A lot of people share the opinion that superhero movies are just too damn long these days, but that’s entirely dependent on both personal preference, and whether or not the story being told justifies such an exorbitant length.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Eternals tells a sprawling cosmic saga that stretches thousands of years, with the plot needing to introduce and establish over a dozen brand new characters, explain why they’ve remained hidden in the shadows for so long, position the Deviants as worthy threats and tie into the overarching narrative of Phase Four.
That’s an awful lot of heavy lifting, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Eternals is being touted as one of the franchise’s most butt-numbing installments ever. As per Kino Metro, a Russian film bulletin that previously revealed runtimes for Halloween Kills and The Last Duel before they were made official, Chloé Zhao’s epic clocks in at a hefty 156 minutes.
If that turns out to be correct, then Eternals will be second only to Avengers: Endgame in MCU history, and the longest standalone outing by some distance ahead of the 147-minute Captain America: Civil War. If we’re getting two and a half hours of movie, then let’s hope the quality is there to have audiences on the edge of their seats throughout.
