“Well… at least I’m not boring. Right?”
Hiccup and company are back, exploring and expanding on life in Berk given their now harmonious relationship with dragons. The growing pains of integration are rightfully skipped so the focus can be placed on how the new status quo has changed and expanded their world. The first movie is a favorite of mine, and I’m happy to finally have had a chance to watch the follow up.
It’s a competent sequel that packs a lot of action and emotion, but honestly is missing something. It lacks whimsy compared to the original, and seems to replace it by just cranking everything up several notches. The battles are overwhelming in their scope and there were parts of the movie where I just felt overloaded. The comedy is also much less integrated. It was seamless in the first movie, with touches of humor placed throughout to lighten the tone unobtrusively. Here the tone was darker in general, and when comedy happened the movie kind of stopped for it.
That’s in no way to say How to Train Your Dragon 2 is bad or unsuccessful. The plot is solid, the characters endearing, and it packs several strong emotional punches. It was a smart, safe sequel that I enjoyed a lot and recommend. It just didn’t quite capture the magic of the first movie. A lot of fun on its own merits though.
Derailments of Thought 