If I could only state one complaint about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s that all the movies are way too long. Even aside from the leg-numbing runtimes of the Avengers movies, it felt hard to justify why a movie like Eternals needed more than 150 minutes to tell its story. I thought if every MCU movie was more like The Marvels and clocked in around 100 minutes, then all of the franchise’s problems would be solved.
That is, until The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Marvel’s latest endeavor had a lot on its plate: it had to establish not only a new super squad but also Earth-828, an entirely new universe. And yet, it only had 1 hour and 55 minutes to cram it in. For the first time ever, I realized a Marvel movie should have been longer — and when you look at what was left on the cutting room floor, it’s easy to see why.
