In the days of VHS tapes, one could spot a critically acclaimed epic if it required two tapes to encompass the entire running time. Rarely do you hear complaints about "The Godfather" having a running time of 175 minutes.

Times have changed apparently. Based on reactions to today's announcement that Christopher Nolan's space epic "Interstellar" has a running time of 169 minutes, two VHS tapes may be two too many. In fact, some fans are requesting that the film be screened with an intermission.

"It's one of the paradoxes of our age. As attention spans get shorter - movies get longer," said film critic Jim Slotek at the beginning of this summer in The Toronto Sun.

It's been a trend recently for blockbusters to have a two hour or more running time, and Christopher Nolan's films are no exception to this trend - "The Dark Knight Rises" ran for 165 minutes. Nolan is an exception however when you think of how much people enjoyed that lengthy final installment in "The Dark Knight Trilogy."

According to Screen Rant, his latest film, "Interstellar" will run for almost three hours. More specifically 169 minutes. For those who managed to sit through "The Dark Knight Rises," this is not a big jump in time. In fact, Screen Rant supposes that based on the size and scale of what the story of "Interstellar" seems to be at this point, three hours of viewing is almost necessary.

Indeed it would appear that fans are willing to sit through the 169 minute film with the condition that there be an intermission. In fact, this seems to be the common sentiment among tweets in response to Film Stage's announcement about the running time. "Interstellar" wouldn't be the first film to have an intermission. Specialized screenings of "Lawrence of Arabia" (a 216 minute running time) still require a midway break.

But is "Interstellar" epic enough to deserve it's epic size? No one will know until the film hits theaters on November 7th.