Review of Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018) by Jayden J — 16 Jul 2018

The first half was severely undercooked; fragmentary plot, if it was there at all. Mostly a venue for a series of visual gags with no particular story or series of events to link them. More than half an hour in, I was ready to walk and not sure we were even going to get a story at all, but the kids liked it.

Plot finally develops during the second half. Remember all that stuff from school about how a story needs a basic conflict and rising action in order to develop toward a climax? You won't get any of that until about the halfway mark, when they finally decide it's enough with the one-liners and visual gags and they'd better tell a story of some kind before everyone leaves.

So the actual plot is very short, about the length of a half-hour cartoon from TV. Once we get to it, the film is far more entertaining than it was, though not exactly classic material, and by then you're probably already secretly playing on your phone in the theater.