The internet is a funny, and oftentimes frustrating thing. Last night, if you GoogledTransformers: The Last Knight, a runtime of three hours and two minutespopped up. The internet took this and ran with it, offering up its best jokes on the expanding length of theTransformersmovies. Some of the jokes were funny! But most forgot that Google is not exactly an accurate news-breaker of feature film runtimes well before those movies are released. Once the films start getting sent to theaters and the runtimes become public knowledge Google often reflects the right one, but three weeks out this wasn’t exactly a 100% trustworthy source—even ifMichael Bayfilmsdotend to be quite bloated.
And indeed, Bay himself took to Twitter last night to not only debunk the three hour runtime, but also reveal thatThe Last Knightis significantlyshorterthan the most recentTransformersmovies:
Each successiveTransformersfilm has been longer than the last. 2007’sTransformersis 2 hours and 23 minutes; the atrociousRevenge of the Fallenis 2 hours and 24 minutes;Dark of the Moonis 2 hours and 34 minutes; and 2014’s semi-reboot of the franchiseAge of Extinctionclocks in at a whopping 2 hours and 45 minutes (and you really, really feel it). These movies are exhausting enough aside from the runtime what with the endless action sequences, sweaty sun-soaked faces, and third act battles that go on and on, so it’s heartening to hear thatThe Last Knightwill at least be shorter.
Bay notes that this fifthTransformersmovie is shorter than “the last 3 movies by a lot”, which likely means we’re in for something closer to the runtime of the first film—so probably still expect aTransformersmovie over two hours long, but not a punishing 180 minutes.
