After Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Avatar: The Way of Water will be the most exciting movie left to come out in 2022. And it promises to be an immersive experience with its longer-than-usual runtime. Avatar 2009 ran for 2 hours 42 minutes (Extended Edition – 2hrs 58mts) and that was considered pretty long. But now, James Cameron has broken all the barriers with Avatar 2. And he has revealed the reason for The Way of Water’s crazy long runtime.
Why Avatar: The Way of Water is So Long
Compared to the previous film, this one is 12 minutes longer as it stands at a whopping 3 hours and 10 minutes. That even exceeds it even beyond Avengers: Endgame’s 3 hours and 2 minutes length. And having such a long run time does not come as a surprise as James Cameron needs to establish some important groundwork for the 3 upcoming sequels.
In an interview with GamesRadar, Cameron explained that the long run time is so he would have ample time to explore all of its characters. He said:
The goal is to tell an extremely compelling story on an emotional basis. I would say the emphasis in the new film is more on character, more on story, more on relationships, more on emotion. We didn’t spend as much time on relationship and emotion in the first film as we do in the second film, and it’s a longer film, because there’s more characters to service. There’s more story to service.
Well, I totally agree with Cameron.
Related: Fans Mesmerized with the VFX of Avatar: The Way of Water: Would It Set the New Benchmark for Films?
Why A Longer Runtime Was Needed
Movie studios usually prefer to keep their films short so they could have more screenings per theatre screen in a day. And that should ultimately make more money for them. But we’ve had many examples proving that this isn’t usually the case. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, Josstice League, and several other films went to the theatres with this strategy by leaving tons of footage on the cutting room floor. And it’s needless to say that they all underperformed due to a lack of breathing room and proper exploration of characters.
It isn’t necessary that a longer run time will always deliver a successful outing and Eternals is proof of that. But we’ve had several long films that did insanely well and went on to make Billions. Civil War, Infinity War, Endgame, No Way Home, the first Avatar, and Titanic are prime examples of this. Even BvS (UE) and Zack Snyder’s Justice League became better movies with their longer runtimes. And now, Wakanda Forever will also join these films.
When people go to the theatres to watch these big-budget blockbusters, they look for unforgettable long-lasting spectacles. And Avatar: The Way of Water is looking forward to delivering big time on that front! So yes, it was important for the film to have this mammoth length.
Source: GamesRadar
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