Hotel Transylvannia 2 review

WordPresshas been very laggy for me this past week. For 2 days, it would not give me access to the site, and then it would work again for a day. It made this review take a lot longer to complete. 2 more films after this one.

http://www.spacemov.com/hotel-transylvania-2-full-movie-online-2015-hdfree922/

My opinion right after watching film

My opinion right after the film is that I suffered through a lot worse this year. Not to say that the film is good whatsoever, since there are notable flaws. The plot is pretty thin, the characters are one-dimensional, and the music is grating. What I can say is that when they evoke emotion, it is decent.

Production

The only information I could find on the production of the film is that they announced the sequel in November 2012; 2 months after the first film was released.

Story

I never watched the first film, but I do know enough about it. So the movie starts off with Mavis (Selena Gomez) and Johnny (Andy Samberg) getting married, with humans and monsters having no issues with interactions. Apparently Mavis is not processing why her grandfather Vlad (Mel Brooks) would not be okay with the wedding, and if only he met her husband. Wasn’t she raised knowing her grandfather is like this? Why is this even a thought? Some time later, the couple try to tell Dracula (Adam Sandler) that they are expecting a baby.

Their child named Dennis (Asher Blinkoff) is born, and as we get  a short montage of birthdays and moments, we learn that he is not growing his fangs, and he may not get fangs. Apparently the latest a vampire gets their fangs is on their 5th birthday. Mostly everyone is doubting he is a vampire, but Dracula is more than determined (obsessively determined) to get his grandson’s fangs out.

So here is where the main plot kicks in. Most of it involves Dracula putting the kid through all of these heinous acts to make sure his fangs come, since his 5th birthday is quickly approaching. Dennis becomes to react to these situations more to how a human would than a vampire would, and Drac refuses to accept that there is a good chance that he is human. This is the ONLY plot that matters, and it is dragged out for too long. It is like a painfully long Looney Tunes short. We ALL know how this will end, especially because Sony is all about gimmicks, and producing anything to warrant sequels.

Mavis tells her father that the atmosphere of the hotel is too dangerous for Dennis, since he is very different. He is going to pre-school, so they he cannot do a lot of the same activities that the other monsters do for a living. Dracula is trying to force Dennis’ fangs to come out, and I am already sick of this plot.

We get some filler of Mavis and Dracula going to the party, where she has too much fun, and forgets how dangerous it is. She tells her father that her and Johnny have been discussing moving Dennis to where Johnny grew up, so he can be safer (which Johnny ironically does not want, since he likes the castle). The married couple decides to go back to where he lives to see if she will like it before making the final decision, which leaves Dracula babysitting Dennis.

It takes like 20-25 minutes to see Mavis adjust to the human world, and Dracula (as well as his crew) take Dennis to vampire training to scare his fangs to approach.

So during the training, he thinks the instructor is not doing well enough, so he throws Dennis off a tall tower, where he almost falls to his death. After Dracula saves him, the video is recorded and put on Youtube, and the instructor tells him that he needs to call Child Services. Mavis eventually sees this, and rushes to the hotel right after Dracula’s crew rush home. She tells her father that she is disappointed that he is a danger to her son, and that they are moving right after his 5th birthday party.

It is clear that no one but Mavis is looking forward to the move (though Johnny’s family does not really care). There are a lot of jokes and gimmicks that take up a majority of the plot. I am not that familiar with the original movie to compare it to that, so I am mostly focusing on it as a sole film. Mavis thought it was a good idea to invite her human-bigoted grandfather Vlad to the party, since they never met. What good did she expect of this, if  s he refused to show up to her wedding, and has these very strong opinions of it.

Grandpa Vlad shows up, and Dracula has all the humans pretend to be a vampire, while hiding Dennis from him. Long story short, everyone is arguing (even though it is pretty much everyone vs Mavis), and no one notices that Dennis runs off with some wolf named Winnie (Sadie Sandler). Vlad’s assistant Bela (Rob Riggle) becomes the last-ditch effort villain, and attacks the two because Dennis is not the monster. When Bela attacks Winnie, guess what? DENNIS’S FANGS GROW. I think we ALL saw this coming for a few reasons. 1, it gives them an excuse for another movie. 2, the movie is painting Mavis as the opinion that is wrong, and 3, it is a copout to get out of the main conflict and theme of the film. Everyone defeats Bela, Vlad accepts the fact that humans and monsters do not hate one another, and Dennis, Johnny, and Mavis stay at the move, cancelling the move.

While this is not the worst movie that I have ever seen, everything in this film is very…….. simplistic, not that strong, and too much of a joke. They could have added in a lot more depth, and a lot more plot to make it a basic at best film. I did not really find the jokes funny, and the characters left much to be desired.

Characters

The characters were not impressive whatsoever. They were extremely flat, gave the most basic development, and were very one-dimensional. It was very hard to enjoy any of the characters in the film.

Dracula is supposed to be one of the biggest sources of comic relief of the film, but it does not really work, especially with the plot they were trying to go with him. He is obsessed with turning his grandson into a vampire to the point where it makes him really unlikable and a pain in the ass. Him making a turnaround in the end does not really revive all that he did earlier in the film.

I do not know how she was in the first film to compare how she was, but in this film, she was sent away, because she was not a part of the main plot, outside of being written as “wrong” for wanting to move her son to the human world. She does not have much charisma, or a strong personality to make her stand out. It was hard to not tune out whenever she spoke.

I heard that he had a big part int he first film, and was either really funny, or really grating. From what I saw in this film, he was forgotten about, and was just there, which might be even worse than grating or funny.

What I can say about Dennis is that he is cute. Children in animated films are either really annoying, or really bland. I won’t be as harsh on him, because it is hard to make a 5 year old a complex character. It is clear that they used his cuteness for viewers to lighten up on the film though.

Vlad was the villain that we expected, but then he suddenly had a turnaround, so his assistant could be the villain. I did not have much of an impression from him either.

Animation

I get it that the animation is supposed to be cartoony, and I expect nothing less, but it is just not my taste. Everything was decently done I guess.

Music

The songs and score are horrible. Mostly the songs are. I do not need to hear incessant pop songs in a film for absolutely no reason other than to fit in with the trend. I was expecting more dramatic or vampire-themed music, but not even that was in the film. I was disappointed.

Reception at Release

When the film was released on September 25th, 2015, the film grossed about $167 million in North America, and grossed $269 million overseas, with a total amount of $437.1 million as of December 3rd, 2015. Sony announced a few weeks ago that there is going to be another sequel released in September 2018, after the success of this film.

The critical reception for the film is mixed, with many saying that it is better than the original film, though others saying that it is not a god sequel to the first. Most do not care for it for repeating the same issues that Sony tends to have in every film.

Final Score

Story: 5/10

Characters: 3.5/10

Animation: 6.5/10

Music: 4/10

= 19/40 =48%

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