours.

Green Lantern was less than two hours and that was DC/Warner Bros.

 

[WildcatNC]

There is no reason we can't get a 2 1/2 hour epic movie that is also high quality and badass. Its not an either/or scenario.

When there is so much going on its much harder to fit it all in the allotted time and pace it well. The second half of Cap suffered for it. You either have to cut stuff/characters out, or make it a little longer to let it breathe. Cap could have used a little of both.

I think Avengers will need room to breathe with so much going on. Its not that I think we NEED a super long movie, but I hope that Joss makes the movie he wants to make and then Feige doesn't cut it all to hell to fit in a time slot. Just let it breathe and be what Joss makes it.

TIH was cut down to much. Cap had to much going on the second half of the movie. Either problem can screw up the pacing and feel of the movie.

 

[cherokeesam]

Agreed, Wildcat....100%.

Pacing is, of course, a far greater indicator of a movie's success than just runtime; but when you've got an ensemble movie that's set against an *epic* backdrop of a full-blown alien invasion, then I really don't see how you could pace Avengers to "accurately" tell its story in less than two point five. Especially when --- who was it, Chris Evans? --- has said that there's something huge going on every ten minutes/ten pages.

Thing is, the superhero "genre" is a catch-all, and includes lots of different subgenres. There's superhero films that are epic fantasy, some that are hard sci-fi, some that are supernatural horror, some that are costumed vigilante crime dramas. The "street level" characters do *not* need epic runtimes, and that's where you run into the problem of making a film overly long and bloated, such as Spidey 3 (some haters might even accuse TDK of that). But at the *opposite* end of the spectrum, when you have an *epic* sci-fi/fantasy movie and you try to ram it down audience's throats in less than 2 hours (in some cases just a few minutes over 1.5), you generally wind up with a dismal failure (see Green Lantern and the FF films....those *deserved* longer runtimes for their epic scopes).