This has really been grinding my gears for years now, so here it goes.

2 1/2 hour movies should be the exception and not the rule. That's a long ass time to sit down and focus on one thing for its entirety. This mainly applies to a films such as those in the MCU that I feel artificially pad their time to reach the seemingly 2 hour minimum or 2 1/2 hour ideal.

Take for example Black Panther, now I wasn't a fan of the film, but I'm not a big Marvel guy anymore. However, there was this chase scene in the film that felt overly long and just pointless. There was no tension in it (a fact pointed out by the wakandan agents in the car), and it did nothing in the long term. For me, this ruins the pacing and lessens the film overall.

We can also make an example out of a film I love, the Hateful Eight. Now, I love this film, I think it's a return to when Tarantino does best, however, it stands at a hefty 3 hours long. I didn't mind, I loved it and it felt right to me (barring one scene which I won't mention because of spoilers), however, I know many friends and people in general that can't stand this film because of how damn long it is. Its hard to argue with this when there are a few scenes that could have been cut (the scene of them establishing a rope line between the house and the toilet being one).

However, I think the biggest mark against it is the fact that there's now an extended cut on Netflix. I've never seen it, and I don't want to, but for me anything longer than the original 3 hour mammoth runtime is just excessive. Again, we can also point at films like the Irishman coming in at 3 1/2 hours as another example of this issue.

Goodfellas came in at 2 1/2 hours and apparently has a much better pacing even though it shows almost the entirety of someone life and clocks in at an hour shorter that Scorsese's Irishman. Reservoir dogs is another whodunit mystery by Tarantino and is HALF the length of the Hateful Eight.

There are long films that I believe can justify the runtime and feel complete such as Avengers Infinity War and Ad Astra, however I think the vast majority don't. They are 1 1/2 - 2 hour films awkwardly shoved into 2-3 hour moulds.

In the words of Mark Kermode "[2001 A Space Odyssey] goes from the dawn of mankind to the birth of a new species in the kind of time Quentin Tarantino, frankly, wouldn't get out of his bedroom". This, to me, shows the scope and depth a film can reach in just 2 and a half hours. Not everything should hope to aspire to that, however if you find yourself getting close to that, or exceeding that, then as a film maker you should consider whether it's worth it.