Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is the next major MCU movie, and its shockingly long runtime has just been revealed. The movie is two hours and 41 minutes, which makes it the second-longest movie in the MCU after Avengers: Endgame. While some fans hate sitting in the chairs for a long time, others embrace it, and they think other already released movies should be much longer too.
This has certainly been a popular topic on Reddit, where the users on the site have debated which movies are way too short. Whether it’s a movie that suffers from its flimsy length or a film that’s so good that fans simply want more of it, Redditors make some good arguments. But some superfans even think a couple of three-hour releases are too short.
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Venom (2018)
There’s no doubt about it that Venom is a schlocky film and isn’t exactly trying to change people’s lives, but that isn’t an excuse for what was the result of an extremely underwhelming screenplay. Funkedalic takes issue with the movie’s length, noting that it’s the root of all the movie’s problems.
The Redditor gives anything but a glowing review, saying it sucked and adding, “Way too short to be meaningful.” Venom isn’t outrageously short, but its one-hour and 52-minute runtime is mostly filled with jokes that there’s no time for plot or character development. However, the movie does at least nail the origin story of the antihero without including Spider-Man, which was always going to be a tough task.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
In what is a massively unpopular opinion, Lil_nuggets thinks that Avengers: Endgame, which clocks in at three hours and one minute (and is one of the longest superhero movies ever made) is way too short. The Redditor suggests, “Maybe a five-hour movie with a bathroom break in between. I know why they didn’t do this, hard to sell a five-hour movie in the same way and make the same amount of profit, but still.”
In fairness, the Russo brothers managed to keep the movie entertaining from beginning to end and are the best in the industry when it comes to pacing. It never felt like the movie was going too slow or too fast, and there’s no doubt that fans could have enjoyed another three hours of the Avengers time traveling.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)
If the first Venom felt rushed and two short, the 2021 sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage doubled down on that element. It’s a weird decision to double down on what was heavily criticized about its predecessor, but audiences still showed up in droves to see it, which is especially impressive given that it was released during the pandemic.
Ceterazz is the most critical about the flimsy 97-minute movie, positing, “The movie is so damn short. I feel like it should’ve been at least 120 minutes long, and they should’ve used this time to really dive deep into the character of Cletus.” Cletus is one of the most celebrated comic book villains ever, which was why there was so much hype surrounding the 2021 release. But the film feels like it quickly ends after one action sequence, and it could have benefitted from a longer runtime.
Thor: Love And Thunder (2022)
AndrewJamesDrake thinks the newly released Thor: Love and Thunder was way too short. At just a hair under two hours, it isn’t the shortest movie in the world, but it’s the shortest Marvel Cinematic Universe movie in years, and the film suffers because of it. The Redditor comments, “The runtime was too short to hold the full story… so a lot of things moved too fast and broke suspension of disbelief.”
It has been well documented how much footage didn’t make it into the final cut of the movie, which is strange considering that the cut sequences sound like what would have been the best parts of the movie. Even Christian Bale noted that his personal favorite scene didn’t even make it into the final version of the movie.
Morbius (2022)
While the movie is about the living vampire, Morbius has become a living meme at this point, as so many jokes have been made about the quality of the film and how it bombed at the box office not once but twice. The film has way more problems than longer runtime would solve, but Rman823 thinks that, at one hour and 44 minutes, the film is way too short.
The Redditor notes, “I don’t know if it’s where I’ve been recently watching longer movies, but, man, did the movie feel rushed with that runtime. It felt like the whole climax happened within 5 minutes and the ending was pretty abrupt too.” The user also notices that the short runtimes seem to be a recurring problem in the Sony Spider-Man Universe.
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (2022)
With the exception of Eternals and Spider-Man: No Way Home, most of the MCU Phase 4 movies haven’t been that long and have all hovered around the two-hour mark (including Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness). However, Ubergoober166 thinks that wasn’t enough time for the comedy horror flick.
The Redditor posits, “It’s just too short, it was too fast-paced and didn’t have enough story beats or character development moments.” The movie could have used a recap about Wanda, as those viewers who hadn’t seen WandaVision would have been completely lost. And fans would unanimously agree that there should have been way more “multiverse of madness,” as the film saw Strange travel through universes for just a minute or so.
Fantastic 4 (2015)
The Fantastic 4 series is going to be rebooted for a third time in 2024 after it has failed twice. The second time, 20th Century Fox failed the characters and let the fans down with 2015’s Fantastic 4 (which was the subject of tons of studio meddling). This is why Mr_Evil_MSc wants to see what could have been.
The Redditor recalls shots from the trailer that weren’t in the film, commenting, “There were plenty of moments like that, where you could see where the original film had been hacked away and rejiggered into this bad TV pilot.” According to director Josh Trank, he had made a great movie, but it was all left on the cutting room floor (via pagesix.com). At the very least, it’d be the most interesting to see a Fantastic 4 “Trank cut.”
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (2018)
Lankymjc thinks Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was way too short, noting, “I saw a supercut of all of Noir’s lines and it’s so short. Dude gets about 8 lines for the entire movie.” While Spider-Man has always been for all ages, which is also the case for the incredible Into the Spider-Verse, the 108 animated movie’s target audience is children. With a runtime of one hour and 56 minutes, that’s already asking a lot of kids’ attention spans.
However, the Redditor is right that Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage) didn’t get enough screen time, especially considering the character is voiced brilliantly by Cage. But as there are not one but two sequels set to hit theatres in the next couple of years, the Redditor can look forward to a lot more from Noir.
The New Mutants (2020)
The New Mutants was quietly released in the middle of the pandemic, which might have been a strategic movie from Disney. The X-Men movie had been produced by 20th Century Fox, but it was in Disney’s hands after the house of the mouse acquired the studio. Disney clearly knew that the film didn’t meet its standard of quality, but 8eyeofthetiger8 thinks it might have benefitted from a longer runtime.
The Redditor explains, “It wasn’t amazing, I think the short runtime and a kinda messy plot were to blame, but it was just a fun movie. The New Mutants’ runtime is just as low as its box office gross, as it clocks in at just 94 minutes, which is especially short considering that the movie is trying to set up several new characters in the universe.
The Batman (2022)
Like Avengers: Endgame, despite the movie being almost three hours long, TabrisVI thinks The Batman is too short. The Redditor suggests, “It’s going to sound weird to say but I think it should have been longer. It needed to be an HBO series instead of a movie so it would have more time to develop a lot of the interesting plot threads that it just teased in the film.”
The movie already feels like it’s winding down and leading to the resolution an hour before the actual end when Falcone is murdered. However, the world-building in the film is so rich, and the neo-noir look is so unique compared to the current landscape of superhero movies that it’s impossible to not fall under the film’s spell. More of that aesthetic with Michael Giacchino’s epic score certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing. And as most of the movie is essentially set in and around the Iceberg Lounge, a longer cut could have given audiences a glimpse of more Gotham locales.
NEXT: The Batman – 10 Things Redditors Want From The Spin-Offs
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