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Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015), PG, ★★1/2

All these scary characters taking a trip.
Ah, yes. Family life. Well, this is not your typical family as they are isolated from the everyday world that we live in. No, not animated. But, they are some sort of fantastical horror family like The Addams Family. But, it is a question of whether or not you want to live with them or identify them as a normal family. How would they define a normal family in their standards? Well, have a vampire marry another vampire. But, in their own case, you have a vampire and a human marry together and have a son. But, they have a repercussion as their son is not really a vampire yet and produces some jokes along the way. However, this family-friendly comedy misses on jokes as their main plot is a solid one. But, the movie relies on those unfunny jokes as entertainment to try to serve a purpose but their purpose did not delight me enough.

Count Dracula's (voiced by Adam Sandler) daughter, Mavis (voiced by Selena Gomez), has married Johnny (voiced by Adam Samberg) and both humans and monsters attend as they create an awkward situation amongst the guests. Mavis slows down later as they are playing "Cloud Hide and Seek". She reveals the real reason why she wanted to play - she is pregnant. Dracula is thrilled because he thinks that their firstborn is going to be a Vampire.

Nine months later, Dennis (voiced by Asher Blinkoff) is born. Nearing his fifth birthday, Dennis has not yet grown his fangs, which worries Dracula. However, when Mavis considers the thought of sensing Transylvania being dangerous to raise their child, she considers to raise their child where Johnny grew up which upsets Dracula. The next day, Mavis and Johnny head out to visit his parents, Mike and Linda (voiced by Nick Offerman and Megan Mullaly) with Dracula enlisting his friends to come along on his quest. Dracula takes Dennis to a summer camp to hone his vampire abilities but he fails repeatedly.

Kung Fu Vampire. Well, not really.
I really enjoyed the first two-thirds of the film as it is mostly harmless and charming as we witness a potentially good marriage between Mavis and Johnny. Then, we get to the predictable in-law but funny humor between Mavis and Johnny's parents. And, then the dynamic between grandson and a vampire grandfather is the best portion of the movie as their bond is weird but memorable as he persuades and tempts him to become a vampire. However, the entertainment solely relies on the jokes and they are flat with a very weak last third of the movie in which two villains (voiced by Mel Brooks and Rob Riggle) try to take over a hotel. The whole climax is irrelevant to the spirit of the film and really hurt the film as we just depend if each character will survive the villains' demise and hatred towards humans being in the hotel.

Adam Sandler sometimes provides annoyance in his jokes but it is really the material that downgrades it. However, his character is sweet especially in relationship with the grandson. Selena Gomez and Andy Samberg does what they can with their own voices with their own material. I actually enjoyed Mel Brooks' character except they put his character in a one-dimensional set-up of establishing normality back into the hotel.

This is a nice Halloween movie for families to take their little children to but I establish this as a rental option because it is harmless entertainment. However, it relies too much on the flat jokes and the movie had the potential to be good if the film writers did not throw away the spirit of the film with  a pathetic climactic sequence. They executed well with its story and the development between grandson and grandfather however it is the last third of the movie that hurt my experience with this film. Better than the first movie, for sure, but it was borderline for myself to accept it as a recommendation to go to the theatre. Wait for this movie to come on cable and have a good time with this film.

**1/2

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