Should Justice League be a 3 hour movie?

[BruceWayne2]

Well, considering it has to answer and tie up some threads of BvS, introduce and give a decent of screen time to Flash, Cyborg, Aquaman and maybe Green Lantern as well a story introducing the characters and the corners of the DCEU they live in before expanding on them in their own standalone movies expanding the mythology of the Motherboxes, it will have to be long enough to factor all that into the story of the Justice League movie

Yeah, there's just so much to it. I feel like one of the issues with BvS was that it didn't have enough time to develop everything, the stories, themes, character arcs. Probably could've benefited from splitting those ideas across two films.


But imagine all the great 3 hours+ movies, and shave off 40 minutes to an hour from it, it would take away a lot from the film. I'm willing to sit three hours in a theater if that means a more developed, fleshed out film. And I think most of the target audience would be willing too, as they were with the LoTR films, for example. Now, if it's just a bunch of fluff and they can legit tell the story in 2 hours, that's fine too. But there's a lot that needs to happen in JL and a lot of characters we want to see fleshed out and given a significant story. Superman, for example.


I don't get wanting it to be shorter, though. We have to wait years on these films, why wouldn't we want as much footage as we could get? Isn't sitting an extra hour in a theater worth getting more Superman and Flash and Batman, etc.?


If you were to go through the list of American and foreign films that are around 3 hours, I bet you would find the majority of them to be great, classic films.

 

[Lorus]

Justice League should not be 3 hours if the film doesn't have the narrative to support it. That's a fairly obvious statement admittedly, but there you go. I would say that given how much of the BvS ultimate cut ended up being extraneous and drawn out, it's unlikely that a simpler film would require a run time that long.

 

[Gu3ree]

It's near 3 hours, I'm good with it. The risk could be that well, the extended cut of BvS dragged too long.

 

[souperman]

If it's good you always want more. Hope they let it be as long as it needs to be for good narrative. Then give me an extended cut that does not include junk.

 

[Marvolo]

It's Whedon. He'll probably get it down to 140 - 150 minutes. And we probably won't get an extended cut this time no matter how flawed of the theatrical cut is.

 

[idiot09]

It's Whedon. He'll probably get it down to 140 - 150 minutes. And we probably won't get an extended cut this time no matter how flawed of the theatrical cut is.

I dont think Whedon has control over the runtime, WB has. Just like they did with BvS, and trimmed it down.

Also MOS had a 2h20min runtime, BvS had a 2h30m one, so I expect this one to be around that time too. I would be disappointed if its less, from a fanboy perspective.

And what makes you think no extended cut?

 

[MydnightPhoenix]

Yes dag namit! I don't know why there is an aversion to 3 hour movies. Some stories are so epic that they need to be long. For a movie like JL I think it should at least be 2hrs 55 mins.

 

[LucDisfilm19]

Yes dag namit! I don't know why there is an aversion to 3 hour movies. Some stories are so epic that they need to be long. For a movie like JL I think it should at least be 2hrs 55 mins.

That's what it's rumored to be as some said 170 minutes, while another says 3 hours, so it could be smack dab in between as 175 minutes long.

 

[souperman]

seems like a BIG story. Hope they let it breathe...

 

[Marvolo]

I dont think Whedon has control over the runtime, WB has. Just like they did with BvS, and trimmed it down.

Also MOS had a 2h20min runtime, BvS had a 2h30m one, so I expect this one to be around that time too. I would be disappointed if its less, from a fanboy perspective.

And what makes you think no extended cut?

Whedon doesn't do extended cuts. This could be the first time, but I doubt it. And I doubt Snyder will be rehired after the film is released to do an extended cut for the home video release. So what we get in theaters is probably all we are going to get.

 

[idiot09]

Whedon doesn't do extended cuts. This could be the first time, but I doubt it. And I doubt Snyder will be rehired after the film is released to do an extended cut for the home video release. So what we get in theaters is probably all we are going to get.

A director who did the full principal photography is entitled to a directors cut by DGA.

And its not Whedon's decision I think. Seems like a WB decision to me.

 

[Marvolo]

A director who did the full principal photography is entitled to a directors cut by DGA.

And its not Whedon's decision I think. Seems like a WB decision to me.

WB can't force a director to do an extended cut. And what the director is entitled to is besides the point. Whedon has never done an extended cut. There is no reason to think he would do one for Justice League. He didn't even do one for Age of Ultron even tho it's theatrical cut had some nasty cuts.

 

[idiot09]

WB can't force a director to do an extended cut. And what the director is entitled to is besides the point. Whedon has never done an extended cut. There is no reason to think he would do one for Justice League. He didn't even do one for Age of Ultron even tho it's theatrical cut had some nasty cuts.

Did Ayer do one before SS? Although I do agree if there is a extended/director's cut it will be made by Zack and not Joss. And I think that will only happen if Zack feels like he's not satisfied with the theatrical cut. He has a track record for that.And Snyder is entitled to one so WB cant and wont probably say no to what h they will see as a double dip during home release.

 

[Marvolo]

Did Ayer do one before SS? Although I do agree if there is a extended/director's cut it will be made by Zack and not Joss. And I think that will only happen if Zack feels like he's not satisfied with the theatrical cut. He has a track record for that.And Snyder is entitled to one so WB cant and wont probably say no to what h they will see as a double dip during home release.

Ayer isn't Whedon. Whedon doesn't like extended cuts:

It has always been my ambition never to do a director’s cut of anything, and always to make the movie with the studio that we both want to make. Ultron was very complex. There was a lot of back-and-forth. My instinct is no. Just as an artist, I’m super f***ing lazy and that sounds like it would be hard. I don’t think there’s interest in it, right now. You’ll see a bunch of stuff on the DVD in extras that were meant to be there. But the narrative came together very close to the way that I hoped it would, and I don’t think it needs me to constantly tweak it.

“The first time I ever heard a re-mix, I was 13 and I was listening to the radio. I heard a song that had been re-mixed and it freaked me out so much that I turned off the radio and never listened to it since, literally. That is an actual truth. I felt like, “Wait, that was the song. You can’t do that.” Our entire culture consists of doing exactly that, but I’m not for it. If I tell a story, I want that to be the story I told.”


http://screenrant.com/avengers-age-ultron-directors-cut/

And since Snyder and WB both trusted Whedon to reshoot and finish the film I don't think Snyder will come back and reedit it and extend it. Especially if Whedon managed to turn the film into a good film that is received well by audiences and critics.

 

[idiot09]

Ayer isn't Whedon. Whedon doesn't like extended cuts:



And since Snyder and WB both trusted Whedon to reshoot and finish the film I don't think Snyder will come back and reedit it and extend it. Especially if Whedon managed to turn the film into a good film that is received well by audiences and critics.

lol "turn the film". I see what you're doing here. Not going into that. Whatever floats your bloat

And like I said I dont expect Whedon to do it. Not sure why you pulled up that quote but okay.

And yeah if Joss' work is indeed unsatisfactory, I wont be surprised if Zack gives us a director's cut. He has record for that in home release. And WB won't say no because more money for them. So yeah I wont rule it out because Joss doesnt want to do it.

 

[Vlyse]

seems like a BIG story. Hope they let it breathe...

How? It's a generic teaming-up to stop an alien invasion. We've been here a thousand times & it doesn't take anywhere NEAR 3 hours to tell that kind of story.

 

[BruceWayne2]

If there's enough extra scenes and footage that Snyder shot that doesn't get used in the end product, but can still fit in with the film (depending on how much reworking is being done), I guarantee Zack will push for an extended cut. He knows the fans love that kinda thing and even if he may falter on storytelling, depending on who you ask, Snyder is all about paying service to the fans. In other words, if an extended cut is possible, we'll get an extended cut. He won't leave all these extras on the cutting room floor if he feels like the fans would like to see it, and Whedon will respect that, and the studio likes directors cuts: the sell more DVDs (people who otherwise wouldn't buy the film after seeing it in theaters will be enticed to see the extra footage) and all the extra footage would be wasted money if they don't take the opportunity to use it. I'm betting on a JL: DC

 

[Jumpman]

A director who did the full principal photography is entitled to a directors cut by DGA.

And its not Whedon's decision I think. Seems like a WB decision to me.

It has to be in Snyder's contract with WB if he's allowed to do a director's cut for home video if he delivers a theatrical cut that's to WB's liking. There is also the idea that a director could have final cut clause in his contract.

We don't know what kind of contract Snyder signed for this when it comes to the final edit.

 

[BruceWayne2]

How? It's a generic teaming-up to stop an alien invasion. We've been here a thousand times & it doesn't take anywhere NEAR 3 hours to tell that kind of story.

You could say the same if you condensed the synopsis of Seven Samurai or Lord Of The Rings (or any epic film) to a single line. We don't even know yet what all the story points will be, particularly with Superman's story. Just like with Seven Samurai, you've got the intro, Batman gathering each member, some of whom haven't been introduced yet, with rich backstories and their own world that needs to be shown to the audience, all of their interactions, their first mission as a team, training and learning to work as a team, Steppenwolf's story and all that goes along with their main mission, probably some big failure and having to regroup. Then you've also got Superman's story, which we don't know what that will be, and hopefully a good bit of interaction with the team as a whole, I'm hoping Superman is in that part of the story, to make it a full JL film, for an hour, at least (lest he get "the shaft").

If any comic book film is going to be a 3 hour LoTR style epic, it should be the Justice League films

 

[Spider-Aziz]

If the story can be solved in less than 2.5 hours I see no need to make the movie longer.

 

[TheRedWraith]

lol "turn the film". I see what you're doing here. Not going into that. Whatever floats your bloat

And like I said I dont expect Whedon to do it. Not sure why you pulled up that quote but okay.

And yeah if Joss' work is indeed unsatisfactory, I wont be surprised if Zack gives us a director's cut. He has record for that in home release. And WB won't say no because more money for them. So yeah I wont rule it out because Joss doesnt want to do it.

WB literally can't say no to a Snyder director's cut per the DGA rules should he choose to make one.

 

[Arkham Kylo]

I'd, personally, love it if it were... if the story calls for it.
I would hate for the film to be butchered like BvS was.

 

[B]

The movie should last as long as their is enough interesting content to keep the viewer engaged.

Contrary to what seems to be popular belief, there is no magic movie length before people start checking their watches, they'll only start checking their watches if the movie is dragging out certain elements of the story for too long.