TRANSYLVANIA — I sadly no longer mark the passage of a year in only two seasons: school and summer vacation. Being an adult with a job and responsibilities changes things.

Despite being mostly blind to the passage of time these days, there are at least a couple things that still get me excited for summer, including good corn on the cob and summer movies.

This year we have had a decent summer movie release schedule so far and a few more promising films on the way. Regretfully not all summer films are created equal and this year “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” is the weakest link in the chain of fun summer movies.

The bad

It's just lazy

When I saw the first "Hotel Transylvania" I was willing to consider the film original content even though the concept was not new.

To be fair, I was entertained during the first film at least enough to consider seeing the second film when it came out. This time around there was nothing new or novel about the idea or approach.

Everything from cliché dialogue to cheesy Saturday morning cartoon sound effects made this film feel phoned in from start to finish.

I’m not discounting the hard work I am sure 98 percent of the people behind the scenes put into making the film look pretty. It is the 2 percent of people who had the biggest say in its success that let us down.

The writing was particularly bad in this film as it did not provide anything new or funny. I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect a little something unexpected, but “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” couldn’t manage to keep what was possibly its one and only plot twist out of its own movie trailer.

The voice acting is mediocre

I know I am talking about Adam Sandler and friends, so I should know what I'm getting into, but you can almost hear the actors say “Where do I pick up my check?” after they have delivered their lines.

The delivery of most of the script sounds like the actors read their lines in a sound booth for a couple hours one Saturday morning in between driving to Costco and picking up the dry cleaning.

It's being released at a strange time

I am admittedly an armchair quarterback when it comes to second-guessing movie studio release schedules. This year I feel the timing was particularly bad for this film.

“Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” is not summer movie material despite the fact that it has the words “Summer Vacation” in its title. This franchise has devolved into being a straight to video series or, at best, a weekly animated series on a cable network.

I’m not sure what the thought process was in putting this film up so close to the release of “Incredibles 2” this year. I guess when you have a movie based on Halloween characters and you add the words “Summer” and “Vacation” to the title you are kind of locked into a narrow release window.

The good

The animation is high-quality

The animation in this film is very good and is consistent through all three films. The movie looked pretty and took advantage of some cool lighting effects and interesting camera angles.

I think it is easy to forget the work that goes into making a movie look good when everything else in the film is going well.

To a certain extent, this can’t be helped — if a movie is firing on all cylinders nothing should stand out more than anything else. When a movie is not going well the things that are bad seem really bad and the things that are good are a lot more appreciated.

Conclusion

Despite all that is wrong with “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” I doubt it will suffer much at the box office. This film has a big advertising budget spent on getting people into the theater to watch a vampire talk like Adam Sandler.

If I were to compare summer movies to a refreshing water slide on a hot day, “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” would be that dry spot halfway down.

“Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” is rated PG for some action and rude humor.

TRANSYLVANIA — I sadly no longer mark the passage of a year in only two seasons: school and summer vacation. Being an adult with a job and responsibilities changes things.

Despite being mostly blind to the passage of time these days, there are at least a couple things that still get me excited for summer, including good corn on the cob and summer movies.

This year we have had a decent summer movie release schedule so far and a few more promising films on the way. Regretfully not all summer films are created equal and this year “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” is the weakest link in the chain of fun summer movies.

The bad

It's just lazy

When I saw the first "Hotel Transylvania" I was willing to consider the film original content even though the concept was not new.

To be fair, I was entertained during the first film at least enough to consider seeing the second film when it came out. This time around there was nothing new or novel about the idea or approach.

Everything from cliché dialogue to cheesy Saturday morning cartoon sound effects made this film feel phoned in from start to finish.

I’m not discounting the hard work I am sure 98 percent of the people behind the scenes put into making the film look pretty. It is the 2 percent of people who had the biggest say in its success that let us down.

The writing was particularly bad in this film as it did not provide anything new or funny. I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect a little something unexpected, but “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” couldn’t manage to keep what was possibly its one and only plot twist out of its own movie trailer.

The voice acting is mediocre

I know I am talking about Adam Sandler and friends, so I should know what I'm getting into, but you can almost hear the actors say “Where do I pick up my check?” after they have delivered their lines.

The delivery of most of the script sounds like the actors read their lines in a sound booth for a couple hours one Saturday morning in between driving to Costco and picking up the dry cleaning.

It's being released at a strange time

I am admittedly an armchair quarterback when it comes to second-guessing movie studio release schedules. This year I feel the timing was particularly bad for this film.

“Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” is not summer movie material despite the fact that it has the words “Summer Vacation” in its title. This franchise has devolved into being a straight to video series or, at best, a weekly animated series on a cable network.

I’m not sure what the thought process was in putting this film up so close to the release of “Incredibles 2” this year. I guess when you have a movie based on Halloween characters and you add the words “Summer” and “Vacation” to the title you are kind of locked into a narrow release window.

The good

The animation is high-quality

The animation in this film is very good and is consistent through all three films. The movie looked pretty and took advantage of some cool lighting effects and interesting camera angles.

I think it is easy to forget the work that goes into making a movie look good when everything else in the film is going well.

To a certain extent, this can’t be helped — if a movie is firing on all cylinders nothing should stand out more than anything else. When a movie is not going well the things that are bad seem really bad and the things that are good are a lot more appreciated.

Conclusion

Despite all that is wrong with “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” I doubt it will suffer much at the box office. This film has a big advertising budget spent on getting people into the theater to watch a vampire talk like Adam Sandler.

If I were to compare summer movies to a refreshing water slide on a hot day, “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” would be that dry spot halfway down.

“Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” is rated PG for some action and rude humor.

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