Summer blockbusters can get by just fine without a spark of genius, but a spark of personality is essential. You can feel its absence in the Transformers, GI Joe and Fast & Furious series: products designed for the international market, shot in a kind of dumbo Esperanto that plays almost anywhere and delights almost no one. Gunfights and sports cars work on most longitudes, but anything too parochial or offbeat – the small stuff that gives big films flavour, in other words – could be troublesome, and is left out.