Los Angeles, March 3 : Facing backlash over “The Batman” longish run time, director Matt Reeves has addressed the issue. To date this is the lengthiest Batman film with a runtime of over 2hours and 56 minutes without any intervals. Critics and fans alike have questioned as to whether the movie really needs such an excessively long run time for a standalone superhero film. In a new interview with the New York Times, Reeves largely brushed off the concerns, citing the movie’s success with test audiences as indicative of its ability to keep most viewers engaged. As time has proven that no good movie is ever too long as proven by Zack Snyder’s “Justice League”, which while receiving some bitter criticism particularly for its 4hour run time, it has received great scores and has been hailed by many as one of the best superhero movies of all time.
Admitting it could look daunting on paper, Reeves assured fans that they won’t even notice the length once they started watching the film, due to its immersive quality. He also noted that the theatrical version was shorter than his previous cuts. “Once you see the movie, I think that [the runtime] ceases to be an issue.” Reeves said. He added “It’s immersive, it takes you along and it keeps you engrossed.”
Talking with Digital Spy, Reeves said he wanted to avoid doing an origin tale “While I knew that this was going to be a new iteration, I didn’t think there was any possible way to see the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne again, you couldn’t see the pearls in the cement, and so that was critical,” he said. “I also just thought I wanted to make sure we were doing something fresh and different, so I wanted him to be an unformed Batman. While we weren’t doing an origin tale, there was a place for him to have an arc. “We really leaned into this idea of it being early days and he’s kind of like addicted to being Batman, he’s compelled and has this compulsion and doesn’t understand the degree to which vengeance is a part of why he’s doing it and how personal his mission is.”
Despite criticism thrown at Reeves for the run time, the movie has as of now scored over 86 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes and 8.9 rating on IMDB , with many praising it as a reinvention of the character, commenting on making it like a 1970’s thriller type exploring Batman’s detective aspect. The movie stars Robert Pattinson, Paul Dano, Zoe Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Colin Ferrell, Andy Serkis, John Turturo and Peter Sarsgaard. The movie will release on March 4.
(with agency inputs)
