*Review* How to Train Your Dragon 2

How To Train Your Dragon 2

       In a Pixarless summer How to train your dragon 2 should be the hottest animated movie to come out this year but while its predecessor was a fantastic film all on its own did it really warrant a sequel? In my opinion, no since the first film wrapped itself up perfectly with really no need to revisit the world but we went ahead anyway so let’s find out how it stacks up for a sequel.

        How to train your dragon 2 brings back all our favorites just not for very long.  5 years have passed and our daring teenage hero hiccup is now a young man of 20 trying to find his place in the world. Unfortunately his father stoic has already planned out his life for him by pushing him to become chief of  Berk. Hiccup being the free spirit he is, is uncomfortable with the idea and grouses to his now girlfriend Astrid.  The couple takes off to go exploring only to end up being captured by a dragon hunter who works for Drago Bludvistt.  Hiccup learns that Drago is raising a dragon army and sets out on an adventure to talk to Drago about how dragons are friends and not tools for war.

        The Good:  How to Train Your Dragon 2’s visuals are absolutely stunning.  In just plain 2d I felt completely immersed in this colorful world of dragons and Vikings which makes me believe that an IMAX 3D experience must have been stunning.  The dragons themselves are also impressive; each species has its own unique design that still fits in with the overall art style of the film. Even many of the dragons within the same species had their own specific flair or markings that separated them from other dragons, which is a truly commendable attention to detail.  Character was another strong element of How to Train Your Dragon 2 since the film kept all of its charm and lovability of its predecessor even with a more crammed plot.  I was pleased to see that our cast, despite less screen time for some, still managed to stand out as the strong and endearing characters they were from the first film.  This sequel continues the trend of fun loving charm and high flying adventure that made the first film so successful and that certainly helps smooth out some of the movies rough edges.

 

       The Bad:  While the film was fun and charming it also tripped over itself in more places than one.   Unless you've been under a rock or taping your eyes shut from every bit of promotional material there is then it’s obvious that were all aware that Hiccups finds his mother.  This in itself is not a bad thing, but coupled with the plot of Drago and his dragon army it creates more plot points then the film needed ultimately  overcrowding the story to the point of determent.  The film had enough time to properly examine one story point Hiccups mother or Drago, but since director Dean DeBlois decided to include both neither story gets the time it deserves or the resolution we wanted.  Everything just snowballs into the climax of the film which simply devolves into a “my dragon is better than your dragon brawl” that lacked the weight or emotion it should have had.  

      Conclusion: How to Train Your Dragon 2 is a fun and engaging film for the kiddies and even offers some mature moments but Unfortunately while the dragons were nice eye candy the entire film suffered from too many plot threads that robbed the movie of any real sense of weight or substance when it had the potential to be so much more.

*Spoiler Corner * (or at least till come up with a better name for this section)

. Drago Bludvistt was a boring bad guy. He had no real personality to speak of, other than just a big angry Viking that shouts a lot.   I mean maybe if he was the dragon born or something I might swallow that he has some special power over dragons, but just being an angry Viking who can take down kaiju sized dragons because he’s just that mean?  Not so much.

.  The film spends a huge amount of time talking about whether or not people can change but in the end it kind of just sweeps the issue under the rug without ever addressing who was right. Was Hiccup right? His parents? Or maybe even both?  Regardless of who you think was right Hiccup certainly doesn’t learn anything from this encounter other then you need to have the biggest baddest dragon around to basically be the dragon king.

. Toothless’s new Godzilla blast is pretty freakin awesome I look forward to more of it.

. I don’t really like that we killed Stoic only to immediately replace him with Hiccups mother. If we were going to take away Hiccups “wise counselor” figure why just replace him with another one?  Maybe the sequel will show that she can’t lead Hiccup in the same way as his father, but it still feels a little like cheating your story.

. I don’t think this sequel was necessary but now that we’ve done it I want to see hiccup reach full adulthood in one of these movies.