Review of Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015) by Jesse O — 13 Jan 2016

It's interesting to see how much better Adam Sandler movies are when you don't have to actually see him and his buddies act like fools in live-action settings. This is another movie that's actually better than the rating would imply.

It's a bit of a downgrade, to me, because it doesn't feel as fresh as the original movie, which I had a blast watching, like legit, not even kidding about that. Realistically speaking, the original Hotel Transylvania is the best Adam Sandler movie since he was in Punch Drunk Love in 2002.

It's been 14 years since then and Sandler is still doing the same lazy and uninspired movies. But I digress, this movie is slightly worse, while also being an improvement in a lot of ways, which is strange, because, as I mentioned, it just doesn't feel as fresh as the original.

But with that said, however, I think they do just enough to make this movie feel like it's its own and not just a regurgitation of what came before. They add some new elements to make sure to keep things from getting stale quickly.

Not a lot of those new elements work. For example, making the film all about Dennis, Mavis' and Jonathan's son, was a little annoying. Not that it's all about him, but Dennis is one of these cutesy, nauseating characters, where he mispronounces words just because it's cute and it'll make people think he's adorable.

He's not really an actual character, he's a muppet. He's a means to an end. He's there to get you from A to B. So that really annoyed the shit out of me and it's what really holds back the film, in my opinion.

But the addition of Dennis does add some interesting new dynamics, particularly for Mavis, even though she doesn't get to do as much, but it's an relatively interesting change for this character.

The film does maintain the same type of manic energy that made the first film so much fun. It's what Minions should've been, except the minions are detestably insufferable. There's a lot of visual gags and a lot of them work.

There's this really cool one where Dracula gives a nipple twister to the Invisible Man. It might sound juvenile, and in a lot of ways it is, but it actually made me laugh. While the animation is always important, in some of these films, it's really irrelevant in the long run.

And I mean that the little details aren't as important as they would be in, say, a Pixar movie. Since this relies on more slapstick, then the animation doesn't really need to be outstanding. Don't get me wrong, it's actually solid and I do think that the character designs, for this style, are really strong.

But, if you're a fan of the more technical aspects of these films, then this really won't do much for you. This is really meant more for the kids in the audience, but I do think there's enough of the movie that can also appeal to adults.

Perhaps that's the wrong way to describe it. It'll definitely hold your attention and it will keep you reasonably entertained, but it's not something that'll stick with you for a long time.

Unless your kids are obsessed with this movie and they play for every hour of every day. Personally, I had a fun time watching this. And at, barely, 80 minutes, this is one movie that will just fly by.

This is a rental at best. Good, but not great.