Note: This film is only available on Amazon Prime.
Michael's Movie Grade: C+
A fun movie though not as good as the previous films in the franchise.
This movie marks the first Hotel Transylvania film, not to be directed by Genndy Tartakovsky (though he did work as a writer and producer) and the first one not to feature Adam Sandler as the voice of Dracula (impressionist Brain Hull does a quite good job though). Because of this I was initially worried about this franchise going a film too far. Luckily while it may not have lived up to its predecessors, I had a good time watching it. Like the previous movies, one of the best things about this picture is the characters. For a franchise with a lot of characters they all have distinct personalities and are all quite likable. Because of this we truly care about what happens in this story. Like the other movies in this franchise, though this is a silly comedy the emotional moments work surprisingly well. The relationships between Drac, Mavis and Johnny feel real to us and bring a good emotional center. On the comedy side the gimmick of monsters turning into humans and humans into monsters is a good one and the best comedy moments come from this. While the humor can be a bit uneven at times the jokes the work, work very well.
On the downside the idea of this movie centering so much on Drac not fully accepting Johnny as part of the family feels a bit derivative. This has been a major part of the previous movies and there has been quite of character development involving this. So much of that character development seems to disappear with this film and we are obviously taking steps back in that department. It also makes the film feel a bit too similar to the previous movies. On the humor side sometimes, the slapstick could benefit from some sharper timing and slapstick gags that could have been funny aren't simply because they are not timed well enough. There are also too many comedy moments that rely on screaming which can get a bit annoying at times.
While not the best this franchise has to offer it is still a fun movie.
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