Action-Time Movie Reviews!

On the morning of the 4th of July, Ed and I celebrated our freedom by going to see Transformers and The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. There were a surprising number of people at the theater considering we got there around 9 a.m. I thought I would review these movies for you, but I really don't have much to say about them.
The Fantastic Four movie was fine. There were enough neat effects and strange action scenes to make up for the fact that Dr. Doom is boring and the Invisible Woman is kind of annoying. I imagine that like the first Fantastic Four movie I'll have forgotten what happened by the time the next movie rolls around, but it was entertaining while it was happening.
Transformers was better than I expected. I have no real knowledge about the franchise, so it was weird to watch from the outside as other geeks freaked out. Usually I am the one freaking out! I liked that the robots basically all sounded and acted like cartoon characters because it made them seem like they really were from another planet -- a planet where everyone only has one character trait! Despite being a Michael Bay film, it actually managed to have more depth than a Mountain Dew commercial, which was surprising. I still can't believe that this film is supposedly a big deal, though, and the thought of it spinning off inevitable sequels makes me a little nauseous. Surely it is time for Hollywood to invest in some new intellectual property? Please? I feel like it took a lot of people a lot of time, creative energy and focus groups to craft an suitable family film based around on a premise that came about because someone realized that, amazingly, boys like playing with cars AND playing with robots! I think they had to throw everything they had at this one to make it work, and I don't think a second film will fare nearly as well.
But then, who am I to talk? I have been convinced for years that robots and cars will eventually kill us all.