What is it with the Next Generation

I have gone to a few movies this summer. Among them are the typical summer action fare:
Forbidden Kingdom
Indiana Jones IV
The Mongol (who'da thunk I'd have empathy for Genghis Khan?)
Journey to the Center of the Earth - 3D (the kids LOVED this)
Hancock (aborted due to use of PukeCam, the stupid cinema verite filming made popular by Blair Witch)
Mummy III (the movie we saw instead of Hancock)

What has gotten me, esp with Indiana Jones and Mummy is the stupid use of the next generation. Why is it that a hero's kid is automatically played as a dork? And why is romance between older characters always cloying?

I really enjoyed Mummy III, despite the bad script and EW not being in Evie's role. Brendan Frasier is just a great action hero. But the guy who played his kid, and the writers who wrote this script, all ought to be out of work.

Oh, and in case you didn't know: Jet Li rules. Even if his role is that of a bad guy and it is TOTALLY understated. He didn't have nearly the role that the Mummy in the first 2 films did, and that was also to this film's detriment.

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