Director: Genndy Tartakovsky Studio: Sony Pictures Genre(s): Comedy Rated: PG (For some action and rude humor) |
While I do not consider “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer
Vacation” to be of any real improvement over the previous two installments, I
know we are now at the point where that no longer matters. By the third installment a movie series is
essentially on autopilot. The feeling of
having to prove yourself the first time has already been accomplished and the
fear of toping yourself the second time around is also no longer an issue. If you’ve ever wondered why third
installments in series are rarely any good, you only need to understand that at
this point the film makers have a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn’t. Or – at the bare minimum - they know what
they need to do to sell the movie to their audience, and there is rarely any
desire to rock the boat. “Hotel
Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” does take the cast away from the title hotel
and manages to put them on a literal boat, but don’t expect for much to change
outside of the scenery.
But, if you want more modern-day proof, I refer you to “The
Emoji Movie” from last year. I never
thought I would bring up the only animated movie to win a Razzie Award for
Worst Picture in one of my reviews ever again, but before the movie was a ‘Hotel
Transylvania’ short where Dracula gets his grandson a giant puppy. Nothing in the writing, direction, or
animation was even remotely different in terms of style, tone, and prose. Yet it worked because it was only five
minutes long. Giving audiences that much
energy in an hour and a half is almost akin to torturing your body by drinking
a full Big Gulp of Mountain Dew. It’s WAAAAYYYY
more than what you need. So, the
audience ultimately sits in the theater, taking in joke after joke, and after a
while it’s hard for anything to stick.
There are a few moments where I chuckled (because I’d have to be a Scrooge
not to).
There are two moments where the humor is based entirely around how characters are moving to music that was not only clever but slowed down just enough for me to catch a break. The story involves Dracula (Adam Sandler) wanting to date a human woman, and there are a few scenes where they are just talking to one another and the scenes are…rather sweet, to be honest. For the most part though, there really isn’t much to speak of. By this point you are either on board with the wacky humor or you are not. For me, I think my love for the characters is squarely in five-to-seven minutes shorts, and any long form of “storytelling” is nothing more than an annoyance as far as I’m concerned. I suspect kids will enjoy this like they enjoy sugar, but whether they actually get anything from it in the long term is a dubious prospect.
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents there are a few scary monsters, but the situations are so silly I doubt any kid will be bothered by them. Recommended for all ages.
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