The runtime forAquamanhas reportedly been revealed. The Arthur Curry standalone movie is the first DCEU project to hit theaters since last year’s divisiveJustice League, which was a critical and box office failure after a much-talked about troubled production. There’s a lot riding on the shoulders of director James Wan and star Jason Momoa tomake Aquaman a hit at the box office, while appeasing DC fans at the same time. Early reactions to the movie have been positive, for the most part, so it seems thatAquamanshould be a hit. Though no one is cheering the movie on a substantial level. It sounds, at best, quite mediocre, and it’s being compared to a Phase One Marvel movie, which sets it back 10 years. Audiences have come a long way sinceIron Man.
It looks likeAquamanwill be clocking in at 143 minutes, or 2 hours and 23 minutes. This puts the movie just behindWonder Womanby about 6 minutes and a lot shorter thanBatman v Superman, which was 3 hours and 3 minutes long, making it the third-longest DCEU movie to date.DC and Marvel movies have been getting longer over the years, mainly because there’s so much story to tell. Joe Russo recently revealed that the current cut ofAvengers 4is 3 hours long, but that could change between now and the release of the movie next year.
As for the reasoning behind the lengthy runtime, there’s a lot going on inAquaman. In addition to being an origin story, there’sseveral characters and multiple kingdoms. It’s actually surprising that the runtime isn’t a bit longer to make sure that everything is in its right place. With that being said, 143 minutes seems much too long for a movie that needs to get in, get out, win hearts and entertain without bringing anyone to bored tears. The studio is hoping that this won’t be the only time that Arthur Curry gets a shot at the big screen.
Some of theearly reactions to Aquamanhave compared it toAnt-Man and the Waspas well asThor: Ragnarok, in terms of tone, which means that DC Films and Warner Bros. could be looking at another hit that brings a lot of people into theaters. However, it has also been rumored that the movie will leave hardcore DC fans disappointed, which is usually the problem when trying to make a movie that translates to people who may not have read the comics and don’t know everything aboutAquamanand his origin story.
Aquamanlooks fun and entertaining from the promotional material that has been released since San Diego Comic-Con. The moviehits theaters at the end of December, and it will have some competition, but from the early reactions, it seems that the studio should be happy with the box office results. Obviously, this could all change between now and then as well. Regardless, Jason Momoa and James Wan seem to have been able to pull of their initial goal, which was to make Arthur Curry cool, and not just the butt of some lame jokes. The runtime has yet to be officially confirmed byWarner Bros., but you can check out the latest reveal below.
