How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) Review

“You are as beautiful as the day I lost you”

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

The next journey can be far more exciting than the last one because you’ll see things that might top past surprises. 


PLOT


How to Train Your Dragon 2 takes place only 5 years after the events of the first film. The island of Berk now lives in harmony with dragons. Chieftain Stoick the Vast pressures his son Hiccup to takes his place, but the latter has been more focused on mapping out unexplored lands with his Night Fury, Toothless. One day, he and his girlfriend Astrid get ambushed by dragon trapper Eret who works for warlord Drago Bludvist, a man that wants to enslave all dragons. The couple do escape with their dragons and they warn Stoick about him, who remembers encountering him before. Long ago, he offered protection from dragons to each chieftain in a gathering if they pledged him. When they rejected his deal, he retaliated by having his own dragon army attack, in which Stoick survived. Not wanting a war to deal with a war, Hiccup flies with Toothless to convince Bludvist to change his mind. That plan gets derailed when he meets another dragon rider that happens to be his long lost mother Valka. She was presumed dead when taken away by another dragon and couldn’t bring herself to kill, thus rescuing as much as she could from Bludvist. Every dragons she’s rescued have settled into an ice nest where their own alpha, the fire breathing Bewilderbeast resides, who is capable of controlling them by emitting hypnotic sound waves. Stoick & Gobber (Craig Ferguson) do find Hiccup with their respected dragons, and would be delightfully surprised to reunite with Valka. With Stoick taking so long to bring his son back, Astrid demands Eret to take her and her crew to Drago. That only leads to them being captured by Bludvist and when he discovers Berk has its own village of dragons, he vows to go after it after finding Valka. He then tries to execute Eret for his incompetence, but when Stormfly protects him, he returns the favor by helping them all escape. Drago does catch up to them and reach Valka’s nest, resulting in both sides of dragons battling until Bludvist summons his own Bewilderbeast to kill the alpha and control all the dragons. During the conflict, Hiccup does urge with him to cease violence, but the antagonist refuses due to his own trauma of losing his family to dragons in his childhood. Bludvist then summons his new alpha to hypnotize Toothless and force the dragon to kill his partner. Stoick intervenes at the cost of his life. When Hiccup becomes grief stricken of such a loss, Bludvist takes the Night Fury with the rest of the dragons. Despite being doubtful, Valka assures her son Stoick always wanted to unite humans & dragons before they were separated. Motivated, he and his friends go to Berk with newborns immune to the hypnosis. By the time of returning to Berk, Hiccup is able to free Toothless from the alpha’s control in his last confrontation against Bludvist. The new alpha does try encasing them both in ice, but Toothless blasts it all away which frees all the other dragons. The Night Fury then makes a last shot at shooting off its left tusk, causing it to retreat with Drago, earning the alpha role in the process. When Berk starts going through repairs shortly after victory, Hiccup accepts the responsibility of chief and Valka declares to stay in the village with him.


THOUGHTS


Dreamworks is known to act fast compared to Pixar with getting sequels done once they know what audiences are into. It was great we didn’t wait too long because writer/director Dean DeBlois is able to pick up where he left off in what has been a captivating narrative and then some. I still get hooked off of John Powell’s score and the rest is history because it’s not a surprise how much preciseness you get from the animation. I can go on about the specific details like the oceans and the ripple effects that the dragons create when flying by, but the biggest strength is of course the dragons themselves. Toothless is still just as adorable, whereas the new dragons are breathtaking. Particularly, it’s Cloudjumper the Stormcutter that had this mystique so hard to explain, while both Bewilderbeasts are so grand that they give Red Death a run for the money. And getting to see opposing dragon armies fight each other was quite the delight. In the midst of it all, you can still get your fair share of laughs, particularly when Ruffnut (Kristen Wiig), twin of Tuffnut (TJ Miller), crushes over Eret while Snotlout (Jonah Hill) & Fishlegs (Christopher Mintz Plasse) compete for her heart. What I think this one does differently is it’s way to say cooperation is better than animosity with one another. If we choose to let the past moments of trauma define us, we won’t be content with what’s left of our lives. Hiccup and Drago are two sides of the coin when it comes to maturity because they visibly handled it much differently. Jay Baruchel showed the protagonist to be extremely empathetic because whenever he hears and see so much bad to come from people, he prefers to try reasoning with them rather than act in a way in he’d find irrational. It doesn’t surprise me he chooses to think this way since that is what led to having a strong relationship with Toothless to the point he made his own wings to glide with him. As for the latter, Djimon Hounsou made Drago a captivating villain because he’s someone consumed by hate that he believes dominance is the only way to live life. I don’t blame him for feeling traumatized of what happened to him but if he had someone to help him cope with his loss, he would’ve not gone downhill. The fact his own Bewilderbeast chose to defy him by retreating after losing to Toothless proves that control is temporary. The further proof is that he had people and at least one of them went against him. Kit Harrington was another welcome addition as Eret because because while the guy was too cocky in his line of work, he sparked loyalty to Berk off of Stormfly saving him. Like Drago, he grew up seeing dragons as only threats and seeing one of them be selfless changed his philosophy then and there. He ended up earning Stoick’s dragon, Skullcrusher the Rumblehorn, because it recognized his trust and his own set of courage. If he didn’t have that, it wouldn’t be likely for him to get the right pair. Having said that, Hiccup is still the better man compared to Drago because he had people who taught him love is better than hate. Gerard Butler still had us respect Stoick because he was mostly on the same page with his son and while he saw his good intentions, still chose to think realistically in various dangers. Without question, his death is on par being as sad as to what was experienced seeing Mufasa die in The Lion King because he was selflessly protecting his only boy. It happens so suddenly that you can’t believe it until the other characters cope with it then and there. In this franchise’s perspective, he truly defined what a Viking was all about which was being downright brave and most focused, which are the exact traits Hiccup picked up on. If there is any bright side, both men got to see the last person they never thought they’d see again. Cate Blanchett fitted right in as Valka because she was able to pull off such independence in an environment she never thought to have been part of. It is her empathy towards dragons that spark her wisdom which is also what her son picks up on. She was well paired with Cloudjumper because they both relate to letting curiosity do the thinking rather than act impulsively. Because they live without anger, it’s easier for them to trust each other. It was even a relief Stoick wasn’t mad at her absence and was just happy to see her again because there really wasn’t good enough of a reason to blame her for anything past their control. Because she shared Stoick had a vision of harmony with dragons before they separated, that was the final puzzle piece Hiccup needed to not let his loss define him, hence quickly succeeding in saving Berk and the dragons. Last but not least, America Ferrera is still great as Astrid because she puts all her in confidence in not just herself but in the man she trusts can make a difference with his visible passion. If she can see it in him everyday, then Hiccup was bound to be a chief whether or not he’d lose his dad in the process. And if The Hidden World proved anything, he met those expectations. This movie was a blast, but there were still a few things that didn’t make sense to me upon rewatching. For instance, how did Astrid know where to find Hiccup in the opening? Itchy Armpit was undiscovered until he got there, so she’s lucky Stormfly had to have had some kind of scent to pick up on. The same goes with his friends and Stoick who basically left after his head start. I don’t even get why Eret and his team of trappers take so long explaining their purpose when they could’ve just killed them. There is no reason to tell your enemy who you are if you intent to cut ties fast. I don’t even see the point of Valka doubting Berk changed if Hiccup’s relationship with Toothless is good enough proof. It’s not fair for her to say people can’t change when she was willing to stay with the dragons she’s saved. Astrid also messes up by over sharing to Drago that all of Berk got their own dragons because that only made the village a prime target. Lastly, there was a continuity error in the climax where there was a tear in the blindfold Hiccup uses for Toothless to block the hypnosis and it drove me crazy more than the fact Drago chose to not take advantage of killing the protagonist just as he broke his dragon from it. Other than that, this movie is still worthwhile. In short, How to Train Your Dragon 2 is a great sequel for upping the stakes in terms of world building and crafting another bold story on its own. If you love the first one, see this as well.