In time for the Oscars, reviews of most of the movies I saw in 2010 Part II
How to Train Your Dragon (2010) **
Directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
"How to Train Your Dragon" looks pleasant enough, in a middle-of-the-road Pixar-y kind of way, but the story is so by-the-numbers that stretches of it feel like a chore. Within the first couple of minutes, the teenage Viking hero says he wants to kill a dragon so he can go on a date, and then you see everything out in front of you. Maybe I see too many movies.
I like that the dragons are essentially giant kitty cats, and the sequences where the boy finds and befriends his dragon would make a good short film. Cinematographer Roger Deakins (frequently collaborator with the Coen Brothers) is a visual consultant, and it shows in the way light comes through tree branches. The Vikings all have Scottish accents, probably because the thought of Vikings all staring out the window and muttering like characters in a Bergman film was too depressing to comprehend.
Copyright © 2011 by Peter Kovic
Movie Review Archive.
Directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
"How to Train Your Dragon" looks pleasant enough, in a middle-of-the-road Pixar-y kind of way, but the story is so by-the-numbers that stretches of it feel like a chore. Within the first couple of minutes, the teenage Viking hero says he wants to kill a dragon so he can go on a date, and then you see everything out in front of you. Maybe I see too many movies.
I like that the dragons are essentially giant kitty cats, and the sequences where the boy finds and befriends his dragon would make a good short film. Cinematographer Roger Deakins (frequently collaborator with the Coen Brothers) is a visual consultant, and it shows in the way light comes through tree branches. The Vikings all have Scottish accents, probably because the thought of Vikings all staring out the window and muttering like characters in a Bergman film was too depressing to comprehend.
Copyright © 2011 by Peter Kovic
Movie Review Archive.