I wanted to like this movie, I really did. The first Hotel Transylvania came out long before we were doing movie reviews, but I probably would have given it a positive 7. Halloween is my favorite holiday, so I love anything with fun themes along those lines, which HT has in spades. The first story was original, clever, creative and actually funny. This one is pretty much the opposite of all that. Well, it's still original I suppose in that I can't think of any movie with a similar story line, but overall it's just bad, bad, bad.
The premise of the movie is that Dracula needs a vacation from running the hotel, so Mavis books a cruise for him and the whole monster gang. The cruise starts at the Bermuda triangle and ends at the lost city of Atlantis, promising lots of fun, adventure, and perhaps even romance potential along the way. Little do they know the cruise has a darker side to it, and they end up in danger! Oh my!
Guys, it was just terrible. I love a good kids movie, but that was not that. Judging by the laughs in our theater at least a few people found it amusing, but I barely smiled, and never laughed out loud even once. Adam Sandler did a great thing with Hotel Transylvania, the second one was less good, and this one he just phoned in. I think he sees the series as a money train, not as something worth investing time and actual effort into. Monkeys with a typewriter could have written a better story with actually amusing jokes.
Even if you love animated movies and everything Halloween-y (like I do!) this movie is not worth seeing. If you have kids who loved the first two and are begging to see this one, go ahead and indulge them, but be prepared for a snoozefest on your part. You've been warned, bleh, bleh, bleh!