Is three hours too long for The New Batman? Director: It was supposed to be longer

"Batman" director Matt Reeves recently defended the film's extra-long running time of 2 hours and 56 minutes.

Since it was announced that the film, starring Robert Pattison as Bruce Wayne, would be 176 minutes long, there has been much speculation online as to whether a superhero movie is worth that long. However, at that stage, few people had actually seen the film.

Now, with the film just one day away from release in the UK and US (March 4), Reeves assures fans that "once you see the film, its length won't be an issue anymore."

"This movie is immersive, it draws you in, it engrosses you," he told The New York Times, before revealing that Batman was even longer before they screened it for test audiences and realized they had to cut it.

Notably, Reeves seemed to be saying this in response to early reviews of the film — many of which celebrated how it told a comic book story in the style of 1970s thrillers, while also addressing its "bloated" runtime.

Even though it is nearly 3 hours long, "The Batman" still has an 87% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and IGN gave it a score of 10.

The new Batman is a star-studded cast, with Robert Pattinson as the protagonist, Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, Paul Dano as the villain Riddler, Westworld star Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon, and Colin Farrell as the villain Penguin. The film is scheduled to be released in mainland China on March 18.