Pixel Challenge

Can you figure out which games these terribly pixelated screenshots belong to?

How to Train Your Dragon 2 - Review

I just got done seeing How to Train Your Dragon 2 in theaters in 3D. I'll try to keep spoilers to a bare minimum. Here's my review:

What Went RIGHT!

Most people would not look at movies as critically as I do, so I'll get the good stuff out of the way first. This is a Dreamworks CGI animated movie, so if you're prejudiced against animation, don't see it. There isn't the excessive pandering to kids though that you normally see from other Dreamworks movies, Disney movies, movies from third-rate studios that don't matter, and every single stupid trailer you will be tormented through in the pre-show previews, which is good, but it doesn't go full-blown Miyazaki or first-rate Pixar all the way. The art and effects are great, and the 3D is well done too, but I wouldn't mind watching this in 2D at all. The acting is superb, the animation is fantastic, and the story is... not bad. There are dragons and fighting and explosions, and Toothless does act cute more than once in the movie, so if that's what you wanted to hear you can stop reading now and go spend $12 like I did to see it...

...OR we can have a lovely discussion about the grating issues, like one that I'm now dubbing the "Villain Problem" which was not a problem with the first movie. There are some characterization inconsistencies between the first movie and the second, and some that occur entirely within this film. There's emphasis issues with emotional scenes, and more that I will talk about here. Most of these might be things you subconsciously know about plenty of movies but cannot quite put in words what the problems may be.

Villain Problem

My biggest complaint is the Villain Problem, and it's a cyclic problem that spawns from one idea: making a badass villain. In order to do that, you need to have a dark character and hide him for most of the movie. This makes him ominous. You need to make him intelligent on his own terms, but absolutely brain-dead on everyone else's to keep him as an insurmountable thread. Then you need to derail your whole plot to make this pointless villain and shell of a character the center of conflict, in order to make him seem important. Because of all this, we have absolutely no reason to care for the guy and are constantly baffled at his existence (answer: to have pointless epic battles and dramatic death sequences that mean nothing). Finally, to make the villain seem halfway relevant to the story, we get all of the exposition as literal exposition the moment the final battle happens, slowing the action down, and never living up to the expectations of what a genuine epic battle truly feels like. I would like to swear for emphasis, but picture me swearing while slowly accentuating this line: NOBODY CARES ABOUT VILLAINS. Toy Story 3, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, and Spirited Away lacked singular identifiable villains but were considered some of the greatest movies of all time because the story only centered around the characters that mattered. The first How to Train Your Dragon did the same thing to great success.

In the first Dragon, Hiccup tried to convince his father (chief of his Vikings-esque tribe) that flying, fire-breathing dragons could be trained into allies. The final battle was against a big dragon that did not matter to the story at all because that was besides the point of Hiccup convincing his father that dragons should be cared for. Obviously the mega-Dragon was not the best example of a villain, but the final battle served its purpose as a test of courage, and Hiccup did rise to the challenge. But here, the final battle serves no purpose other than to reiterate the lesson from the first movie that being stubborn is stupid as hell. Prepare to get that drilled into your head by character exposition, more character exposition, and a villain that is stubborn and stupid as hell! It's a contrived plot that derails what could've been a well-told and fascinating story about Hiccup finding his mother. Instead we get the same mind-reading plot ripped out from Pokemon: The First Movie.

Character Inconsistencies

Character inconsistencies are another problem, but not nearly as huge. Astrid used to be more of a tomboy, but she softened much here, perhaps in an attempt to swoon a now-teenaged Hiccup, but it's way out of character. She still has her moments, albeit with less force than the original movie. Most of the other characters softened as well. Your discretion on whether or not this change is good. One change that I abhor though is the reveal of Hiccup's mother to be a dramatic and courageous woman, only to cower in fear at the aforementioned pointless villain when it came time to fight. I expected more than one swing from a woman with her gravitas and intelligence, and only got half a swing that didn't matter.

More villain riffing: he takes chances. "Oh, I'd like to see you try." For a moment that screamed [insert face punch here], the resulting moment was underwhelming. This is where the movie fails the Dick test. If the main character was a dick, a colossal, massive dick and punched his face in, the plot would end right then and there. Instead I was counting every single moment where the villain and main characters just stood there without anything happening. One contrived moment after another, you get the idea. There should be a version of this movie where the villain scenes can be skipped. It will make the end result much shorter, but better as a result.

Pacing Without Meaning

Dragons 2 does take its time for emotional scenes, which is a nice change of pace from the inferior competitor Frozen which will smack you in the face for just asking for a breath every now and then, but there are too many emotional scenes for any one of them to stand out, and the aforementioned plot problems with the villain undermines the value of all these scenes. Compared to the Forbidden Friendship scene from the first movie, or the Hallelujia montage from Shrek. There is no such magic here. It's just slow drama.

Also, I hate to say this is a problem, but kicking off the movie with a licensed track really pulled me out of the experience for like 20 minutes. That moment was enough to scream "SO CAL," as if we need another reminder this was made in Hollywood, and the time period of Vikings doesn't really matter. Why, of course they had electric guitars in 1000 B.C, we just didn't know how to use them until hard rock became popular in the 70s. Dreamworks have used licensed songs in much better places before: the ending of Shrek, which was quite humorous, and the only part of Madagascar I enjoyed dancing to, but while those films take place in modern eras (or for Shrek, a modern irony piece about fantasy stories), it has no place in How to Train Your Dragon, which is rife with not only references to its own soundtrack from the first film (with similar plot devices and all), but tries to be post-modern when the universe is begging it to be truthful to itself.

Conclusion

It seems a rarity nowadays to just find a straight, unapologetic piece of filming without side jokes about how it's not really original. And Dragon 2 is not entirely original, but it has every chance and potential to be. The end result is not the best it could be, but it doesn't overwhelmingly disappoint, and fans of the first will surely appreciate the continuation of the second. On its own, however, it does not hold a candle to Dreamwork's other masterpieces: Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, and the original How to Train Your Dragon.

Design Domain

Hello! Welcome to Michael F's AKA mariomguy's Design Domain. Here you can read my views of hot topics in movies, storytelling, and game design. I have always had a passion for filmmaking and games since I was young, and I still do! I am also an avid critic, having critically reviewed more than 20 films in the past.

There will be some hefty reading involved for some of the lengthier reviews, which may contain a long list of topics to explain. I will do my best to condense as much as possible while keeping this site easy to navigate.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!