On the island of Berk, dragons and vikings reign supreme. Once bitter rivals, they have since learned to live and work together, thanks to the efforts of the village chief's son, Hiccup (as detailed in the first movie). Hiccup, voiced by Jay Baruchel, is now five years older and five times handsomer, and has been spending much of his time alone with his dragon Toothless and/or his girlfriend Astrid (America Ferrera), avoiding responsibility. His dad, Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler), has chosen him to become the next chief of Berk, but he doesn't want all of the duties that come with the job. On one of his many excursions, Hiccup stumbles upon something he never expected: there are other humans in his world that have trained dragons. Groups of dragon trappers, like tough guy Eret (Kit Harrington), and led by the evil Drago Bludvist (Djimon Hounsou), a tyrant obsessed with controlling dragons and ruling over any humans that may stand in his way, who plans to take over Berk. Standing in the middle of the conflict is a mysterious woman dressed in strange clothes, who seems to have a special bond with all dragons, and who may have a connection to Hiccup's past.
The most beloved and memorable moments of the original How to Train Your Dragon were the stunning flying scenes, where beautiful dragons soared through the skies to incredible, unforgettable musical pieces composed by the brilliant John Powell (whose work was nominated for, but criminally did not win, an Oscar). You'll not be wanting for such flying scenes in the sequel. There are probably four times as many incredibly unique and creative dragons to behold, and the exotic locales they swoop over range from orange Autumn forests to cold, white arctic caves, all rendered in what is quite possibly the most astounding detail ever seen in an animated film. Every dragon's scale, every stitch of clothing, every strand of hair, every pore of skin, and every blade of grass can be seen clear as day. Hiccup turns his head, and you can see the muscles in his neck moving. Toothless's pupils dilate realistically. The vikings are visibly weighed down by the weapons and armor that they carry. The very air in the film's world seems infused with something magical. Slightly less successful is Powell's music; though still beautiful to listen to, much of the score is primarily re-arrangements of pieces from the first film, so it never comes close to the unexpected heights we experienced there.
But, although the flying was the crowd pleaser, the other ingredient of Dragons 1 that made it so special was what happened between the flights: the conversations, the scenes of character development and backstory, where all of DreamWorks' trademark sarcasm was put. There was much of that in the first, and it made the flying scenes all the more special, but the reverse is true for the second, and that's not a good thing. Crafting action scenes is an art, and the most important part of doing it is ensuring that the pace is just right- making sure it doesn't run too long, and making sure that, once it's over, the viewer has time to calm down after all the thrills. Dragons 2 forgets this important point, and worse, it makes that mistake at the very beginning. The first scene, a very exciting demonstration of Berk's new sport of Dragon Racing, is a great opener, with just the right amount of dragon action to get the viewer warmed up, and lasting a respectable five minutes... only to be followed by another action scene. This scene, which you might be familiar with (it was used as the film's teaser trailer), is also very good, very exciting, full of surprises, and with a lovely accompanying musical piece, but when it comes immediately after another one, one which ended satisfyingly, it feels wrong. The viewer's mind expects something calmer, something to cool them down, and we don't want to process another big epic moment. That's not the only time this happens, either. Time and time again, director Dean DeBlois cuts between one sweeping dragon flight straight into another, with precious little time for characters actually emoting. Powell's score feels like it's pulling overtime, forced to throw in so many bombastic, joyous tunes in that it nearly becomes unwelcome. There's no denying that the animation and visuals in these scenes are uniformly spectacular, but after so many of them in a row, they're akin to viewing Picasso paintings while riding a speeding bus: yes, it's beautiful, but couldn't we please slow down so I can take it all in?
How to Train Your Dragon 2's other big flaw is a common one for sequels (animated sequels in particular): there are far too many characters with not enough for them to do. It makes the understandable assumption that viewers will want to see all of the characters from the first film return, and return they do: Gobber (Stoick's close friend and Hiccup's former master blacksmith, voiced by Craig Ferguson), Fishlegs (the nerdy, chubby kid voiced by Christopher Mintz-Plasse), Snotlout (a boorish blowhard, voiced by Jonah Hill), Tuffnut, and Ruffnut (twin siblings who constantly bicker and ride a two-headed dragon, voiced by TJ Miller and Kristen Wiig) are all back, and proceed to have no point. Gobber is constantly at Stoick's side, but he doesn't seem to have any real reason to be there. Stoick does all of the action on his own, and Gobber only butts in to make rather unfunny comments which frequently ruining emotional moments. Worse still is the treatment of the young dragon riders. In the first film, they all had unique traits and were very likable, but a lack of screen time or story purpose has whittled them away to nearly nothing, with them having little remaining traits beyond "comic relief times four". A 'love' triangle between Ruffnut, Snotlout, and Fishlegs is mishandled; although it's not meant to be serious (Ruffnut does not return either's affections at all!), it's also completely inconsequential. With Astrid doing all of the heavy lifting in the main story, this silly little subplot is all these three have in the story, yet it only merits a few scattered, throwaway gags and isn't even resolved at the end.
The major new characters are also, unfortunately, underdeveloped. Lead villain Drago doesn't have a lot to him beyond being a berserker warmonger, although his parallels with Hiccup are interesting (he, too, has lost a limb, had a rough childhood of fending off constant attacks, and is a master at dragon training) and he is, at least, plenty intimidating. The same can't be said about Eret, his underling who (spoiler!) defects to the side of Berk. Eret has that classic DreamWorks charm about him, what with his magnificent eyebrows and frequent witty quipping, but his only real function is to give out exposition and help the leads get from Point A to Point B. He decides to stick around at the film's end, though, so perhaps we'll get a deeper understanding of him in the third film. Hopefully we can expect the same for Valka (Cate Blanchett), the aforementioned mysterious dragon-riding woman (and - spoiler!! - Hiccup's mother), who, again, doesn't have much plot purpose beyond exposition and rescues. Although she is the focal point of the most riveting and gorgeous of the flying scenes, and the source of the most emotionally deep and beautiful moments in the film (her reuniting with Stoick after 20 years is wonderful), she slowly fizzles out when the climax appears, suddenly needing rescue several times over after previously seeming to be the most capable character in the entire film, and by the end she's nothing more than an Inspiring Words Dispenser for Hiccup. Since Stoick - spoiler!!! - dies in Dragons 2 (a matter which, besides a decent Viking-burial-at-sea scene, has all weight dropped from it afterwards, without even a "sorry your dad died" from Astrid), Dragons 3 should, again, hopefully give us more of Valka, who is frankly too damn interesting to be relegated to the status of "the Gandalf".
Upon my first viewing of How to Train Your Dragon 2 on Friday, June 13, I found it extremely disappointing, and felt completely crushed for the rest of the weekend. When I saw it again on the 17th, I actually enjoyed it much more, to the point that it changed the tone of this review considerably. Knowing the story problems ahead of time, I was able to focus more on the beautiful scenery, which remains stellar. I guess I was just in a strange sort of mood on my first go-around, but regardless of the viewer's emotional state, Dragons 2 has a number of flaws and missed opportunities that hinder its many positive qualities. The visuals and the music are as spectacular as one could ever dream of, but where the original was nearly perfect, in my viewings of the sequel I found myself mentally rewriting it.
