Should Justice League be a 3 hour movie?

[Greens]

In terms of box office, they'd probably lose few millions, I agree, but the way I see it, they should have been less greedy with BvS and more focused on the film being received well by the critics. BvS was a starting point of DCEU and long-term it would make more sense to sacrifice few millions and release a 3hr film so it's better received rather than focus primarily on the profit, like it seems was the case. And given how much hyped it was at the time, I don't think BvS being 3 hours long would prevent many people from seeing it, anyway.

Oh yeah I pretty much agree. One could argue that the damage to their image cost more than a 3 hour cut would have "cost" them. Though they've been doing a good job turning things around with the SS marketing and the JL set visit.

 

[KillerWolf]

Oh yeah I pretty much agree. One could argue that the damage to their image cost more than a 3 hour cut would have "cost" them. Though they've been doing a good job turning things around with the SS marketing and the JL set visit.

Yup, exactly. And they are doing a good job getting back on their feet indeed, it's just a shame it was needed in the first place.

 

[Mindreaper21]

Wasn't there an interview where Jeremy Irons said that it would be shorter and more streamlined than BvS?

 

[kguillou]

Should it be 3 hours? Not really. But it shouldnt be short either. This film needs to be an epic ala Lord of The Rings. Its handling a lot of characters and story and therefor I cannot see it being shorter than 2 hours and 30 mins and I'm talking actual movie time not counting credits. The BvS UC was actually 2 hours and 52 mins long of actual movie time. JL needs the time to breathe and properly pace the stories of all these characters to do them justice otherwise it will feel rushed.

If WB decides to release a 3 hour film, you'll get no argument from me though.

 

[moviefreak]

With the way how WB, yes WB not Synder treated the BvS runtime and the critical reception of the theatrical release --you can bet your ass that Synder is going to make an ultra-short JL film with a 90 mins runtime (!)

 

[TheRedWraith]

I thought BvS would have been a hit, you talk about action, two superheroes in the same movie, plus Wonder Woman, can't say it was the film I was hoping for. It wasn't what it looked like in the trailers either. Like why can't we see them do superhero stuff more? There was surprisingly more drama than anything else. I don't think even kids enjoyed this movie. I mean, little kids particularly.

The trailers looked about as exciting as The Avengers and that it would be full of hope and optimism. The Avengers delivered most audiences expectations. But BvS...come on, it was supposed to be a Batman-Superman movie. Maybe the film would have been different and wouldn't have dragged on too long without Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor.

I was satisfied enough with MOS but again, some parts of it I was disappointed by. The trailers were misleading. It looked more light for one, and it looked like it had a full length story. Fortunately, it was rushed in a number of scenes, and the action was over-the-top. You don't see the Clark Kent identity until the end of the movie. Superman doesn't make his major debut to the world as a superhero, saving someone, or Lois from a catastrophic event. The origin story of Clark was great though, but just wish the first hour and a half maybe had concentrated more on Clark's journey in discovering his purpose, and less time focusing on the action, General Zod and his army.

But on the whole, it had what Batman v Superman lacked. Fun, adventure, action (in spite it being over-the-top) heroism, superhero, a little bit of romance, a good villain and an epic fight, hero vs. villain, and Superman saving the entire planet (despite the 5000s that died).

Thinking back on it now, maybe it would have been nice to add Jimmy Olsen in the film to provide more comic relief. I think having Jimmy Olsen around adds balance to the dark and serious tone.

In comparison, Batman v Superman is a bit of a letdown. No fun, or adventure, at least to me. I have a side for the movie, but it's not what it should have been at all. On the pro side though, it's not as rushed as MOS was. The pacing was much better, but was a bit slow. There was less destruction, and it wasn't a film where the story's time took place in 24 hours time (like MOS).

Justice League has a lot to live up to if Snyder and Warner Bros. wish it to be a hit.

Man of steel took place over the course of at least a week, as Lois would have had to travel and do research that would have taken time to complete. Also the trailers for BvS in no way deceived us, it promised us a story wherein the world was questioning and criticizing or deifying Superman, a story where we knew Batman in his old age had allowed himself to be consumed by rage and was going after superman, a world where Lex was clearly stirring the pot, and the tone of the trailers clearly matched the tone of the movie.

 

[Gu3ree]

Man of steel took place over the course of at least a week, as Lois would have had to travel and do research that would have taken time to complete. Also the trailers for BvS in no way deceived us, it promised us a story wherein the world was questioning and criticizing or deifying Superman, a story where we knew Batman in his old age had allowed himself to be consumed by rage and was going after superman, a world where Lex was clearly stirring the pot, and the tone of the trailers clearly matched the tone of the movie.

I was talking about the amount of time Clark was Superman, which was only about 24 hours. Would have preferred a week before Zod made his way to Earth.

Trailers 1 for MOS and BvS may have fit the tones better, but not for both of their second trailers.

 

[TheRedWraith]

I was talking about the amount of time Clark was Superman, which was only about 24 hours. Would have preferred a week before Zod made his way to Earth.

Trailers 1 for MOS and BvS may have fit the tones better, but not for both of their second trailers.

Nope, went back and watched all the trailers for BvS and they all hit on the same points in every trailer and accurately reflected the movie.

 

[Gu3ree]

Nope, went back and watched all the trailers for BvS and they all hit on the same points in every trailer and accurately reflected the movie.

The music...also the trailers make it look like Batman and Superman would have a lot of screen time together but they didn't.

 

[TheRedWraith]

The music...also the trailers make it look like Batman and Superman would have a lot of screen time together but they didn't.

The second trailer is my least liked because of the music because of how generic it is, not fun, generic. When I watch that trailer I don't see any promise of a massive amount of character interaction we only see them together in snippets of 3 scenes and each conform to the structure of a vs movie, which is first meeting, fight, and reconciliation/fighting the bigger threat and I didn't expect much more than that beyond the rest of the scenes in question so while trailer 2 has generic trailer music, it is by no means misleading it is actually too revealing for some (I didn't and still don't care that they showed DD as all the evidence pointed to him and by that point it was a pretty poorly kept secret).

 

[Legendver2]

TDKR was 15 minutes short of 3 hours, yet that made $1b+. Same with Avatar, being 20 minutes shy, and Titanic is over 3 hours. RotK was over 3 hrs, and Two Towers was exactly 3 hours iirc. All those films made $1b+.

I don't understand the argument that the 3 hr UC would have made LESS than the TC? That's just ridiculous. I can even understand if some argue it would've made the same, but less? Keep in mind the potential of this film was not hit and a big reason for that was all the negative scores and reception from critics. Even if there would be less showtimes with the UC, the potentially better reception would've more than made for whatever money was lost due to the added minutes.

Another thing to keep in mind is the TC's horrible reception affected it's legs. This was supposed to be a film that would go uncontested for a good month before anything substantial came out to steal the crowd. The UC's longer runtime might have maybe lowered the opening weekend earnings, but the potentially better reception would've gave it actual legs to carry out those 4 weeks of no competition. And movies cross the $1b mark through legs, not opening weekend.

Now with all that said, whether JL should be three hours is up to the script. If the story is in fact more streamlined and straightforward, which seems to be the case, then I don't believe 3 hours is needed. But if it absolutely needs 3 hours to tell that story completely, then by all means go for it. Just because a movie is 3 hours doesn't mean it'll feel like 3 hours. Because of the better pacing in the UC, it actually felt more streamlined and I didn't even feel it was that much longer than the TC. At the end of the day, it should take however long it needs to tell an engrossing, epic, fun, epic, inspiring, and epic film.

 

[Gu3ree]

The second trailer is my least liked because of the music because of how generic it is, not fun, generic. When I watch that trailer I don't see any promise of a massive amount of character interaction we only see them together in snippets of 3 scenes and each conform to the structure of a vs movie, which is first meeting, fight, and reconciliation/fighting the bigger threat and I didn't expect much more than that beyond the rest of the scenes in question so while trailer 2 has generic trailer music, it is by no means misleading it is actually too revealing for some (I didn't and still don't care that they showed DD as all the evidence pointed to him and by that point it was a pretty poorly kept secret).

I was also going say though, it looked fun, but the film was more dark and gritty.

 

[Gu3ree]

TDKR was 15 minutes short of 3 hours, yet that made $1b+. Same with Avatar, being 20 minutes shy, and Titanic is over 3 hours. RotK was over 3 hrs, and Two Towers was exactly 3 hours iirc. All those films made $1b+.

I don't understand the argument that the 3 hr UC would have made LESS than the TC? That's just ridiculous. I can even understand if some argue it would've made the same, but less? Keep in mind the potential of this film was not hit and a big reason for that was all the negative scores and reception from critics. Even if there would be less showtimes with the UC, the potentially better reception would've more than made for whatever money was lost due to the added minutes.

Another thing to keep in mind is the TC's horrible reception affected it's legs. This was supposed to be a film that would go uncontested for a good month before anything substantial came out to steal the crowd. The UC's longer runtime might have maybe lowered the opening weekend earnings, but the potentially better reception would've gave it actual legs to carry out those 4 weeks of no competition. And movies cross the $1b mark through legs, not opening weekend.

Now with all that said, whether JL should be three hours is up to the script. If the story is in fact more streamlined and straightforward, which seems to be the case, then I don't believe 3 hours is needed. But if it absolutely needs 3 hours to tell that story completely, then by all means go for it. Just because a movie is 3 hours doesn't mean it'll feel like 3 hours. Because of the better pacing in the UC, it actually felt more streamlined and I didn't even feel it was that much longer than the TC. At the end of the day, it should take however long it needs to tell an engrossing, epic, fun, epic, inspiring, and epic film.

This kind of proves my point. Again, it doesn't need to be 3 hours but given how rarely films happen to be 3 hours long, makes some of these movies, special. All the ones you mentioned for example. Not to mention Peter Jackson's King Kong. And the majority enjoyed each of these movies that you and I mentioned. Even if half of that majority doesn't generally like to watch 3 hour long movies, they at least enjoyed King Kong, Lord of the Rings and Titanic thoroughly.

I'm simply advocating though, if it needs to be possibly 3 hours long to tell the story, then they should let it be that long.

However, on the BvS extended cut, it was 3 hours yet, all that time, they could have focused it more on Batman and Superman. So we wouldn't want to repeat any boredom again.

As most of these characters have such a long history with each other, looking back, in the animated series, Superman and Lex Luthor's antagonism didn't really get interesting until the Justice League animated series. For one, it was because they had had history before, which allowed it to be more interesting. Some of the additional Superman villains didn't really get interesting until they made a few more appearances, or until they teamed up with the Injustice Gang or Legion of Doom.

BvS did enough introducing their version of Lex Luthor's character background, even though he has only 2 scenes (the second one was shorter than the rooftop scene) with Superman.

But it's almost the same with Batman and Superman's friendship. They had a few crossovers in their solo-animated series, but their friendship didn't really start to get interesting until the JL animated series. At least, in my opinion. And then you had "Public Enemies" and "Apocalypse" (the DVD animated films). The way their friendship grew and how Batman eventually learned to trust Superman.

 

[kguillou]

I think a film as big as this, plus technically being the finale of this "trilogy" that Zack Snyder has crafted, this film should have an epic runtime, it should be around the TDKR runtime. Flash, Cyborg and Aquaman need to be properly introduced, Superman's ressurectiln is going to be. Part of this story, Steppenwolf, Darkseid and Apokolips will be introduced. Theres a lot of balls being juggled here and there needs to be appropriate time to develop them all.

Whatever they decide though, I will happily welcome another Ultimate Edition with extra footage and goodies but the TC needs to be complete in its own right..

 

[Gu3ree]

There's going to be a standalone Batman movie...and...and those other movies still look like they are in development. Flash, Aquaman...we haven't heard too much about Cyborg or Green Lantern Corps.

Suicide Squad this year and a sequel is already in talks...Wonder Woman next year.

As Wonder Woman looks mostly like it will be a prequel, I'd be a little disappointed by that, and possibly The Batman movie...it seems like they want to tell us what happened to the Wayne Manor, Jason Todd and whatever else.

Yet Suicide Squad trailers makes reference to Superman as if he never died...it looks as if there will only be this...trilogy will be set in the present, MOS, BVS and JL...but the rest of the movies are prequels so to speak.

 

[SiriusLee]

There's going to be a standalone Batman movie...and...and those other movies still look like they are in development. Flash, Aquaman...we haven't heard too much about Cyborg or Green Lantern Corps.

Suicide Squad this year and a sequel is already in talks...Wonder Woman next year.

As Wonder Woman looks mostly like it will be a prequel, I'd be a little disappointed by that, and possibly The Batman movie...it seems like they want to tell us what happened to the Wayne Manor, Jason Todd and whatever else.

Yet Suicide Squad trailers makes reference to Superman as if he never died...it looks as if there will only be this...trilogy will be set in the present, MOS, BVS and JL...but the rest of the movies are prequels so to speak.

What? They refer to him in past perfect tense, which makes sense considering he's dead. I don't see what you're getting at here.
Wonder Woman is the only movie that is almost definitely a prequel movie, the rest of them it's purely speculation.

 

[SiriusLee]

In regards to the question, I don't think it needs to be 3 hours but if it turns out to be 3 hours, I hope it's allowed to be that long so the version we get in theatres is the definitive version of the movie.

 

[BlueLanternKal]

Wonder Woman is a framed narrative. It takes place in the present while she's narrating the "prequel" part. Or at least that what it sounds like from descriptions. If it were a true prequel we wouldn't be getting modern day bookends.

 

[Loki882]

The difference between BVS and TDKR is, TDKR was coming off two critically acclaimed and financially successful (immensely so in the case of TDK) previous films that the audience really loved. Plus, Nolan had another huge hit with Inception in-between. So WB basically essentially let him do what he wants, because he's proven himself.

By contrast, Snyder's previous work has been, controversial overall and MOS was a very divisive movie. It also didn't make as much as either of Nolan's two Batman sequels. So WB probably was much more iffy on greenlighting a near 3-hour movie in this case.

And honestly, if no one there took one look at BVS and some of the story/character-points in it and went "ok, this is going to be even more divisive and controversial than MOS was" than they were even more clueless than I thought that they were.

And I don't know that the UE necessarily "fixes" the movie for many people. Do it make the pacing and flow move better, yes. Do some of the potential plot-holes/weird moments get addressed better, sure. But if you're one of the people who just fundamentally disagreed with/did not like some of the storylines and characterizations that they did in this movie (which is my biggest problem with it as well BTW), or the tone, or the climax, then the UE isn't going to fix those problems for you. Because those are still there regardless.

I'm inclined to say no on the idea of a three-hour JL movie. I feel like, except for REALLY rare exceptions, you shouldn't need that long to tell a superhero story (heck a lot of people would argue that TDKR didn't need to be as long as it was, and that it drag/sagged at points as a result). 2 1/2 hours seems like plenty of time, maybe 2/40.

 

[TeeKay]

No.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

In regards to the question, I don't think it needs to be 3 hours but if it turns out to be 3 hours, I hope it's allowed to be that long so the version we get in theatres is the definitive version of the movie.

Agreed.

 

[Legendver2]

Well it doesn't *need* to be 3 hours, but I don't want it to feel short either. BvS UC was epic as all hell, and I'm hoping JL would be at the same level of epicness, with more levity for those who are asking for it.

 

[storyteller]

I would love for it to be 3 hours but no more Ultimate Cuts. LOTR can pull that off but too much keeps getting left out that it confuses some viewers.

 

[NotNickFury]

No. Heck, as much as I enjoyed Watchmen, for comparison's sake, I felt its length at times. Luckily, the additions in the Director's Cut make up for that and I can watch it at home.

With Warner Bros and DC trying to go big early, unless it's a well-written, well-directed, paced, and engaging film- which it very well could be at that time stamp- it doesn't need to be that long. I don't think the universe has really earned that yet with only two, soon three movies. Granted, Civil War was only a little under two and a half hours, but it built to that at least.

 

[Wildcard]

No reason any JL movie should be 3 hours long. Two hours and twenty to thirty minutes should be the max. A lot of times, movies will a runtime past that tend to drag on forever.

The rare exceptions (i.e The Godfather/Part II) made sense for the story that was being told. But here, it would be overkill to say the least.