Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster

I have been a big fan of Scooby Doo for as long as I can remember. The original series, The Scooby Doo Show and The New Scooby Doo Movies I love, Mystery Incoporated was a pleasant surprise, Shaggy and Scooby Doo:Get a Clue was a disgrace(the only one I hate) and What's New Scooby Doo and 13 Ghosts are growing on me. I have also been pleasantly surprised by most of the animated movies, and the live action ones too. I wanted to like Curse of the Lake Monster but it didn't work for me really. There are some good points, Scooby is very cute, Shaggy is still the likable goof-ball I love and Daphne and especially Velma are spot. I didn't like Fred though(but I actually didn't mind him Mystery Begins), and this is not just because of the appearance, for my liking he wasn't macho or cool enough here. Some of the locations are nice and the soundtrack has this infectious energy. However, the editing is rather sloppy in some scenes, sometimes rather hectic in the more tense moments. Also the writing was weak with one too many gags that tried too hard and failed due to lacklustre timing and insipid dialogue and the story is rushed and predictable with the whole Shaggy and Velma idea absurd and never once believable. None of the support characters struck me as memorable either, and the rest of the acting as well as the direction seemed rather bland for my tastes. All in all, didn't work but not a complete disaster. 4/10 Bethany Cox