Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts Is Under Two Hours, My Butt And Brain Thank You
The summer movie season is officially here, and 2023 will be welcoming back a staple of blockbuster cinema for the past decade and a half with "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts." The live-action movies focused on the Autobots and Decepticons have raked in billions in ticket sales since Michael Bay kicked things off in 2007 with "Transformers." Yet, it's been just shy of five years since "Bumblebee" ushered in a new era for the alien robots. The wait is nearly over and, even though it's been a long time, Paramount isn't going to have audiences trapped in a theater for an indulgent amount of time, as the latest entry clocks in at just under two hours.
As reported by Collider, "Rise of the Beasts" will hit theaters with a runtime of 1 hour and 57 minutes. That means it will be just a hair longer than "Bumblebee" (1 hour and 54 minutes), and remarkably shorter than Bay's fifth and final installment, "Transformers: The Last Night" (2 hours and 29 minutes). It's also going to come nowhere close to the longest entry, 2014's "Transformers: Age of Extinction" (2 hours and 45 minutes).
In short, the series will be bucking a recent trend with franchise films, which have been getting longer and longer, it feels. "The Batman" was just shy of three hours long, as was "John Wick: Chapter 4." Heck, James Cameron's "Avatar: The Way of Water" actually eclipsed three hours. It's not an isolated incident, but director Steven Caple Jr. kept it tight with this one. For many audience members, that probably feels refreshing.
Less is more with Transformers
This is certainly not to say that a long movie can't be good. The majority of audiences would probably argue that the examples cited above are good (if not great) movies. That being said, not everything needs to be long, and the "Transformers" movies have seemingly gone further off the rails the longer they are. "Bumblebee" was by far the most critically-praised entry in the series, and it was also the shortest of the live-action films to date. Meanwhile, "Age of Extinction," "The Last Knight," and "Revenge of the Fallen" were all largely panned, while coming in at well over two hours. If history has taught us anything, this is a good sign for "Rise of the Beasts."
Meanwhile, Paramount has no intention of letting the franchise rest for another five years. Aside from plans for further live-action installments beyond this '90s-set adventure that will introduce the "Beast Wars" characters, a new theatrical animated film with a stacked cast titled "Transformers One" is set to arrive next summer. Now, if the movies coming down the pipeline are good in addition to not being overly long, we'll be in great shape. Here's the official synopsis for "Rise of the Beasts."
Returning to the action and spectacle that have captured moviegoers around the world, "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" will take audiences on a '90s globetrotting adventure with the Autobots and introduce a whole new faction of Transformers — the Maximals — to join them as allies in the existing battle for earth.
"Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" hits theaters on June 9, 2023.