Sadly Over-hyped

Really Surprised!

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Great uplifting movie - I loved it! Living in a landlocked country, I always like watching films about marine life. Judging from the script, the target audience of the film seemed to be kids; and in many ways this is certainly a family movie, with the young teenagers Sawyer and Hazel being the heroes of the story. Nonetheless, this is a very insightful film about dolphins and marine life, with some great underwater scenes. I also enjoyed the scene with Bethany Hamilton swimming with the dolphin - very uplifting and heartwarming stuff.

"You can't just throw two dolphins in the water together."And that's basically the only conflict driving the plot for this sequel. I was a huge fan of Charles Martin Smith's first film starring Winter, the dolphin with the prosthetic tail, but there isn't anything appealing about this sequel which barely has a plot. I felt that there was never really much at stake here and many of the emotional moments felt forced, unlike in the first film where there was a lot at stake. There were a lot of fillings and subplots that never did anything to help build the pacing, and despite remaining family friendly, most children will probably be bored by this sequel. I never got engaged with it and perhaps much of that had to do with the weak script and the lack of conflict. The characters which I really liked the first time around didn't do anything for me in this sequel and I didn't feel that same connection they had with Winter this time around. Dolphin Tale 2 has all the right ingredients for a direct to DVD movie, but somehow it has been released in the big screen and received some positive reviews from the critics (only 4% lower than Interstellar according to Rottentomatoes). It astonishes me considering this film is formulaic and predictable with very little going for it. A week from now everyone will forget about it. The true star of the franchise is Winter, but in this sequel we really don't get to see the dolphin all that much. There really isn't much at stake either, and we know how everything is going to play out. The cast is back again, which means we get some cameos from Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, and Kris Kristofferson, but they aren't given any substantial role this time around. The film centers once again on the child actors, Nathan Gamble and Cozi Zuehlsdorff, who deliver solid performances but don't add much to the story. From the first scene you can tell that the producers were simply trying to cash in after the success of the first film because there is not much going for it story wise. The true story is inspirational and the original film has touched many people's lives, but there wasn't any need for a sequel.

If you've seen the original "Dolphin Tale" and appreciated it, there's not much change here. What worked in the first film probably works here just the same for the most part. The characters are a bit older and mature, mostly the younger ones. Clay Haskett (Connick Jr.) The viewer doesn't really know how these problems are going to be solved but for the most part, at the end, people are probably going to be generally happy. I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of inappropriate language and romance present in this PG movie. There was virtually none. Which is what I generally expect, but I am usually surprised what can be present in a PG movie these days. The montage at the end included real footage from the actual rescues present in the movie and clips from people with disabilities and artificial limbs at the sanctuary to interact with and see the dolphins. Pretty cool and inspiring. A good story, positive characters doing the right thing, and a decent ending = a pretty positive movie for kids and families.

I think a big part of what made this movie enjoyable for me is that they played it safe. Nothing in this movie disrupts the gentle optimism DT1 established--the kids are still devoted to marine conservation, the corporate management still consents to do what is best for the animals, the community stills supports the aquarium and all it's efforts. This time the story is more for younger viewers. Adults will notice quickly that the characters often behave like they are in a soap opera and and aren't reacting like any person actually would. The central conflict of the movie is that Winter the dolphin may have to get relocated to a new facility. They are careful to say that the animal would be placed in a marine park so that we assume Winter will be forced to perform and unhappy. Otherwise, the problem is that the adults are losing their meal tickets, not that the dolphin is in any danger. Harry Connick Jr probably ruined his chances of ever getting another role of any worth with his angry overreactions to situations that normal adults could easily talk through. Again, younger viewers wont see anything wrong--for them this is another chance to spend more time with the characters and the animals. So that's alright. And baby Hope is really cute. Family=satisfied.