And how does it compare to the length of the other films?
Film length and pacing are more important than people realize. A briskly paced and tight adventure like The Empire Strikes Back can keep people on the edge of their seats from the first second until the credits roll. A long, plodding film like Attack of the Clones can, well, bore people to tears.
While many have wondered if The Force Awakens will be a slog like many feel the prequels can be. However, if you watch J.J. Abrams other work (Mission: Impossible III, Star Trek), you’ll notice that he really knows how to make a speeding bullet of a film. Love or hate his movies, it’s impossible to say that they’re not relentlessly paced and always moving forward.
Which brings us to The Force Awakens. There’s no reason to believe he’ll break his trademark pacing for this Star Wars film, but we now have a rumor as to the film’s runtime thanks to a programming listing spotted by the site Following The Nerd.
What’s the rumored Force Awakens runtime?
136 minutes, or 2 hours 16 minutes.
How does that compare to the other Star Wars films?
Here’s a list of the films and their runtimes:
- The Phantom Menace – 133 minutes
- Attack of the Clones – 142 minutes
- Revenge of the Sith – 140 minutes
- A New Hope – 121 minutes
- The Empire Strikes Back – 124 minutes
- Return of the Jedi – 131 minutes
- The Force Awakens – 136 minutes
So, The Force Awakens would be the third longest behind Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
How does it compare to other J.J. Abrams movies?
Interesting question. Here they are:
- Mission: Impossible III – 126 minutes
- Star Trek – 127 minutes
- Super 8 – 112 minutes
- Star Trek Into Darkness – 132 minutes
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens – 136 minutes
So, this would be the longest movie in his filmography as well.
Is this a good or a bad thing?
Eh… we’re going to go with good. We trust Abrams to pace this like a runaway train, but it also has a lot of ground to cover since we’ll be discovering what all out characters – and the galaxy – has been up to in the thirty years since Return of the Jedi.
We have a lot of faith in Abrams, as we believe his Mission Impossible film is the strongest of the franchise. While many people be negative on his Star Trek reboots, the first is an effective adventure film. As for Into Darkness… it was well directed and acted, so all that’s left to hate is Roberto Orci’s script. Apparently the people at Paramount agreed.
