Didn't see the first movie, but I'm not very much inclined to go see it now. My 11-year old was very disappointed with the way the story abruptly ends with a 'to be continued' and I could only agree with her.
Although all the elements for an exciting adventure are there, somehow it isn't put together very well. There are too many details that have not been worked out well, specifically with a lot of the characters. The villain from the title doesn't appear until the last quarter of the movie, and just when you think the story is finally going to unravel, it's finished! Open endings can be interesting, but I wouldn't call this an open ending. The boy is still not back, his (grand)parents are still searching, the central matter that most of the movie evolves around has not been solved in any way and even in the end I had no clue to what the revenge of Malthazar was going to be. Being big and in the real world couldn't be all of it, could it?
To me it seemed like only half a movie, or the first part of a miniseries on TV. Outrageous that I was nowhere warned for this!
Although all the elements for an exciting adventure are there, somehow it isn't put together very well. There are too many details that have not been worked out well, specifically with a lot of the characters. The villain from the title doesn't appear until the last quarter of the movie, and just when you think the story is finally going to unravel, it's finished! Open endings can be interesting, but I wouldn't call this an open ending. The boy is still not back, his (grand)parents are still searching, the central matter that most of the movie evolves around has not been solved in any way and even in the end I had no clue to what the revenge of Malthazar was going to be. Being big and in the real world couldn't be all of it, could it?
To me it seemed like only half a movie, or the first part of a miniseries on TV. Outrageous that I was nowhere warned for this!