On a side note. I want to hug the crap outta Toothless so badly, he's so fking adorable. He's now my favourite fictional Dragon after Latias from Pokemon.
How to train your dragon
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This movie KICKED ASS. Thats how you do a sequel. Not just that, this is how you write a goddamn screenplay, a lot of people working in hollywood should take note. Almost everything was just so neatly set up; a scene would happen, and I would catch myself thinking "Yes! I remember you bringing this up before! You did not just pull this out your ass! Well done movie!".
Only thing that really irked me about the climax is
[hide]Where did Dragos army go? The one he stormed the Nest with? It seemed to be pretty much just him, the Bewilderbeest and the brainwashed dragons at Berk. I'd have liked for the main cast to do more at the final battle, and to see more of Dragos, well, dragon army. It was mentioned a lot, and those two armored dragons were pretty kickass looking, I'd have liked to see more of them[/hide] -
Sigh, still one more week till it comes out here and probably two weeks till I'm able to see it :/
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! I think it just means he's gay and whether or not that was hidden in previous references, I don't know. I'm about 95% sure that was the implied meaning behind his words though.
i think that's what the audiences are supposed to jokingly imply, but i don't see why gay marriage would be a problem in this movie so I wonder if that's just a red herring
Edit: ah if it's been confirmed then nevermind haha.
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Oh my. just found How To Train Your Dragon, the audio book on youtube, narrated by David Tennant. Might give that a listen 1 day when i got time;.
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Be warned. The books have nothing in common with the movies aside from the character names. For instance, Toothless is a tiny palm sized dragon, Fishlegs has asthma, and Astrid doesn't even exist.
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HTTYD2 had a pretty big drop this weekend at the box office so Dreamworks is in for another weak performer at the box office. The film is on track to make about 80% of what the first one did in the United States.
If it does as well as the first film did overseas, it won't lose money but that's definitely not what Dreamworks wanted after three of their last four films either underperformed or were outright flops.
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I wonder why its not performing all that well? Usually there's a rise for sequels when the first one was generally well liked?
Of course, I avoided the trailers and commercials as best I could, so I have no real idea how good or bad or enticing those were.
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It did top out over the other release. Does anyone have any details on how well it did compared to other animated movies/other movies in general?
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It did top out over the other release. Does anyone have any details on how well it did compared to other animated movies/other movies in general?
Check http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=howtotrainyourdragon2.htm
They have pretty good details compared to its performance in relation to other movies, and other stuff.But its still doing slightly better than the first one, and that went on to take $200 Million domestically:
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More like How to Make a Sequel. Holy smokes was this movie good. I think I may have liked it even more than the first. So much emotion in so many scenes throughout the movie. I wondered where they were going to go with the story and didn't have very high hopes, But man was I wrong
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It was a very good movie. The scope of the movie was different enough from the first one that I can't really make a judgement call of which one was "better".
[hide]
The Stoic sending off really got me. I though, was not expecting it to come from a friggen mind controlled toothless. What. The. Fuck.
I was a little dissapointed by the lack of screen time for some of the kids, but that was a screen time limit (Although they could have probably given some of Ruffnut's admire scenes to Tuffnut, he got nothing this movie)The thing that is bugging me is how did Drago claim the alpha male? I mean, it can just be like, fuck you, I take your dragons and squish you all.
[/hide]Daz,
[hide] I think he didn't bring the army because there was 0 reason to. The alpha could take all the dragons and the rest of the villagers would be sitting ducks. [/hide] -
[hide]
The thing that is bugging me is how did Drago claim the alpha male? I mean, it can just be like, fuck you, I take your dragons and squish you all.
[/hide]! Sheer personal intimidation presumably. We saw how strong presence and charisma could overwhelm dragons or bond them. If he's dark Hiccup, and Hiccup tamed dragons by being kind and friendly to them, I imagine the baddy would have done it by intimidating them and proving he was tough and sheer overwhelming, as he was shown to do to other dragons, and hfelt himself a master of dragons. How he'd do it to something at that size I dunno, but… just makes it all the more impressive. Hiccup was able to overcome the bigger dragon, and Valka was able to befriend the good Alpha, so... maybe similar. Just nastier. Maybe he punched it in the nose.
! Or maybe he got to it when he was younger and much smaller and he's been training it for the last 20 years.Or so I figure, at any rate. It'd match the themes of the movie.
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! Sheer personal intimidation presumably. We saw how strong presence and charisma could overwhelm dragons or bond them. If he's dark Hiccup, and Hiccup tamed dragons by being kind and friendly to them, I imagine the baddy would have done it by intimidating them and proving he was tough and sheer overwhelming, as he was shown to do to other dragons, and hfelt himself a master of dragons. How he'd do it to something at that size I dunno, but… just makes it all the more impressive. Hiccup was able to overcome the bigger dragon, and Valka was able to befriend the good Alpha, so... maybe similar. Just nastier. Maybe he punched it in the nose.
! Or maybe he got to it when he was younger and much smaller and he's been training it for the last 20 years.Or so I figure, at any rate. It'd match the themes of the movie.
[hide] I was kinda thinking that yea, if he got it when it was much younger that he could probably dominate it. But other then that, I guess i can't get the suspension of disbelief that a massive alpha like that would respond to a mere human's attempt at intimidation. Toothless at least had some beastly plasma blasts (seriously, knocking around the alpha like that? dear god, no wonder the book of dragons said "do not engage, run and hide" for night-furies.). [/hide]
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Ended up rewatching this with my sister and her boyfriend. Still holds up, even after reading comments/reviews and the nitpicking that's in the back of my mind whenever I rewatch/reread something and hear criticisms from it. Just the fact that I'm having fun rewatching the movie and it didn't feel like a chore says wonders about its quality personally. So here's my super long/annoying no one's gonna read post.
! Dragon Racing
! >! One quick bit I caught at the end that I didn't notice the first time: Hiccup scored the black sheep in Astrid's goal. Just another sweet background moment showing how much he cares about her.
! That said, I couldn't help but think wow, it's clearly an homage to Quidditch, but they could've at least fixed the whole "the rest of the game doesn't matter, it just comes down to the final sheep" bit. Have it worth like 5 points or maybe have more than one black sheep per game, not just at the end. Then again, since they never go into the rules, maybe Dragon Racing does do something like that.
! Characters! I have no idea how the third movie's going to be like without Stoick. Didn't realize how much of the emotional bulk of the films were on his character. He was so great in this film.
! Eret definitely seemed like stunt casting rather than a character needed for the story, but I thought it was okay to have a character here to once again show that perceptions can be changed peacefully and for the better. It'll be interesting to see how his character plays out in the future films too.
! I enjoyed Drago as a villain, and for the given story played his part really well. Just wish he had more of a defining moment than his screams to his dragon.
! I think I should be more upset the other kids didn't really do much, but that's a staple of Dreamworks IMO to bring in a larger group of characters and only focus on the main hero and maybe one other person in the group. Plus, along with Gobber, they did provide levity in the film. A bunch of people around me laughed at their funny scenes.
! All in all though, I adored Toothless. Thought Astrid and Valka worked really well in the roles they played. Really enjoyed Hiccup's growth too, though I think he still could've touched the stammering to his dad down a bit. And minor nitpick but I kinda wish he just said the ending speech with the tone he had in the first film's ending then the pseudo-yelling/confidence he did in this one.
! Dragons! I also realize this might be asking too much given the length and scope of the films, but I kinda wish the new dragons shown here were able to show off their more defining characteristics. The Bewilderbeasts were really amazing and developed, and there are hundreds are really interesting designs on all the dragons, but I wish their traits were shown in a way similar to the first one.
! Like the first film we really got to know the dragons in great detail, and the ones at the training camp had distinctive features outside of their looks. Nightmares light themselves on fire, Nadders shoot stingers, Zipplebacks have two heads, one that lights gas the other gives a spark.
! Here, the bewilderbeasts have ice spitting abilities but the rest of the dragons, while they look really cool, didn't really get explored as much. I mean, Skullcrusher's ability to track dragons is pretty neat, and the camouflage dragons is cool, but I'm trying to imagine what it'd be like if the dragons described in the book used all their abilities in the dragon war and it wasn't just fire blasts. Even Valka's dragon, it had a cool design, but I wish we got to know more about it as a dragon. That said, I did love the relationship Toothless had with Valka's dragon though and how that warmed up too over time.
! And that might seem crazy since there are a ton of dragons that did cool stuff. I remember a scene where dragons lit themselves on fire and did cartwheels (though honestly even during the rewatch I couldn't tell if that was an attack on the dragons intentionally or if someone shot the dragons down). But seeing for example dragons capable of camouflage hiding in fear or using their abilities to strike when the enemy is unguarded. Or seeing dragons like the Thunderdrums shoot giant scream blasts against the army or other dragons use their sharp wings to cut down masts/ships.
! Definitely unfair though since the ability to shoot/choreograph a war like that would be insane, and what we got was already pretty amazing. Just thinking of the possibilities.
! Final tiny, tiny nitpick. If the baby dragons don't listen to anyone, and thus won't be controlled by the Bewilderbeasts, how did the Vikings train them enough to fly back to Berk? Or are they trained enough now that they could be controlled by the Alpha?
Also found out there's a song that's only played in some Slavic and European showings of the movie. It's a nice feel-good song I think.!
@Daz:[hide]Where did Dragos army go? The one he stormed the Nest with? It seemed to be pretty much just him, the Bewilderbeest and the brainwashed dragons at Berk. I'd have liked for the main cast to do more at the final battle, and to see more of Dragos, well, dragon army. It was mentioned a lot, and those two armored dragons were pretty kickass looking, I'd have liked to see more of them[/hide]
! Dragons fly faster than ships can travel at sea, so it seems like Drago just went ahead to start the attack. Plus his army seemed like it needed to "recover" from the attack, so I guess they just weren't able to make it in time. That's the in story reason though, I can understand a desire to want to see more of the army during the final climax.
! Though I guess you meant his dragon army, and I guess it's a mix of some had to have been at Berk at the time (Gobber/Valka were messing with dragon armor at the end and it looked more like Drago's armor than new armor they're making for the dragons at Berk), they just didn't do anything given the alpha just took control of Berk's dragons, and maybe part of it was just other dragons are meant to be trapped on the ship and travel with the human army like Astrid and co.'s vikings did.[hide] The thing that is bugging me is how did Drago claim the alpha male? I mean, it can just be like, fuck you, I take your dragons and squish you all.
[/hide]The official Dreamworks site gives the background on this, though I feel like this is one of those things that should have been shown to the audience and help flesh out certain characters.
website in the spoiler tag
! https://www.howtotrainyourdragon.com/explore/dragons/drago-bewilderbeast
! It's essentially as you predicted. Drago found it as a baby hatchling and it grew from there. Seeing this and maybe Drago losing everything could've rounded his character out more, but I think the show does a good job showing that while Drago did have a sad backstory, he's just evil because he wants to be evil and be in total control.! I still don't know how I feel about Hiccup's mom. I liked her character and it was certainly a surprise to see that she was alive this whole time, but for her to have been training dragons all along I felt took a bit away from Hiccup's accomplishment in taming dragons. I guess he can stand to spare a heroic deed, though, from the pile he's been racking up.
! Realize this isn't really a response, so sorry Wagomu, but one thing that really got me during this watch was the "nature vs nuture" debate, and how much Hiccup and his mom are similar despite Valka not being there to raise her son. That just hit me on such a personal level since I met up with my father recently and realized how similar we are despite him not being in my life at all, though in my case both of us are more bitter, constantly ruminate, being constantly passive-aggressive when talking about others…but that's a whole different thing.
Finally, as for the box office news, the sequel seems to be on the same track as Kung Fu Panda 2, down to the 50% decrease from the first weekend to the second weekend. New theory involves Maleficent actually taking viewers away, since it works about as well as a family film in a similar vein as this movie. That said, it seems this summer box office revenue is just overall lower than previous years.
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A bit late, but I finally had enough spare time to see the movie. Great movie, enjoyed every bit of it.
Also, I am glad that I stayed away from spoilers, I didn't even see the trailers, so seeing everything for the first time without having any preview was a complete (pleasant) surprise.
It certainly had more impact for me, as I was going in without a clue on what to expect.
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Rewatched the first one in preparation for the sequel I should be watching next week. My opinions on it still hold up since back then. Still a fantastic movie albeit I wasn't as wowed by it as I remember the first time probably due to watching it on my computer monitor and not the big screen with the 3D.
Third act still as weak as I remember it and even more. Just easily the lowest point of the movie sadly at least for me. Decades of strife and civil war between the two species and it just seamlessly transitions into a dragon haven with no signs of unrest and discord. Because all Dragons by nature are friendly I guess and you can hold your hand up to any one with the same effect of them becoming docile. And any casualties of the war are all absolved because it was due to the acts of one mustache twirling bad guy. We couldn't have something morally ambiguous where humans and dragons simply killed each other due to prejudice and need for resources, no we got to shoehorn in a big bad guy that we can take down to give an easy resolution. It really hurts the dragons' status as a sentient species and with the exception of Toothless just makes them look like unthinking pets.
I don't want to sound curmudgeony and I really do love the movie despite my bitching, the developing bond between Hiccup and Toothless is easily one of the best developed relationships I've seen in a film, how they could grow such a deep bond that you can connect with just via simple gestures, pretty fantastic. All the characters were fun and likable albeit some were poorly developed, great animation, very solid writing overall, it is a wonderful movie.
Just that third act…sigh.
I read a Terry Pratchett book where talking mice came across a starving town that specialized in rat killing. By the end of the book, they somehow fostered a truce where they could peacefully coexist despite their very well justified grievances with each other. There was no easy solution, no bad guy to kill to make everything all right, there was no big bad human telling all the other humans to kill the rats. They just killed them because they thought they were an inferior species and the rats stole food from the starving people because they couldn't care less about the humans. The rats, despite all odds decided to somehow reach out to the humans because it was not only the right thing to do but the best course of action to end a life long enmity for the benefit of both species (as the rats would get food with no risk of murder and the humans get a lot of tourism for being the town with the talking rats) as well as somehow elevate their own species from being simply vermin to higher complex creatures that know better and can be better humans than the actual ones that are massacring them. It was hard, took a lot of courage to do, took a lot of negotiations and open-mindedness to set up and it didn't end with a flawless utopia but a lengthy discussion between a character from the leaders of both species on how this was going to be a difficult journey to maintain this new society because there was a lot of bad blood to work through and the most you can be is not certain but hopeful that it will somehow work out.
That's what I wish I saw from this movie at the end. I know, kid's film (the book in question was a kid's book though) but I do feel the movie was capable of better, it just got sloppy at the end.
But I reiterate, it is a fantastic, wonderful movie which I do adore.
And apparently the sequel is more solidly written albeit not hitting the highs of the first one? Something to definitely look forward to then!
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Saw the sequel. My thoughts…
I saw the first movie once a while back, and while I remember enjoying it, there's large chunks of it that I just don't remember, and some nitpicks that I just couldn't shake. In general, I think I liked the second one way better. It felt more emotional, more mature, and just tighter all around. There's something about things with believable characters, a good soundtrack, and just the right kind of aesthetic that I find appealing, that makes me feel all mushy and giddy inside.
The flying/action sequences, in particular, were just stellar. I loved every one of them, and there was a lot. Going into this one, I sort of wondered just how much Dreamworks could show dragons flying around and still keep it interesting, and it seems that they still haven't reached that limit yet. There was so much that was wonderful about the animation, I won't even begin to try and recount it all. Really solid directing.
The acting was... eh, varied, but that's the norm for stunt casting in children's animation these days (i.e, every single animated movie these days.) Cate Blanchett absolutely stole the show in all her scenes, though, and is the sort of performance that makes me wish more big-name actors took voice acting seriously. The only performance I really just didn't like was, disappointingly, Hiccup's. I know other people like that actor, so this may just be matter of taste, but I can't stand that kind of nasally teenager voice. Like, I want to punch something every time I hear it. Chalk it up to only being me and my weird hangups, though.
The characters in general, however, have always been the highlight of the movie. The newcomers, especially Valka, were great additions to the HTTYD world, and the old characters stayed fresh and didn't stagnate at all. I actually liked Astrid way better in this than in the first film, even if she did relatively less, and the relationship between her and Hiccup was just great.
! The one thing I really couldn't bring myself to get that much into, sadly, was the final act. There were good things about it, such as the high level of drama that was consistently maintained, but otherwise, I felt like it was a kinda weak way to close out the whole thing. It's something that I remember bothered me about the first one too, the idea of "Now that we've learned that peace is the answer and friendship always triumphs over senseless violence, let us prove these lessons through a ten minute fighting sequence" has always been a bit irksome. In particular, the idea of "this one dragon is the cause of all the problems and it, specifically, needs to be removed" has not only been done before, but doesn't really lend itself to good drama. Like, difference in ideology? Gaining trust through friendship vs. controlling through intimidation? FORGET THAT, here's a Mind Control Dragon. Yeah, I know that there really wasn't any other clear way to give conflict in the ending (we can't all be Miyazaki after all) and it did lead to some really good things, I flat out didn't like it as much as the first two acts, which absolutely blew me away in terms of quality.
! On the more positive note, the true dramatic moments were very near perfect. I loved the father in particular, he was easily the highlight of the story. Still, for a character named Stoick, every scene he was in sure did make me want to dissolve into a flimsy little ball of emotions. From just skimming the pages before mine, I noticed that not a whole lot of people liked or noted "For the Dancing and the Dreaming," but it was, bar none, my favorite scene in the movie. Everything about it seemed just so… perfect. And the line after it... GAH! So much character development and history, all implied with a single song and dance. One of the most lovely scenes I've seen in anything for quite some time.So yeah, good movie.
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Hehehe, glad you liked it, Kylor. Even though we had almost exact opposite experiences in the specifics (save for Stoick).
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Finally saw it again. The friends I saw it with, each for the first time, all preferred it to the original. I'm still pretty far from that.
Besides being struck again by some issues in pacing and a few more lines of stilted dialogue than I remembered, think my general–critique seems a bit strong, since it's a personal thing, but let's say critique--is that the first one has been an infinitely rewatchable movie for me because of its high points, which mirror the strong points of the original's soundtrack. This one has some fantastic moments, sure, but few stand-up-and-cheer type moments like Test Drive or Battle of the Green Death that are almost as good independent of the rest of the movie.
Guess I'm saying that, for the sake of telling a more coherent/adult story, they kept the tone more even throughout, but I missed having particular scenes that I really looked forward to seeing. Still a great, great movie, though.
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First movie had higher highs and lower lows, while the second was more even.
But man, those highs in the first one. The entire middle half hour is pretty much perfect, makes up for any shortcomings the rest of the film has.
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Eh, I'm not entirely sure the first movie had lower lows. It was a little slower getting started, but it only had one or two sequences that I would prefer to skip on rewatches (the Dragon's Den, mainly). I'm not seeing myself liking any of the non-Hiccup rest-of-the-crew sequences in the second movie, and Drago's scenes are a drag on the proceedings as well.
Was nice matching the soundtrack to the movie on this go. Toothless Found is a good deal better to listen to now, though I was completely wrong on what was happening in the latter half of Alpha Comes to Berk (and a little disappointed).
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Sigh, I finally saw it and regrettably and maybe predictably (unfortunately), I have to be the grouchy one to voice disappointment.
It's a good movie, a fine, charming, delightful movie…but man was it sloppy. Nowhere near as good as the first one (and the first one got sloppy too at the end but only at the end) and it could have been much better. The potential, the ingredients were there but it just missed a lot of good opportunities to really give it a sense of depth and poignancy.
For the first half, I was enthralled, granted the plot wasn't progressing much, but I was really loving the sense of wonderment and joy akin to the first one, just seeing the characters in this world acting natural and working off their chemistry be it Hiccup and Toothless, Astrid and Hiccup, Hiccup and his mother. It was really sweet, charming and delightful. And poorly paced honestly, any movie where the antagonist doesn't show up in the first half did something wrong in the writing process but I was fine with it because I was just so immersed in the world. Little did I know that if I knew how poorly written the villain was, I'd have appreciated his lack of screen time even more during the watching experience.
The villain is just bad. He is so weak, there is almost zero substance to him. He's just an asshole, a boring, generic, moustache twirling asshole. I say almost because there WAS potential, there was one scene when he revealed his missing arm where I was invested in his character, where I went "Oh he's the anti-Hiccup, like Luffy and Blackbeard, neat, this is a good idea" but they did NOTHING with it really, how cool could it have been if the villain were actually developed, like we got a flashback of dragons tearing up his village and we explored his dominating mindset, how cool would it have been if Hiccup started to question his blind love for dragons, shown maybe not all of them are docile creatures, given some sort of depth to the species other than mindless puppies, and they had a perfect opportunity, his best friend MURDERED his father, there was plenty of opportunity to introduce a character arc where Hiccup hates Toothless and dragons in general, where he has been broken by Drago and he has to overcome his pain, overcome his hatred, show great willpower to stay on his path of humanity and desire to live peacefully with the dragons, where taking the idealistic route is the hard choice and he takes it and it shows a lot of strong moral fiber and character and would have been a fantastic way to grow his character. But that didn't happen, his mom goes "It wasn't his fault" (very sensible attitude given the Dragon MURDERED her husband) and he was like yeah you're right, let's go save Toothless! And don't tell me that's what happened in the movie but more subtle and implied, that is not shit you imply, that is the CORE of the movie, that's shit you focus the most on, the centrepiece of your movie, the ideological thrust, the point of the movie! The movies biggest mistake is not realizing its priorities when it threw out a stock villain when the biggest focus should have been the dynamic between Hiccup and Drago.
Stoic's death...was fantastic. The aftermath...was not. When I felt more emotion in the reunion with Hiccup's parents than the death of his father, when I felt more when he built the statue of him in his village then in his actual depth, when the blacksmith friend of his dad showed more emotion at the passing of his dear friend than blandy McBland mom...This is honestly where the movie went wrong for me because I could forgive a weak villain but throughout that entire scene, I was going where's the ground pounding, where's the tears, where's the cries of anguish and soul wrenching despair? His father died, killed by his best friend, why is the movie underplaying the emotion and drama? And I know it's a kid's film? So what? The franchise was REALLY good at throwing in a lot of emotional realism in the way characters act and behave with each other. The scene with Astrid and Hiccup in the beginning, GREAT chemistry, throughout that scene I was thinking, this is how to people who know and love each other act in real life, Stoic's reunion with his wife was great, Hiccup and Toothless were great, these movies are great at displaying human emotion...and then a character died and that went all out the window. Like the way everyone reacted was so dull, no one really cried save for a tear or two, and again I mean chest thumping crying, everyone just looked a bit down for a bit, then everyone was like fuck it, baby dragons, adventure time! I could sort of forgive it from Hiccup, he was trying to force back his emotions out of necessity (they really should have done a better job of showing it and a scene where he grieves by himself, and Astrid could go comfort him and we'd have more heart-warming interactions! But why dwell on death? It's a kid's movie!), the wife (sorry I don't mean to belittle her, well I do she was a bad character, but I honestly didn't catch her name), no real emotion or reaction to her husband dying, this isn't a woman thing, this is a spousal thing, if she had died, I can just picture Stoic's tears of anguish, hell I was so much more moved at his joy of being reunited with his wife (I was more moved by his emotions in the first movie, at the face he gave after he berated Hiccup before going to Dragon Island, you know the one), her reaction was just...dull, her character was dull, I liked her and her bond with Hiccup and she showed a very, strong independent character for a while but then...I don't know she just regressed into generic mom character at some point and she stopped being an interesting three dimensional character and was just there as support (like all the other side characters in this movie honestly, but at least they showed more personality). Speaking of, the other side characters' reactions were equally dull, Gobber was the only one who reacted like I'd expect that character to react. It's a real fucking shame because the actual death, the build-up and everything and how it happened was legitimately shocking, it wasn't a you saw it coming inevitable death, it was a taken down at the height of his prime, the character had a great happy future ahead of him death and it was heart-breaking and I was ready for the movie to wrench my heart out and then the characters started acting like robots and I was just left cold and disappointed. And why? Why did the movie underplay the grieving so much, why did it feel the need to rush through it? Why couldn't we have had twenty minutes of characters working through their emotions? Why did we have to rush to the fighting already? Because it's a kid's film? But the movie was capable of better than that, it had SHOWN before it was better than that but they just dropped the ball on it really. I don't know, this felt like studio interference like they were given a time crunch or something because it just felt so different from their usual careful pacing and execution. Or maybe they thought it was fine and I'm reading too much into it but...I expected more and my two friends who went with me agreed with me on that aspect so...sigh
Astrid and co were just filler. They were there for the sake of being there which is a goddamn shame. Not even the charming kind of filler where it at least adds some fun comedy and world building bits. The entire shtick was that one horny twin ogling dragon trader dude and the other two guys fighting for her (yeah really empowering how you define a female with her relationship to men) and they did nothing really. The first one, they didn't really do anything either but at least there felt a sense of camaraderie since they were learning Dragon fighting together and it was their first appearances so I was more forgiving but in the second movie...I expected more depth than their stereotypes, like showing the same level of growth and independence and future desires as Hiccup did with his cartography stuff, I expected more Astrid who is a very good character but she was just there and didn't do anything. And don't tell me I can find it all in some dumb TV show, a movie needs to be self sufficient, I shouldn't have to go track down supplementary material for something basic the movie should provide like character development. If you can't think of giving them anything to do, don't put them in the movie and waste our time with dumb comic relief shit (which was also felt slightly like harassment at times...), it just hurts the characters and hurts the movie.
Dragon Trader's arc of growing to like dragons was cliche and lazily thrown in and just a shallow copy of a copy of what other more engaging characters already went through. Pointless character really. Also Hiccup gave him his father's Dragon, one of the last few memento's of his father, what the fuck?
Climax was fun and action-packed and I guess it fit the themes of love and respect over dominance though it was really missing the emotional substance and development I was talking about earlier, like how cool would it have been if there was a scene of the villain confronting Hiccup about how a dragon killed his father and he still sided with the dragons and Hiccup shows his moral fibre to stick with them regardless which might have caused the villain to question his own moralities and decisions and the path he'd taken, how cool would it have been if the villain actually showed some form of regret, maybe Hiccup could have done the impossible and persuaded him, forgiven him for causing the death of his father, and appealed to his conscious to just forgive and forget and to work together to build a better world. Because that's what these movies are about right? Setting aside differences, working to understand each other and forgive each other for past transgressions? Nope, none of that, he just screams and yells and twirls his mustache without any sign of depth, he's just the bad guy to be beaten which he was and he didn't even die, he just went away so I guess Hiccup just let his father's murderer go I guess.
Sigh, I really, really, really hate sounding so negative. I'm probably gonna get shit for this like reading too much into a kid's movie or ignoring the subtle characterization that gave me what I wanted but I didn't notice because I'm a hater or whatever Oone or the other.
I don't want to feel like this...but I do. The movie is the movie and this is my opinion. I'm happy that other people got what they wanted out of the movie but I didn't.
And I LIKED, repeat LIKED nay LOVED the movie regardless of how negative I sound. But what can I say about the good stuff? Ultimately what I love about the movies are the tiny details, those little touches that give so much depth and life to the world and characters, the character bonds and relationships and beautiful, beautiful visuals, the small moments of the dragons okaying with each other in the background. That's all there, there's some good writing and great poignant scenes and a lot of heart there. A lot of good ideas there. But there are regrettably, for me at least missed opportunities and if I sound harsh, it's because I do feel from the bottom of my heart, the movie was capable of better, it had all the ingredients for that better in the movie but just did not use them.
Oh well...
Toothless is still really cute.
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So I watched the second movie quite some time ago but never really shared my thoughts on it. I loved this movie as much as the first one. And while I agree with many things that were said and I can see were the problems lie but can excuse them more easily and some are not even that big of a problem for me.
For example I like my villains cut and dry without much backstory. It most often means that we can have better protagonists and don't get too involved with the villain.
And the biggest problem this movie has is that the story is just not fit for a movie. It has a much bigger scope than just the one and three quarter hours they had. It could easily fill a large book or a two and a half hour movie. If they had had more time they could have inserted a second battlebefore the bewilderbeast reached Berk which could have handled the toothless-hiccup conflict better and maybe contrasted Drago and Hiccup more. It would have been great for Hiccup not to immideatly and unconditianally accept toothless again and that is the reason he fails to pull him out of dragos grasp the first time. Or some other way for hiccups reacceptance of toothless to feel more meanigfull. And of course the grieving for Stoick could be explored a bit better too.
And maybe we could have had a bit more of the other wiking kids. And if they are supposed to have much more screentime then we are looking at a series already. -
Just watched it on a plane, absolutely loved it. Rewatched the ending sequence 3 times.
Anyone know if a third movie is on the horizon? It'd be interesting to know what kind of leader Hiccup turns out to be.
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Think the movie was delayed a year so it'll be released in 2017.
Also, it seems that for sure a 4th movie won't happen (thankfully IMO), BUT spinoffs are possible (UGH).
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Finally saw the 2nd movie. Excellent. Plenty of good laughs and i did tear up a bit when
! Stoick died, sacrificing himself for Hiccup and his subsequent viking funeral. :cwy:
Also, i feel sorry for those poor sheep. That is clearly animal cruelty, though it is is pretty funny.
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This nice little Making of video popped up in my Facebook today. It's about an hour long, but definitely worth it
http://www.dwaawards.com/video/
I hope it wins the Oscar!
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This nice little Making of video popped up in my Facebook today. It's about an hour long, but definitely worth it
http://www.dwaawards.com/video/
I hope it wins the Oscar!
Thank you for sharing this, I watched the entire thing.
Honestly, the scene of Hiccups parents seeing each other again is one of the most touching and beautiful things I've ever seen, and that'll never leave me.
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Teaser for the new season of the animated series on Netflix
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Im glad they found a way to keep the show going without (very obviously ) twisting CN's arm about it.
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Oh sick. June 26th, I've waited so long for the new series
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I didn't know this had series at all O.o
Maybe cause movies are popular and more people talk about it.Is it good enough?
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The second season was great. First season was alright, if a bit (alot) repetitive.
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Has anyone watched the new episodes? Thoughts?
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Is this one of those "It's all out all at once, so people can binge watch it" things?
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Yeah, there are 13 episodes available on Netflix right now. I think I read somewhere that there are 52(?) episodes slated to be released though
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Alright, the first season was a bit boring for me, I sensed a lack of proper villains and it was mostly just Mildew's pointless attempts against dragons.
But everything became awesome in second season. Dagur is such an entertaining character and episodes were more interesting too :3
As for these new eps, I completely LOVE it. Exploring new islands, new dragons is kinda exciting. (I won't watch the 13th ep till new ones come out)! Heather was awesome even if she was kinda foolish to go against Dagur on her own. But she has grown into a strong, independent woman and fighter. I loved Windshear too :3
And of course the twist about Dagur and Heather being siblings~
! I loved seeing grown up (a bit) Gustav too and his relationship with the team.
Twins becoming rulers and Fishlegs strong fearless viking was funny XD
! Stoick's understanding of Skullcrusher and their bonding was so awesome :3AND my personal favourite:
! The chicken.
(couldn't help creating this gif XD) -
Does anyone know when the second half of the season is coming out?~
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If anyone cares~
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YES. -
If anyone cares~
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YES.I'm pretty excited. It felt like I was the only one who watched the first season lol.
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Season 1 of Race to the Edge was a very solid season of tv and really cleaned up a lot of the problems with the very first season (and parts of season 2). Looking forward to it.
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I am MAD.
First of all, cutting series for a 6 months wait after the first episode of a two-parter is just cruel.
But, mainly! How many episodes does it take for Hiccup to fucking realise that he can't win the mind games and that he is not as smart. AND that he AT LEAST shouldn't make rash decisions.
…
That Dagur ep tho :cwy: -
Second trailer's out. Dunno. Don't have the excitement for this one that I did for the second film.
Also the fact that's it's been out a couple days but I didn't see it hyped up anywhere. Dunno if it's bad advertising or just the hype's gone.
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Well considering this movie was originally announced in 2012, supposed to be out in 2016, and now won't hit until 2019… and the tv show has now run for 8 seasons and 118 episodes, they might have dragged it out a wee bit too much.
As immensely as I love the first film and have watched it tons of times, one of my very favorite movies, I've still only watched the second film once in the theater (Haven't even watched the blu ray I bought) and still haven't managed to work up the enthusiasm to go any further on the tv show after the first two years were so meh.... It's hard to be as enthused on a franchise at this point.
Similarly Kung Fu Panda which was great in the first two outings, was hard to get excited about the third one. (And I think they made that an early spring instead of summer release as well for some reason.)
Also I'm personally just refusing to watch any trailers since the first one. They give away too much and I already feel like I know the entire likely plot.
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Given how the second movies villain survived with his entire human armada intact, it seems weird to go for a whole new armada-having, dragon hating villain
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@Daz:
Given how the second movies villain survived with his entire human armada intact, it seems weird to go for a whole new armada-having, dragon hating villain
The book series (that the movies are based on as much as the average Disney movie takes little-to-no inspiration from the novel it adapts) has a talking dragon main antagonist that leads a dragon rebellion to exterminate humanity. I was hoping for something loosely like that and Smaug in The Hobbit.
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He could be a secret dragon turned human.
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Some impressive work in there. Voice acting at 1:40 is unintentionally hilarious.
STILL HAVE SUCCESSFULLY AVOIDED ALL TRAILERS SINCE WATCHING FIRST ONE ONCE AND IT PAINS ME IN MY HEART