One of the biggest mistakes that many films make today I find is making their films too long. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve walked out of a movie thinking to myself “man, if they just cut like 20 minutes out of that movie it would have been much tighter, better paced and more enjoyable”. Most films should never be over 90-110 minutes.
BUT… there are exception obviously. Lord of the Rings for example. But another one… a movie that I would have last 5 hours if it were up to me… is The Transformers. And according to Shia Labeouf, it looks like it’s going to come in at about 2 and a half hours long. The good folks over at Filmwad give us this:
“It’s going to be long. He’s going to give you a lot. You’ve got 20 set pieces. You like at Spider-Man and it had five big action sequences – five set pieces. We have 20, and you’ve got to get storyline in, you’ve got to get the narrative in, so a lot of explanation. You can’t just have robots fighting for no reason. You’ve got to explain it. The movies going to run, I think, about two and a half.”
20 set pieces?!?!? He can’t be serious! Is he serious? Oh dear lord let him be serious.
From day 1 I’ve said this… In The Transformers, I’m not looking for Shakespeare and I’m not looking for Gone with the Wind. Just give me giant fucking robots kicking the crap out of each other and I’m a happy man. If Shia is even CLOSE to being right about 20 set pieces… we’re in for a ride. But then again… maybe the kid just can’t count. It’s possible. 20 does seem like a hell of a lot.
