#httyd2 review

[swampprince]

I reviewed How to Train Your Dragon 2 for your viewing pleasure

[schokodelphin]

I'm quite happy with this review, it's pretty spot on ^^

[rushurush]

I JUST REALIZED SOMETHING

You know how Hiccup says to both Eret and Drago "Dragons are friends, I CAN SHOW YOU", and then he gets ready to fly with Toothless? Like he said to Astrid in the first movie: Let me show you. Could that mean that Hiccup would take them into a Romantic Flight?

[mindlessadventurer]

oh no HTTYD 2 was so perfect oh no oh no oh no i love dragons more than ever before

alpha fcking dragons man

Valka is love!!!!!!!

[we-have--dragons]

To the French fandom of Dragons \o/

Je tiens un petit blog de review, de voyage tout ça, et je viens d'écrire une review de Dragons 2, si ça vous botte! :) Je ne spoile rien, je reste évasive, mais voilà si ça vous intéresse c'est par là!

[rushurush]

I'm starting to remember more stuff I wanted to talk about HTTYD2, now that my pos-film depression is almost over.

Spoilers ahead!

I really like how everything happens for a reason both in HTTYD AND HTTYD2.

You got to realize how Valka saved Hiccup's and Toothless' life by discovering Toothless secrets, which made possible for them to escape the Alpha's tail.

And Stoick's death was so important, you know. If he hadn't died Hiccup wouldn't have matured and maybe he wouldn't find out that with the bond that him and Toothless share they could become the Alphas. Nobody wanted to lose Stoick, but everything happens because of his death. Hiccup starts to learn what kind of chief he'll become. He learns the essence of being a leader, an Alpha.

And this hurts in me, but Astrid bragging about Hiccup was at least 50% the reason Drago wanted to kill him and take Toothless. I know that this would happen anyway because Hiccup would go there and talk to him innocently like he planned to, but Astrid fucked up this time. And I also like that, because this is what happens in real life, you say one sentence without thinking about consequences and shit simply happens.

I'll remember more stuff later!

[yuga-nuh-go-far]

A BARNAH Review: How to Train Your Dragon 2

            Now, let’s get some things straight before you continue reading. I love the original How to Train Your Dragon film, I love the series too, I haven’t managed to see the shorts, but I garner from what I have seen from friends posts and mentionings on the Internet that they are great installments into the series as well. So imagine my excitement when they announced a sequel to this great franchise!

            I’m going to be honest, I was a little anxious, and the first actual teaser trailer that was released that showed more than just Hiccup and Toothless really caught my interest. Boarding what looked like pirate ships, a mysterious masked person on a rather hefty four winged dragon, other new characters and dragons, what could someone possibly ask more of? This looked like a really good sequel, possibly even better than the first!

            But… is it better than the first? I could argue, it’s been awhile since I’ve seen the original film, but I think the biggest mistake DreamWorks did was spoil who this masked Dragon Champion was. Too soon did they unveil that this person was Hiccup’s long lost mother; Valka, played by Cate Blanchette. While it’s wonderful that we were given new characters and the plot of the first film thankfully never said that Valka was confirmed dead, I feel like Valka was the biggest missed opportunity that this film had to offer.

  You’re pretty amazing.. if you actually did anything.

          Before I go off about Valka’s character, I need to address the rest of the film. Something this film did the former didn’t was annoy me. Let me say this now; Hiccup’s older voice is aggravatingly annoying. Something about it now is so forced and hammy that I was rolling my eyes or hoping –anyone- else would interrupt him. Thankfully everyone else in this movie did their part justice; if not for crappy writing on some parts.

          Astrid gets shoehorned as Hiccup’s arm cling and of course she’s the one who originally gets captured. Astrid’s understanding over Stoick’s speech he makes to Hiccup shows regarding the future of Berk that she definitely gets what is going on concerning the well being of the village. At this point in the film, I started to wish that this film had somehow been rewritten to focus on Astrid. Hiccup of course is being the completely wishy washy youth he is, declaring that he doesn’t know what he wants and that being chieftan isn’t something that he is cut out to be; for crying out loud Hiccup, you trained a Night Fury, you killed the Red Death, you’re Berk’s damn hero, and you don’t think you can at least be a figurehead and run things once your father needs to step down?

           Thankfully Hiccup’s obligatory self-discovery is interrupted by the, heh, discovery of a Dragon trappers troop whose base of operations has been destroyed. This is where we meet the first of three new human characters; Eret. Following in the traditional “I’m a poacher/trapper and I don’t care how these animals feel or think” routine done in so many movies, is at least an enjoyable smarmy villain. He has a stand off with Hiccup, Astrid, and their dragons, and of course is thwarted. We see him later as Hiccup tries to board his ship under the goal of wanting to reason with the main villain of the movie, Drago. Eret is redeemable as a character because at one key point in the film, Stormfly protects him from an enraged Drago, and thus seeing this questions his own actions and changes factions to join our heroes.

Bwak Bwak! Story Progression! Story Progression!

            Speaking of Heroes, the side characters sans the adults are practically ignored almost in the same way Cars 2 ignored it’s original cast. Sure they’re there, but there’s practically no growth for any of our supporting cast. Snotlout is still the smug and coy cousin who think’s he’s hot stuff, Fishlegs is the same D&D nerd but with more confidence, Tuffnut is still the skater boy-type who has immature insults, and Ruffnut… oh dear God, what happened to her. While her reactions towards Eret were indeed amusing they were completely cringe worthy; he’s a villain, the jerk tried to abduct your friend’s dragons for crying out loud.

            Drago doesn’t fare better; stick an n on the end of his name; enough said. Joking aside, Drago is weak as far as personality goes. He’s got the same prospects as Shan Yu from Disney’s Mulan; that is, a big evil brute of a man who wants to conquer all before him… except with dragons instead of Huns. When you boil him down to his center, Drago is weak in his conviction as a character; true he does provide some backstory regarding his past and bitterness with dragons (and even a Return of the Jedi parallel where he shows Hiccup his amputated limb- mirroring in a way that Hiccup has suffered a similar fate)but this all comes down to “we needed a villain for this film”.  What Drago lacks in personality though he sure makes up for it in presence; the foreboding score that accompanies him, his hardened face, his inhuman bellows as he commands and frightens dragons, all are plus points to at least redeeming him as a very scary if not trope ridden antagonist. (And knowing Tumblr’s Social Justice presence, it will only be a matter of time before someone brings up the problematic point of how Drago is the only character in a sea of white Caucasians who happens to have any sort of ethnicity.)

  Oh Drago, if only there was a writer out there who loved you.

            Finally the character who I thought was going to be the biggest benefactor in the film, the reason why I wanted to see this movie in the first place; Valka. Valka’s reveal in the film when Hiccup runs away is both mysterious and just plain awesome. You’re unsure whether or not this dragon rider is on Hiccup’s side or not… if you were lucky enough not to get spoiled by the accursed trailer that showed that this masked rider was Hiccup’s mother. After her reveal in the sanctuary, Valka provides Hiccup with the events of her past and the King Kong-ish relationship she has with her big brute of a dragon, Cloud Jumper. Displayed as an eccentric and actually very likable character, Valka’s build for the movie ends up as a tremendous disappointment. From getting defeated in battle by Drago and not even assisting her own Bewilderbeast alpha in fighting off Drago’s assault on the sanctuary was completely befuddling. Valka’s left on the sidelines for the rest of the movie afterwards, which is a shame considering she had so much potential. (Also I need to add that while Eret and Drago look fantastic design wise, something about Valka’s face puts me off, call it preference, but I found her expressions to be always slightly jarring.)

           I mentioned the dragon before, and on the subject of the Bewilderbeast, I think it’s laughable and coincidental that Drago has his own version of said dragon. (of course, it’s darker colored and has armor on it, typical villainous attributes.) Isn’t this creature supposed to be super rare and practically impossible to catch? The only things known that can stop one is another Bewilderbeast or a plethora of dragons that managed to blast the dragon into submission. It was head scratching to say the least that this dragon seems to conveniently forget how to use his mind control powers (to be fair he was getting bombarded in the last scene) is his mind control based on sight or by roars though? He seemed to roar to make even dragons not looking at him to him come to his side… so why a blindfold for Toothless’s eyes Hiccup? I digress.

  Also I can’t get over how much the Bewilderbeast reminds me of Jhen Mohran from Monster Hunter Tri.

           Heckling aside, I did enjoy this film. There were parts where I admittedly rolled my eyes or just stared in disbelief at the screen, but there were other segments that were simply amazing. The battling bewilderbeasts were groundbreaking; you felt like there was actual weight being thrown around as they battered one another, the army clashing scenes were busy and intense, the color keys were wonderful, and the interactions between the dragons and their riders were always welcomed. There were parts in wide shots where the groups of dragons looked rather detached from the scene (similar to how Sven and Olaf looked in one particular scene in Frozen) but were not on screen long enough to detract from the movie. I laughed at the jokes, I felt bad at the sad parts, in fact, Gobber’s remembrance speech when they are seeing off Stoik to Valhalla is heart rending and perhaps the best “talking only” scene within the film… up until Hiccup starts talking again with a resolve that seemed like it could have been flowed better a few minutes later.

             In the end, with the mixed messages, un-utilized characters, and odd pacing, this film felt more like a TV special or a direct-to-DVD movie with top-notch animation. This movie suffers the same problem that Disney’s Maleficent did in that they tried to cram way too much stuff into a movie that was less than two hours long. I also couldn’t help but feel like DreamWork’s mindset behind this film was “oh we know you will watch this film because you like the franchise, who cares what we do with the story!”, while I sat watching the credits, I did feel like I had been entertained, but not in a Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli or Chris Butler/Laika way… but more of a Michael Bay/Transformers way.

             Will I see this movie again in theaters? Probably not. Will I buy the movie? Probably not. But if a friend wants to toss it on on Netflix or Blu-Ray I will gladly watch it again. Let’s hope the third movie will touch up on the problems that this movie had, and provide a wonderful conclusion to the series. As it stands for me, How to Train your Dragon 2 is one of those examples I like to use in the case of “pretty graphics cannot save an uninspired story”

Overall rating: C

Sequel Rating: B-

  Pros

+Dragons

+Wonderful Character Design

+Stellar Animation

+Musical Score was breathtaking

  Cons

-Some characters had little to no development

-Convenient plot points not addressed

-Hiccup’s voice

-weak antagonist 

[once-upon-a-january]

Non-Spoiler Review

So I went to watch HTTYD2 today, and I have to say..........

I was kind of disappointed. I was expecting some seriously heavy feels based on the way I reacted towards new clips, pictures or information. But I got............................ nothing. I felt kind of empty, leaving the theatre. Maybe it's because all the hype is over, and the movie is finally here, I don't know. But it just didn't wow me like I thought it would. Now, before you go chopping my head off, just read what I have to say. The movie was pretty good, all except for the pacing. It felt.....rushed. Way too quick. Like I literally just came back, and I hardly remember anything that happened. Nothing at all. That's how fast the movie went. It felt like they were trying to cram so much information into 1 hour and 42 minutes, so all the clips were just coming at you at once. I didn't get to digest anything that happened, because something new was constantly happening. And honestly, that's my biggest and only problem. The plot was rushed, so it ruined other parts of the movie. Especially the scenes that were supposed to be emotional. Because of the quick plot, the emotional scenes hardly provoked any emotion. Not a single tear whatsoever. I mean, I felt bad for the characters, but there were no overwhelming feels. I feel like if Dreamworks had just slowed things down a bit, I might have felt more emotional, but honestly, it just didn't work. I felt like I was watching a whole bunch of clips mashed together. Everything moved so fast, I didn't get to enjoy anything.

However, you probably don't want to trust my judgement. The disappointment I felt might have partly been my fault. You see, I'm really impatient, so instead of waiting for the movie like a good little girl, I went and spoiled everything for myself. I watched every clip, I read the first hour summaries, I read all the spoilers that all the advanced screeners posted, I confirmed one of the biggest plot twists in the movie, I looked at pictures, I (sadly, unfortunately, I'm so sorry, I couldn't control myself) watched some of clips on Instagram, I spoiled this movie for myself in every way possible. So as I went into HTTYD2, I already knew the whole plot and I had seen 70% of the clips. (Some of the clips had new dialogue that I hadn't heard yet, but I still knew the gist of the clip). Nothing was new, and therefore, nothing was special. That probably added to my disappointment. I already knew everything that was going to happen, so there was nothing to excite me. That was my fault, and I shouldn't have done that. For all you people that have chosen to avoid spoilers, good for you. The movie will be so much better for you. 

But at the same time, when I went to see TFIOS, I already knew what was going to happen to Gus, but I still cried. Maybe its because that movie hit home for me, because I recently lost a friend to cancer. I really don't know.

I feel like I will have to watch HTTYD2 several more times before I truly start to enjoy it. Like I said, the movie moved fairly quick, so when it comes out on DVD, I can watch it and properly take time to find new things to appreciate about it. That's how I've come to love the movies I do, because I find new things to fall in love with every time I watch it. So I will definitely have to re-watch HTTYD2 to properly enjoy it. And the gifs too. I think gifs heavily contributed to my anticipation for this movie because they allowed to me to analyse and appreciate stuff about a certain scene.

So to conclude this really long review (sorry) HTTYD2 was pretty good, but I still prefer the first one, only because the pacing was better. Hopefully with the 3rd movie, they can slow things down a bit, especially if they plan on splitting it into two, like some people are saying. And when HTTYD3 does come, I will do everything in my willpower to avoid spoilers and clips, so I can actually be surprised in the theatre, and the movie will be more special for me. I will definitely not make the same mistake I made with HTTYD2. All in all, I would rate HTTYD2 8.5/10. You guys should really go see it, it's worth it. Was it better than Frozen? Well, the two movies are sooooooo different, so it's not even worth a comparison. 

That is all. Sorry for such a crappy review.