How to Train Your Dragon 2 Review

Full of hiccups
Film review by Isaac Handelman

DreamWorks Animation surprised everyone with 2010’s How to Train Your Dragon. The animation studio, which had previously played a constant second fiddle to Pixar in terms of critical acclaim, struck gold with the rousing tale of a young viking’s unlikely bond with a rare breed of dragon. DreamWorks finally saw the sort of widespread adoration that its rival studio had been accustomed to since the days of Toy Story. Alas, the straightforwardly titled How to Train Your Dragon 2 is no Toy Story 2, suffering from a host of issues that keep it from soaring alongside its predecessor.

But the film’s visuals are not among its missteps. How to Train Your Dragon 2 is an absolute visual delight, and a showcase for the advancements made by modern CGI-animation. Every object in the film has an almost tangible texture, from the crashing, salty waters of the sea to the beautiful, scaly exteriors of the film’s multitude of creatively designed dragon, which manage to be oddly adorable in their almost canine-like behaviors. The film has also got a few nifty particle effects up its sleeves, with the highlight being the wonderfully realistic snowflakes that pop up from time to time.

These visual flourishes extend to the film’s characters; in a refreshing change of pace from the animated-film norm, the characters in How to Train Your Dragon 2 have visibly aged since their last outing. This physical maturation can be seen in the prickly stubble that now graces protagonist Hiccup’s chin, a detail that’s small and insignificant in theory but effective in convincing viewers of the passage of time that has occurred. He’s joined by returning characters like lovable dragon pal Toothless, love interest Astrid (who’s confined to a somewhat inconsequential role in the story this time around, for better or worse), and raucous, well-meaning Viking leader/father Stoick, as well as a few new faces.

What’s unfortunate is that the narrative surrounding the colorful cast has not matured alongside them. In fact, How to Train Your Dragon 2 takes a turn for the simplistic when compared to the surprising profoundness of its predecessor’s plot. While this sequel takes a swing at some heavy emotional themes such as broken family ties, tragic loss, and the strength of the bond between a man and his “pet,” each of these underlying topics feels woefully simplified. Instances of blatantly illogical retconning and a few eyeroll-inducing moments of deus ex machina seem to exist entirely for the purpose of wrapping the film up in a nice, pretty bow rather than to actually delve into any of the themes that the film brings up.

This oversimplification extends to the stock antagonist of the film, a hilariously cliched, overwhelmingly evil viking named Drago Bloodfist. Bloodfist has the typical harrowing past that led him down a dark path, but his boring aims of world domination are so contrived that he’s impossible to feel sympathetic towards, or even take seriously. Compared to the more complex conflict of the original film, which revolved around Hiccup’s diplomatic quest to unite two ideologically clashing societies, How to Train Your Dragon 2’s central conflict feels dull -- albeit more accessible. The notion that this is exactly what the filmmakers were aiming for is an unfortunate possibility.

The bulk of Hiccup’s journey is predictable, but the narrative does admittedly contain a couple of solid twists. One of these can be seen coming from a mile away and relies heavily on the film’s aforementioned use of retconning. Still, it adds an interesting new dynamic for Hiccup to play off of, and ultimately succeeds at spicing up the proceedings considerably. The other twist caught me totally off-guard and is commendable in its finality, but is swept under the rug before its emotional implications are adequately explored.

When How to Train Your Dragon 2 is left alone to soar above the clouds in a high-flying action sequence, it’s exhilarating. When it shows off its visuals, it’s magnificent. And when its main characters are interacting, it’s nearly as charming as its predecessor. But whenever the narrative needs advancing, the film drowns in dramatic oversimplification and thematic suppression. Dragon 2 does expand on the original in a few interesting ways, and leaves open plenty of doors for a third installment in the now-franchise. But when a studio delivers a work as impressive as the original How to Train Your Dragon, the bar is set high for its sequel. Toothless might be fast, but he fails to reach those heights.

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