Is it a fiery breath of fresh air or does this sequel fail to take off??? Read our review to find out!!!
I thoroughly enjoyed the
first How to Train Your Dragon movie. Albeit
a bit whiny, the lead character was fun as was his larger than life Viking
father, but make no mistake, it was the dragons that stole the show. At first I thought the dragons looked silly and
weird but after a while, you start to appreciate the unique and undeniably
cute characteristics each dragon has and before you know it, you want all movie
dragons to look like this!
The first movie ended on a
nice satisfying note and it’s one of those movies that didn’t really need a
sequel, but after being such a box office success, it was pretty much a cert
that the studios would want to ride this cash cow to the bank!
So here we are, set 5 years
after the first movie, dragons are now an integral and loved part of life at
the village of Berk. Stoick the Vast has
set his hopes on Hiccup succeeding him as chieftain of the village but Hiccup,
on the other hand, is enjoying exploring the vast world around him with his
dragon buddy Toothless.
The power of flight courtesy of their dragon
friends means that the whole world is now Hiccup’s oyster to explore, ideal
given his doubts about taking over as chieftain of Berk.
A chance encounter with some
dragon hunters raises the alarm for Hiccup as it turns out some bad dude is
trying to create a dragon army with which to take over the world. Always an advocate of peace and diplomacy,
Hiccup plans to talk Drago Bludvist out of his diabolical plans.
Things obviously don’t go to
plan and Hiccup must work with Toothless and his other friends to find a way of
stopping the bad guys.
This was an enjoyable movie
and I’m sure fans of the original will find a lot to keep them happy here. All our favourite characters are back as well
as a few funny new ones. As per the
original movie, Toothless steals pretty much every scene he is in. The CGI is pretty great and there are some
super-sized dragons that look particularly impressive.
What I liked less was perhaps
the lack of focus on Toothless and more on Hiccup’s personal journey.
One shocking plot point in particular felt
really unnecessary and brought me to the verge of disliking the entire
movie. Thankfully a rousing finish
helped to bring me back on track, but I was still left with a very sour taste
in my mouth. Make no mistake, this is
not a Disney movie, there are no happy songs and it’s not all happy endings for
everyone. Indeed, I would have preferred
the story to have had more of a focus on Toothless.
One of the aspects of the original, which I
loved so much, was the sense of speed and freedom seeing Toothless flying at
break neck speeds above the ocean. Such
scenes are few and far between in this sequel.
On the whole, an entertaining movie but not quite up to the standard set by the original. I feel that the sequel also has less replay
value.
If you liked the original,
you should definitely check it out. Just
don’t expect everything to be a happy happy bed of roses.
Rating 3.5 out of 5
Bobby
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