Justice League Will Be Nearly 3 Hours Long, Because Zack Snyder Never Learns His Damn Lesson

According to reports coming out of CinemaCon, DC’s Justice League will have a 2 hour and 50 minute runtime—which means, with ads and trailers, you’re going to be parked in that seat for over 3 hours. Zack Snyder, why do you not look to your past mistakes? Why?

But why?

Movies have been stretching the limits of our ability to sit still a lot as of late, but Zack Snyder is one of the worst offenders. Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, a bleak, sometimes incoherent superhero film with little fun factor, clocked in at 3 hours 3 minutes.

It was overstuffed and overserious—the Snyder hallmarks—but no one apparently tells Zack Snyder to learn from what hasn’t worked before and rein it in a little. No, DC keeps giving him control over their prime properties, despite disappointment from fans and critics (BvS received a 27% rating on Rotten Tomatoes).

For the sake of comparison, let’s put some of Snyder’s comic book outings next to some others:

Watchmen – 2hr 43m

Man of Steel – 2hr 28m

Batman v. Superman – 3hr 3m

Iron Man – 2hr 6m

Thor – 1hr 55m

Captain America: The First Avenger – 2hr 4m

Captain America: The Winter Soldier – 2hr 16m

The Avengers – 2hr 23m

Even Avengers: Age of Ultron, which aged me at least half a decade, came in at 2h 22m. Civil War, at 2hr 27m, was long in the tooth, and as someone who still saw it three times in theaters, I’m comfortable with saying it could have been trimmed down quite a bit.

Some people are going to say I’m quibbling over Justice League’s runtime. What’s an extra 20 or 30 minutes? The thing is, during a movie, this can feel like an eternity. It’s why so many brief scenes end up on the cutting room floor. Even a few minutes can alter or drag out the narrative to a significant degree.

And at this point, while his aesthetic is on point, I just don’t trust Zack Snyder to craft a coherent narrative that is going to fit together and sustain my interest for this long. I know I’m not alone.

Other reactions from fans in the same thread say that they won’t be able to get enough Justice League and that 3 hours isn’t long enough. There are plenty of people who would watch the Justice League-ers watch paint dry and you know what? As a superhero fan, I respect them and I understand about not ever quite getting your fill of the thing you love. What I won’t agree with is Zack Snyder inflicting his ponderous takes on the rest of the movie-going population.

If Snyder had earned my respect as a filmmaker who makes smart decisions and directs complicated plots masterfully, I’d be a lot more excited for Justice League and this runtime news. But he hasn’t, and I’m not.

(via Twitter, image via Warner Bros.)

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Kaila Hale-Stern

Kaila Hale-Stern (she/her) is a content director, editor, and writer who has been working in digital media for more than fifteen years. She started at TMS in 2016. She loves to write about TV—especially science fiction, fantasy, and mystery shows—and movies, with an emphasis on Marvel. Talk to her about fandom, queer representation, and Captain Kirk. Kaila has written for io9, Gizmodo, New York Magazine, The Awl, Wired, Cosmopolitan, and once published a Harlequin novel you'll never find.

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