Hotel Transylvania 2

Movie Review Written By: Adolph Vega

3D 

Sometimes 3D movies will forget about the extra dimension and only sporadically used the 3D element. Hotel Transylvania 2's use of 3d is an after thought and is a pathetic example of 3d filmmaking. The backgrounds are only slightly more recessed then the foreground and overall the visuals are very subtle and forgettable. The 3D pop out is used only once or twice within the movie for gimmicky reasons. One scene where Count Dracula breaks dance shows his feet will pop out of this screen in 3D. This pop out is only for a few seconds during this scene and is corny and obvious. Most of the time the 3D is totally forgotten within this movie. About halfway through the movie I took off the 3D glasses for a minute or two and I really couldn't tell the difference. The 3D presentation of this movie is totally unnecessary, and simply not worthy of your money.

Final Verdict: Terrible 3D

Movie 

The events of Hotel Transylvania 2 take place immediately after the original movie, but watching the predecessor isn't a requirement before watching this movie. The movie begins with the daughter of Dracula getting married to a human. A year after the marriage they are expecting a child. The child is born and does not have vampire or have any monstrous traits. The movie rushes through the marriage, announcement of the pregnancy, delivery of the child and the child becoming a toddler. This entire process takes about 15-20 minutes of screen time and is so rushed that you can't really enjoy any of the scenes because it's in a huge hurry to get to the next scene. The majority of the movie is based on the idea the grandchild of Dracula is a human and a human baby can't stay in Transylvania and must move to California to be safe with other humans. I strongly disagree with this core premise of the plot. Why couldn't they move out of the castle and to a small safer cottage close by? This story is small in scale and honestly not enough to sustain a feature length movie. The movie knows this aspect and abuses the use of quick cut-away scenes and visual gags. It almost feels like a TV show episode of "Family Guy" as it just keeps using this gimmick to show additional scenes outside the context of the main story. The constant use of visual jokes is almost every 30 seconds and becomes annoying and tedious. The movie cannot simply calm down and focus on a simple narrative and its characters. The filmmakers clearly don't have confidence in this story and are dependent on this gimmick for the entirety of the movie. It just feels totally forced and an excuse to pad out the movie. One story aspect I found very strange was that within this movie's world the humans and monsters are totally ok with each other and society has totally accepted monsters as part of life. I understand this plot device is set this up with the events of the first movie but I find this element jarring. I understand why the main characters don't have a problem with monsters but the general public total acceptance of monsters just seems off. I understand the movie wants to be politically correct and not teach children bigotry against monsters but they didn't earn this. At no times does the movie explain how or why the rest of the world knows about monsters and why they quickly accept monsters as a normal part life. This is a massive plot hole within the movie that I cannot ignore.  Speaking of the story it introduces several new characters and they are all one dimensional in nature and not given any screen time to develop. The main cast of characters includes the voice work of Adam Sandler, Kevin James, and David Spade and Selena Gomez and Mel Brooks actually works well as their perspective roles but they are mostly wasted by this bland movie. Some of the jokes do hit and are clever, and the fast nature of the movie does keep it entertaining. This movie is aimed at younger children and are totally cliché and stereotypical and should be completely predictable to the parents who take their children to the theater . A few scenes within this movie are really cute and well shot, but so much of it is rushed and sloppily put together. The movie is trying too hard to impress and never really becomes a worthwhile film. This would be a decent "direct to DVD" movie but as a feature length movie it's hardly worth your time. I would recommend parents just to wait for it to release on Netflix or RedBox.  Ultimately Hotel Transylvania 2 is a mess of a movie with a plot that is rushed, dozens of undeveloped characters and it's abuse of sight gags and cut away clips it never calms down enough for this talented cast to make a decent movie. 

Final Verdict: 4/10

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