Secrets of synchronicity: “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” once again lures fans back into theaters while the New York Times Business section lauds Silicon Valley’s highly anticipated new technology that would unite human and machine.

Known as The Singularity, it envisions a self-aware superhuman machine that could design its own improvements faster than any group of scientists.

That’s not what happens in the seventh movie in the family-friendly “Transformers” franchise, spawned by Hasbro action figures, but it’s not far off.

Obviously building on the success of “Bumblebee” (2018), it’s set in 1994 Brooklyn, introducing Noah Diaz (Anthony Ramos), an Army vet/electronics whiz who is trying to land a creditable job to help his mom (Luna Larsen) and 11 year-old brother Kris (Dean Scott Vazquez), suffering from sickle-cell anemia.

Problem is: Noah gets involved with the theft of a Porsche that’s not an ordinary sports car. It’s the wisecracking Autobot Mirage (Pete Davidson). 

Led by Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen), the alien Autobots, including the motorcycle Arcee (Lisa Koshy) and Volkswagen bus/mechanic Wheeljack (Dani Rojas), are trying to get back to their home on Cybertron to combat the Decepticons.

Meanwhile in an Ellis Island museum, Elena Wallace (Dominique Fishback), an archeology intern, is studying a strange bird sculpture with mysterious symbols – part of a gizmo called the TransWarp Key, a space-time conduit that’s been split in two. 

Then there are animal-themed Maximals from the animated “Transformers: Beast Wars” TV series (1996-1999), led by a biomechanical gorilla, Optimus Primal (Ron Perlman), accompanied by the peregrine falcon Airazor (Michelle Yeoh), Rhinox (David Sobolov) and Cheetor (Tongayi Chirisa).

Evil is personified by the planet-gobbling Unicron (Colkman Domingo), leader of the Terrorcons, along with his vicious henchman Scourge (Peter Dinklage). 

Steering away from Michael Bay’s sci-fi stridency, director Steven Caple Jr. (“Creed II”) interweaves genial humans and sentient machines into a coherent CGI-based story, credited to five screenwriters.

There’s the inevitable car chase – this time on the Williamburg Bridge – and big-scale battle, but travelling via the Stratosphere to Peru’s historic city of Cusco and the ruins of Machu Picchu to protect Planet Earth is an unexpected plus.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” is a spectacle-laden 7 – in theaters – with a mid-credit scene that teases more to come.

Although the mixed-media Pop Art animatronics are dazzling and the superhero saga compelling, watching “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” becomes an exhausting endurance ordeal. At 2 hours, 20 minutes (140 minutes), it’s the longest American animated film.

Back in 2018, the Oscar-winning, comic-book adaptation “Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse” explored the idea of alternate universes, as Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), a troubled Black-Latino Brooklyn teenager, discovered countless other web-slingers, variations on a theme. This sequel takes the ground-breaking concept even further.

It opens on Earth-65 with a prologue detailing a major misunderstanding between Spider-Woman Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) and her police captain father (Shea Whigham), who blames her for the death of Peter Parker, and her battle with Vulture (Jorma Taccone) who flaps in from an alternate 16^th century. 

Meanwhile on Earth-1610, now 15 year-old Miles argues with his NYPD officer father (Brian Tyree Henry) and battles villainous, dimension-hopping scientist Jonathan Ohnn, known as Spot (Jason Schwartzman) because his body is riddled with black-hole-like portals, the result of a laboratory accident at Alchemax. 

That goes on and on – until – some 50 minutes later, Gwen and Miles finally get together in the sleek Spider-People HQ, a chaotic conglomeration of  the Spidery Super Elite, run by glowering Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac) and pregnant Jessica Drew (Issa Rae), who monitor  multi-verse “abnormalities.”

Among the many free-wheeling arachnoid variants: India’s Pavitr Prabbakar (Karon Soni) in Mumbattan, Britain’s cool punk-rocker Hobie Brown (Daniel Kaluuya) and, of course, Peter Parker (Jake Johnson), now a proud papa.

At one point, someone tells Miles: “There’s no playbook for being someone like you,” which succinctly sums up his dilemma as he tries to escape and get home.

Co-written by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller & David Callaham and co-directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers & Justin K. Thompson, despite its quick-paced editing during the action sequences and Daniel Pemberton’s cohesive score, it’s simply far too long, concluding with a cliffhanger, teasing the next installment “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse” (2024).

FYI: The inventive Lego universe sequence on Earth-13122 was animated by 14 year-old Preston Mutanga, the Minnesota-born son of immigrant parents from Cameroon, after producers spotted his Lego-laden YouTube blog.

On the Granger Gauge, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” swings in with a sly, subliminally superb, if self-indulgent 7, playing in theaters.