“Avengers: Endgame” runs two minutes past three hours.

“Avengers: Infinity War” goes on for two hours and nearly 30 minutes.

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” almost equals “Infinity War” at two hours and 28 minutes.

Though in possession of generally long runtimes, the aforementioned Marvel movies experimented with a concept rarely projected on theater screens — the multiverse.

That concept kept viewers’ attention and justified each film’s length.

So when DC released “The Batman” March 4, it eclipsed those Marvel classics with a run time of nearly three hours — two hours and 56 minutes to be exact.

Before purchasing my ticket for “The Batman,” I disregarded the controversy among fans about the movie’s length; however, after watching the film, I agree with the critics who say “The Batman” runs far too long.

Unlike its predecessor, the Dark Knight trilogy that ran from 2005-2012, “The Batman” displays fight scenes of minimal and underwhelming impact. All of the transitions were too quick to understand and rather disturbing to watch.

Instead of pitting Batman against his adversary, the Riddler, director Matt Reeves (“Mother/Android”) shows fight scenes with Batman against irrelevant, small mob bosses. These smaller battles set the stage for a large-scale, intense finale with Batman against the Riddler. 

But my expectations for that moment soon fell when the film revealed the villain to be someone completely unexpected (not to spoil it for those who haven’t spared their nearly three hours to watch this film yet). 

Not only did the fight scenes fail to bring any adrenaline and excitement, the plot is also repetitive and boring. The movie intends to bring mystery to audiences when Batman faces multiple riddles left by his foe to show his intellectual superiority over the caped crusader. Instead, the puzzles bring almost no excitement as the plot recurs multiple times – definitely no multiverse here.

In addition, viewers will come to the same conclusion as I did about these challenges from the Riddler: Each solution is quite predictable. 

Prior to watching the movie, I, along with many Batman fans, looked forward to seeing the relationship and interactions between Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz, “KIMI”) and Batman. 

Despite this hyped component through social media and the trailer, the movie consists of only two encounters between the love birds. 

Others may argue that the runtime is necessary to really bring out Batman’s character and emphasize his progression, but I really didn’t notice a difference from the beginning and the end. Knowing that so many individuals are loyal to the Batman franchise, it’s a disgrace to see Warner Bros. approve of Reeves’ direction here.

Here’s hoping for a much shorter sequel when Bruce Wayne aka the Batman and who knows who else make another appearance in the sequel.