Dragon Training
How To Train Your Dragon was the first movie I ever saw in 3-D. It was a great movie with great characters, a great story, and some genuine emotion. How To Train Your Dragon 2 has all of those elements but somehow doesn’t live up to the original.
It’s five years later and the Viking Village of Berk has changed greatly. Dragons and Humans co-exist together in harmony. The people pass their time racing dragons and scoring points with sheep. Hiccup is out exploring the world with his dragon Toothless and making a map of all that they have found.
They encounter dragon trappers who work for a blood thirsty conqueror named Drago Bludvist. Drago is considered such a threat that Hiccup’s father Stoic makes preparations for war. Hiccup wants to try a nonviolent peaceful method and sets out to find Drago. He is interrupted by an infamous dragon thief who ends up being his mother.
This movie is (for me) about wanting to avoid conflict even though it may not be a reality. Hiccup is not a violent person and he wants to show Drago that he does not need to conquer dragons. Hiccup’s mother would rather rescue dragons from him than face Drago in open conflict. Hiccup’s father sees war as an inevitable having survived an attempt by Drago to kill him.
This movie is also about testing bonds in the face of something that could destroy those bonds. All of the dragon riders have bonded with their dragons to the point where they are considered best friends. The presence of a Bewilderbeast (a giant monstrous Alpha dragon) causes all other dragons to follow his command. Drago uses this to his advantage to gain control of all the dragons. Something that has to be overcome if Drago is to be defeated.
My problems with this movie is that it’s not as good as the first one. Like I said before, the first one was special to me because it was the first movie I saw in 3-D. This movie doesn’t really live up to it. It has some interesting ideas but not much else.
I give ‘How To Train Your Dragon 2’ 7.0 slimy dragon licks out of 10
Clifford T. Hofferd is a movie critic living in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada. Follow Clifford’s blog at thengpblog.blogspot.ca
