It’s not too uncommon to watch a modern superhero movie and feel like you’re watching a cut of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. Most of them pass, or get close to, the two-and-a-half-hour mark, with last year’s BATMAN V. SUPERMAN putting out a director’s cut that pushed it to three hours. People have suspected the upcoming JUSTICE LEAGUE will have a similar girth, but if new reports are to be believed, JL has just smashed the rulebook into itty-bitty pieces.
As of right now, the current runtime being reported for the movie is 121 minutes long, which would make it the shortest DCEU movie yet. So far, the two leading theater chains in America – AMC and Regal – have the movie listed at the time. This, of course, conflicts with already debunked reports that the movie would be close to three-hours long, and in fact, if you take out the credits, means audiences won’t even be watching the superhero epicness for two hours.
Given how the movie needs to introduce The Flash (Ezra Miller) Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and Cyborg (Ray Fisher), fans were expecting the movie to have a meatier time so that their intros don’t feel so rushed. However in the last month or so we've learned that Kiersey Clemons (as Iris West) and Jesse Eisenberg (as Lex Luthor) had scenes cut from the final product, which could have dropped the runtime down significantly. and Lengthy runtimes are also something they’ve come to expect with WONDER WOMAN, BVS and MAN OF STEEL running at 141 minutes, 153 minutes and 143 minutes, respectively. Last year’s SUICIDE SQUAD ran at a similar length to JL, though, at 123 minutes (an extended edition for that movie was also released).
Like many people who have poured over all the details of this movie, I too am wondering how they intend to fit all these characters into such a small frame. Joss Whedon has come in to finish up the movie after Zack Snyder had to step back, so perhaps he’s been trimming the fat, so to speak. At least we can assume that at this time the movie will be lean as can be, and will perhaps avoid aimless exposition. Key character points can be focused on instead of the movie acting like a bunch of mashed-up solo flicks. If the runtime is indeed true, it could come as a win-win for audiences: If the movie is great, the lack of unnecessary material will have contributed to that and; if the movie sucks, then we'll be glad we didn't have to sit through for an extra hour.
JUSTICE LEAGUE hits theaters November 17.