Justice League has been the subject of fierce debates, right from the directorial handling to the visual effects, down to the runtime of the movie.
You might say that the debates about runtime are petty and we really don’t need to argue about the film’s runtime being 119 or 121 minutes. However, this is, in fact, something that has a lot of discussion value.
Let’s see why the runtime of Justice League is vital.
Whose Film It Is?
The most important interpretation of the Justice League runtime is related to the question about the film’s theatrical version being which director’s brainwork.
Right from the time Joss Whedon took over to manage the reshoots and rewrites of the film after the exit of Zack Snyder due to personal issues, the fandom has been buzzing with rumors about the film having been reshaped into a Joss Whedon project. The cast and crew of Justice League, as well as the Warner Bros. management, have unanimously stated that the film remains pretty much a Snyder movie. However, the runtime indicates something different.
Snyder has so far made four DC Comics films (300, Watchmen, Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), and out of them, only 300 had a runtime of two hours. That was attributed to the short length of the source comics on which the film was based. In fact, Snyder had to add and stretch the scenes to make it a feature-length production.
Whedon has made two Avengers movies, and they have both been over two hours and twenty minutes in length. He doesn’t have the reputation of being good at telling long meandering stories that Snyder is reputed for. Earlier this year, we had heard stories about how Justice League was supposedly almost three hours long, and that was similar to the original theatrical cut of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but, Snyder trashed such rumors.
Is It Another Batman v Superman?
The concern of the fans is understandable as DC fans are afraid of another bout of Batman v Superman torture.
The two-hour duration of Justice League is out of sync with not only Snyder’s style but, overall DC format. Other than the terribly chopped Suicide Squad which had a runtime of two hours, no other DC film has been that short. In fact, Batman v Superman also had a great deal of difference between what Snyder’s full vision was compared to the theatrical cut by the studio.
This puts us in a situation where fans are rightly concerned that Justice League has gone down the same track with the studio not being happy with what Snyder made. However, this time around they didn’t leave it for the editing team and roped in Whedon to scavenge the interesting elements of the film and to fill out the gaps with reshoots.
Although those are all speculations and fan concerns, we are yet to find out whether Justice League manages to give a proper screen space to all the featured heroes, villains, the backstory of DC Cinematic Universe and a sensible storyline, etc. within the short span of two hours. It is a very important question, and we are hoping that Justice League turns out to be the movie that redefines the tradition (mercilessly chopping down the film to make it sleek, but, unimpressive in the process).
The truth will come out with the release of Justice League on November 17th.
