Arcoon Effox
Intellectual Combatant
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175
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100
(Naturally, as this thread will be discussing various plot points as a result of its nature, it will contain spoilers; PLZ use spoiler tags when discussing such things.)
So, after being hyped for months, I saw Dragon2 last night as a double-feature along with the first one, and I've gotta say... it not only wasn't as good as I was hoping it would be, it wasn't as good as the first one at all.
EDIT; 6/22 - The first two weekends since the movie's been out have come and gone, so I'm changing the poll, now. Here's the results of the first one:
Was HTTYD2 better than the first one?
Yes, the sequel was better: 43.4% [ 53 Votes ]
No, the first one was better: 56.6% [ 69 Votes ]
Total Votes: [ 122 ]
So, after being hyped for months, I saw Dragon2 last night as a double-feature along with the first one, and I've gotta say... it not only wasn't as good as I was hoping it would be, it wasn't as good as the first one at all.
While it was cool to see the progression of Berk and its inhabitants, I felt like there wasn't enough of the latter. Astrid's character in particular seemed neutered, as though she had completely lost all of the feisty attitude she had in the first film, and both Fishlegs and Snotlout were reduced to 100% comic relief. Ruffnut's infatuation with Eret was amusing (if a little nonsensical), but I don't remember her twin saying a single relevant thing in the entire movie.
His mother was an interesting character, and the movie focuses a lot on her, but there was something that really bugged me about the entire Dragon Sanctuary scene: there wasn't enough of the dragons. I'm not saying that there weren't lots of gorgeous shots of them in all their colorful glory, I mean that, in the first movie, each dragon specie had the spotlight for a minute in some form or another. We learned about their strengths, weaknesses, shot limits, etc, and had a lot of Hiccup interacting with them all. In this film, Valka tells Hiccup she'll share all the dragon secrets she knows with him, and I thought "Oh, okay; cue something like the academy montage from the first movie, as we get to know all these cool new dragons"... but then we don't see that happen. No real attention in the form of screen-time is drawn to any of the new dragons.
For instance: Stoick is riding Skullcrusher these days, after giving up Thornado (more on that in a minute), and Gobber has Grump (who looks a lot like a Gronkle, but isn't one), but did anybody actually hear the name of their respective species, or any details about them? We don't even really get any info on Cloudjumper (whose name and design is apparently an homage to Star Wars), who gets a decent amount of screen time.
But it's not just the dragons that get this treatment. Hiccup's flame-sword? Offhandedly explained halfway through the movie by Hiccup, who pretty much says 'Oh, yeah; I made that' by way of explaining it. The villain? All we're really given about him is that he lost his arm to a dragon, that he's a bad dude who can't be reasoned with, and, oh yeah, he somehow has another Alpha dragon that he can control (along with others) by yelling really loudly and swinging around an ankus-headed spear.
Another thing that bugged me was how little the film drew off of the events of the two seasons of the tv series. For something that was supposed to serve "as a bridge between the first film and the sequel", the only thing from it I saw from it was Gobber playing dentist.
...And then there was "Oh, Stoick, why do you have to be so stoic?"
Now I'd like to address the real Bewilderbeasts in the room; this section is actually being double-spoiler'd, since it's pertinent to the climax of the film:
Writer/director Dean DeBlois has referred to this film as 'his Empire Strikes Back', but IMO it falls far short of that bar. In Empire the entire supporting cast wasn't reduced to background characters, when new concepts were introduced they were actually explained, and "I am your father" packed significantly more punch that "I am your mother".
His mother was an interesting character, and the movie focuses a lot on her, but there was something that really bugged me about the entire Dragon Sanctuary scene: there wasn't enough of the dragons. I'm not saying that there weren't lots of gorgeous shots of them in all their colorful glory, I mean that, in the first movie, each dragon specie had the spotlight for a minute in some form or another. We learned about their strengths, weaknesses, shot limits, etc, and had a lot of Hiccup interacting with them all. In this film, Valka tells Hiccup she'll share all the dragon secrets she knows with him, and I thought "Oh, okay; cue something like the academy montage from the first movie, as we get to know all these cool new dragons"... but then we don't see that happen. No real attention in the form of screen-time is drawn to any of the new dragons.
For instance: Stoick is riding Skullcrusher these days, after giving up Thornado (more on that in a minute), and Gobber has Grump (who looks a lot like a Gronkle, but isn't one), but did anybody actually hear the name of their respective species, or any details about them? We don't even really get any info on Cloudjumper (whose name and design is apparently an homage to Star Wars), who gets a decent amount of screen time.
But it's not just the dragons that get this treatment. Hiccup's flame-sword? Offhandedly explained halfway through the movie by Hiccup, who pretty much says 'Oh, yeah; I made that' by way of explaining it. The villain? All we're really given about him is that he lost his arm to a dragon, that he's a bad dude who can't be reasoned with, and, oh yeah, he somehow has another Alpha dragon that he can control (along with others) by yelling really loudly and swinging around an ankus-headed spear.
Another thing that bugged me was how little the film drew off of the events of the two seasons of the tv series. For something that was supposed to serve "as a bridge between the first film and the sequel", the only thing from it I saw from it was Gobber playing dentist.
...And then there was "Oh, Stoick, why do you have to be so stoic?"
Now I'd like to address the real Bewilderbeasts in the room; this section is actually being double-spoiler'd, since it's pertinent to the climax of the film:
Stoick's death pissed me off, but for the wrong reasons (not the least of which being the Ironic Echo they set up a few minutes prior to it happening). For one, it happened after what felt like all of 5 minutes of being reunited with his long-lost wife. For two, he was just dead; no final words to his son, or Valka, or anything. I know some would argue that this is more realistic - but considering that we got a "TVY7" cut-away edit when one Bewilderbeast gores another (without so much as a death knell from the fallen or a drop of blood on the aggressor's tusks), it doesn't so much feel like they're going for "darker & grittier" or anything like that. Finally, the whole thing sort of like we just traded Hiccup's dad for his mom. Overall, the scene, which was probably supposed to be the strongest moment in the movie, just sort of felt flat, to me.
As for the other thing that really bugged me, perhaps even more than Stoick's incredibly abrupt departure was Toothless' Eleventh-Hour Superpower - which was much more of a blatant Deus ex Machina, since there was no foreshadowing whatsoever of his ability to glow blue (???) and suddenly be able to exert control over other dragons (to the point of overpowering the Bewilderbeast's hold on them), as well as surpassing his shot limit (which is 6, according to the website).
In all, the film's "climax" felt a little like it was faking it.
As for the other thing that really bugged me, perhaps even more than Stoick's incredibly abrupt departure was Toothless' Eleventh-Hour Superpower - which was much more of a blatant Deus ex Machina, since there was no foreshadowing whatsoever of his ability to glow blue (???) and suddenly be able to exert control over other dragons (to the point of overpowering the Bewilderbeast's hold on them), as well as surpassing his shot limit (which is 6, according to the website).
In all, the film's "climax" felt a little like it was faking it.
Writer/director Dean DeBlois has referred to this film as 'his Empire Strikes Back', but IMO it falls far short of that bar. In Empire the entire supporting cast wasn't reduced to background characters, when new concepts were introduced they were actually explained, and "I am your father" packed significantly more punch that "I am your mother".
EDIT; 6/22 - The first two weekends since the movie's been out have come and gone, so I'm changing the poll, now. Here's the results of the first one:
Was HTTYD2 better than the first one?
Yes, the sequel was better: 43.4% [ 53 Votes ]
No, the first one was better: 56.6% [ 69 Votes ]
Total Votes: [ 122 ]
