Last week, we have heard about a screening for Godzilla vs Kong that took place. It was well received by the audience that viewed the test screening and director Adam Wingard even took to Instagram to confirm that a test screening did take place and to say he was happy that the audience enjoyed the movie. This is great to hear, but I see a lot of people and click bait articles reacting to the movie's run-time (which is reported to be less than two hours) saying they are worried that the movie is too short and it needs to be two hours long to tell a good story. This kind of worrying is actually quite silly.
We have had monster movies in the past that ran under two hours including the more recent ones.
10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) – 1hr 43min.
Kong: Skull Island (2017) – 1hr 58min.
A Quiet Place (2018) – 1hr 30min.
The Cloverfield Paradox (2018) – 1hr 42min.
Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018) – 1hr 51min.
Rampage (2018) – 1hr 47min.
The Meg (2018) – 1hr 53min.
Underwater (2020) – 1hr 35min.
A Quiet Place Part 2 (2020) – 1hr 36min.
As you can see, a lot of the monster movies that were released recently have been under two hours. Most of them were received positively by critics and audiences ranging from telling a unique story to being really fun monster movies. It's all how the story of the movie is told and how much the movie can and can't show. You can definitely argue The Cloverfield Paradox and Pacific Rim: Uprising weren't good, but they are also examples of how an idea for a movie is wasted because there were too many chefs stirring the pot and the studio was looking for a way to make a quick buck.
In March 2018, everybody was expecting A Quiet Place to make around $20 million in the domestic box-office on opening weekend. However, by word of mouth and through social media the movie surpassed everyone's expectations entirely by opening with $50 million. Last month, Variety reported that they expect A Quiet Place Part 2 to make $55 million – $60 million on the first weekend in the domestic box-office. That is $5 million – $10 million more than A Quiet Place made on opening weekend in 2018. While I am talking about numbers, the point I am trying to show is that people care more about stories. Since the first movie had a well written story everybody was telling their friends, families, and readers to go and see that movie. Nobody cared about the movie's run time at all. With the first movie's success, expectations are now running higher than usual because people want to know what happened to the characters in the first movie. How will they survive on their own? Where will they go after the attack by the aliens? If you care about the story and the characters enough then the run time won't matter as much.
The only time we hear criticisms about a movie's run-time are mainly when they are too long. We all had those moments where the movie had scenes that could have been cut down more or didn't need to explain or while watching the movie you have to use the restroom and you're too afraid to get up out of fear of missing an important part of the story. It certainly drives me crazy when a movie has so many bad jokes or any unnecessary scenes that has no meaning to the story. Everybody has had times where the movie just felt too long. If Godzilla vs Kong is an hour and forty-five minutes then that is a lot more manageable. You can still tell a good story and have a lot of action scenes in that amount of time. Kong: Skull Island was just barely under two hours, but it still had what I think had the perfect balance of story and action scenes out of all the other movies in the Monsterverse series.
Also, consider the fact that these reports are for a test screening of Godzilla vs Kong. Not all test screenings of the movie show the final product of the movie. During the time when Godzilla vs Kong was shown, the movie was still under re-shoots and the special effects were not finished yet. Whatever was shown in that screening could be changed to add or subtract more scenes in the final cut of the movie. There were on-set photos of the movie during re-shoots and they were leaked right after the movie's test screening. Even though the info about the movie's run time came from Twitter user, Viewer Anon (who is said to be very reliable on his information of the movies he watches months before they're released), things could very well change.
Lastly, Godzilla vs Kong is expected by everybody to be the last movie in the Monsterverse series. You should be feeling more excited rather than worried. If you like the movie, then that should be the only thing that matters. If the movie succeeds, then we can all celebrate over Thanksgiving Christmas, and all through 2021. If not, then oh well. I'm not going to worry about the movie's run-time or anything else. When Godzilla vs Kong premiers on November 20th, I will be walking into the theater while holding a bag of overpriced, burned popcorn in one hand and a watered down medium soda in the other grabbing that perfect middle seat. If we had a trailer right now, then could get this hype train running again like how it was for Godzilla: King Of The Monsters.
Do you mind a shorter run-time for Godzilla vs Kong or do you prefer a much longer run-time? Leave a comment in the comments section about your experience with movies that last 1hr 30min vs 2hrs and 30min. Make sure to follow me on my Facebook, Twitter, and Minds pages to stay up to date for more news, reviews, and discussions.