Matt Reeves' THE BATMAN Has the Longest Runtime of Any Batman Movie Yet
A new listing on the IMAX Melbourne website reveals the runtime for director Matt Reeves’ The Batman, and this will be the longest-running Batman movie yet. The Batman will run for 176 minutes, which translates to two hours and 56 minutes! That’s a long-ass movie!
Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises held the previous record with a runtime of two hours and 45 minutes. I’m not surprised that Reeves The Batman is so long, there’s a lot of story to tell to set up this new version of the Dark Knight, and the studio gave the filmmaker free rein to do what he wanted with the film, so of course, he’s going to take advantage of that. He recently said in an interview with MovieMaker:
"I wanted to do a story in which the corruption of Gotham was one of the most important aspects of the story, because Gotham is a sick place. Bruce is desperate to try and make a change.
"He's still stuck, to be honest, emotionally stunted at being 10 years old, because that's a trauma you don't get past—witnessing your parents murder in this place. He's looking to create meaning, right? This is the only meaning he can find. … I think he imagines that if he can do this, somehow he can reverse what's happened, which will never be reversed. This is a very human impulse, right? To try and relive something and remake it."
I love that this movie is going to really dive into the psyche of Batman in a way that we haven’t seen in the movies before. Reeves went on to say:
"The idea of a place that is corrupt, and you try to swim against the tide in order to fight against it and make a difference, is quintessential Batman. And at the center of those noir stories is almost always the detective, right? And that's why he is the world's greatest detective. And so, this story is, in addition to being almost a horror movie, a thriller, and an action movie, at its core, it's also very much a detective story. It's very narrative."
Bring on the long Batman movie! I’m excited to watch it! Back in the day a movie this long would have had an intermission. Here’s the synopsis for the film:
Two years of stalking the streets as the Batman (Pattinson), striking fear into the hearts of criminals, has led Bruce Wayne deep into the shadows of Gotham City. With only a few trusted allies — Alfred Pennyworth (Andy Serkis), Lt. James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) — amongst the city's corrupt network of officials and high-profile figures, the lone vigilante has established himself as the sole embodiment of vengeance amongst his fellow citizens.
When a killer targets Gotham's elite with a series of sadistic machinations, a trail of cryptic clues sends the World's Greatest Detective on an investigation into the underworld, where he encounters such characters as Selina Kyle/aka Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz), Oswald Cobblepot/aka the Penguin (Colin Farrell), Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), and Edward Nashton/aka the Riddler (Paul Dano). As the evidence begins to lead closer to home and the scale of the perpetrator's plans becomes clear, Batman must forge new relationships, unmask the culprit, and bring justice to the abuse of power and corruption that has long plagued Gotham City.
The Batman is set to hit theaters on March 4, 2022.