SCOOBY-DOO 2: MONSTERS UNLEASHED (2004) **1/2 Much better than the first film, and uses it as a buffer. After the first one, for example, we don't expect much, and understand that the actors won't be able to look quite like the cartoons, even if Matthew Lillard sounds exactly like Shaggy is supposed to. Even better, Freddie Prinze Jr. has somehow lost whatever it was that made him repugnant in every single frame of Scooby-Doo, along with the ascot (which wasn't the problem). Sarah Michelle Gellar seems almost sensible in a film that includes Alicia Silverstone. The number one most important reason that this film works, though, is that it's not as dark as the first one. The effects are used to humorous effect, rather than to try to create some dark semi-artsy angst thing (yeah, but in Scooby-Doo?). The monsters are resplendent in their varying shades of hideousness and stupidity...in other words it's all just a lot more Scooby-Dooish, and that's what I look for in a Scooby-Doo flick. Tim Blake Nelson steals the climactic scenes, but Scoob's always been as much about the mega-villains as it is about the meddling kids. Still not as great as Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders, but at least worthy of its name, and that's something to be proud of.
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