Not my typical blog post, but I have been a movie vacuum for the past few months, after the birth of my second son.

All of a sudden, I found a reference on one blog to the new Transformers movie coming out this summer.  While I was never an action-figure fan, I loved the Transformers when I was growing up, and so I am extremely excited to see this movie come to the big screen.  I was nervous when I heard that it was going to be live-action, and not animated, but the trailer looks pretty good.

If you missed the 1980s, and need to read up on the Transformers, I continue to be amazed at the quality of the information on Wikipedia.  A friend of mine at eBay, Michael Morgan, has a feedback score of almost 2000 now selling & collecting GI Joe & Transformer action figures.   I know he must be excited about this one.

Since I’ve been in such a movie void that I missed this big movie, I decided to poke around and find out what other big movies are planned for 2007.   I’m delighted to share here a few of the movies that caught my eye for release this year:

• May 4: Spider-Man 3
• May 18: Shrek the Third
• June 15: Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer
• June 22: Evan Almighty
• June 29: Ratatouille
• July 4: Transformers
• July 13: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• July 27: The Simpsons Movie

(Dates borrowed from the blog, Cinematical)

Clearly, this list of movies tells you a little too much about my taste in blockbusters.  But please note, for the record, that after the living hell that was sitting through Pirates of the Carribean 2, I have already stockpiled at least 10 excuses on why I won’t be able to see #3 when it debuts this summer.   And as much as I liked Die Hard when it came out, I’m not sure I’m excited to see Bruce Willis reprise the role again this year.

A couple notes on the movies above, since a few might be unfamiliar to you:

• Evan Almighty is a sequel to Bruce Almighty, but focused on the Steve Carrell character.  Since right now, I’m liking every show & movie Steve Carrell makes, I’m assuming this will be worth seeing.
• Ratatouille is the new Pixar movie.  The movie focuses on a rat, living in Paris, who dreams of opening his own restaurant.  Did I mention it’s the new Pixar movie?

I am particularly excited about the new Spider-Man movie, and the new Harry Potter movie, both of which promise to be more complex and rich than the previous sequels.

Some people lament the current sequel-happy culture in Hollywood.  I have to admit, there are far too many self-serving, vapid sequels like Ocean’s Twelve (and now, this year, Ocean’s Thirteen) floating around for my taste.  Evan Almighty has the potential to be weak in this regard as well.

Still, it is so wonderful to get strong sequels to great franchises, like Spider-Man, I’d rather they spend more time on the next Spider-Man and Superman, and less time making movies about marginal superheroes like Daredevil, Elektra, and coming soon, Iron Man.

One movie not cited above for 2007 is the planned Wonder Woman movie, by Joss Whedon, of Buffy the Vampire and Serenity fame.  This promises to be a great one, but although IMDB says 2007, since they haven’t even cast the part yet, it feels like this will be 2008 at best.

Enjoy!