Dragons!!
So! Today I went to see the How To Train Your Dragon sequel. Verdict: If you liked the first film, you should see the second! It's good!
If you do go to see it, though, I recommend watching the first one a few days before that. I did, and I think that it was a good decision. It meant that the story of the first movie, specifically the struggle to find peaceful co-existence with dragons, was fresh in my mind, and it meant that the state of the world at the beginning of the second movie had a greater impact. If I didn't have that going in, I don't know if I would have enjoyed it as much as I did.
Anyway. Visually, it was awesome! In terms of everything else, it was also good! I'm going to talk about it a little bit more, but I can't go into specifics without giving some really spoilery stuff away, so. Under the cut--!
Oh crap, where to start. Uh.
Well, I guess I'll start with the biggest thing: Hiccup's mom. HOLY CRAP, IS SHE EVER COOL. And to think, when I was doing the rewatch of the first movie, I kept thinking about how disappointing it was that she wasn't in the picture (apparently dead), because it would have been cool to have her there. I wanted some awesome warrior women, damn it. Astrid is cool, but she wasn't really what I was looking for in that regard (I wanted an older, motherly warrior kind of character. There were some in the background, but none with speaking parts). But here she is!
Anyway. Tl;dr, I fucking love Valka. When she first appeared I was like HOLY SHIT. Though of course I had no idea who she was, it was obvious she wasn't a villain, but holy shiiiiit her "battle" costume....! AND THEN. When she's interacting with the dragons. It was just so cool, the way she bonded with them - similar to Hiccup, but different, more... graceful? And how caring she was toward the dragons who'd received injuries because of the villain, it put her in kind of a healer role, and -- well, I like that kind of character.
I think that there might have been a few changes to concept somewhere. In the first film, what little information we get seems to imply that she's a big broad lass with a similar build to Hiccup's father Stoick. But then in this film, she's built more like Hiccup. So, I dunno, it made me wonder if they hadn't originally planned on a second movie. Perhaps not.
There were a few things about the film that I didn't quiiiite like and wish could have been snipped a bit or something. Firstly, the whole... minor character love triangle thing between Ruffnut and the guys in that friends group. I get that the kids from the first movie are teenagers/early adults now, but did there reeeealllyy have to be that "fighting over the girl" stuff? Honestly. Are girls hard to come by in Berk or something? (Actually, considering the state of the town in the first movie before they made friends with the dragons, it's actually possible that they would have population issues of some sort, and that people would be really focused on getting married early so that they could have kids before dying in battle against dragons. That cultural aspect wouldn't change easily, I think. But this wasn't discussed in the film). Anyway. I wouldn't have minded a LITTLE bit of it, but the amount that was there kind of annoyed me.
Another thing that bothered me was... well, just one scene. That one where Stoick is singing to Valka and there's all this tension... I get what the aim was; some kind of tension and reconciliation, some kind of trying to get back what was lost. But for me, it didn't come out the way it had been intended; it wasn't as... effective as it was intended to be. Maybe that scene was just a tiny bit too long? It might be something like that.
But honestly, aside from those two things, I didn't really have an issue with it. I don't feel it's quite as good a movie as the first one, but it's a really nice addition onto it, and I'm definitely glad that I went to see it. Though I ended up crying while I watched it, hah! (Or... two or three times... I'm such a damn sop). Couldn't help it, though. Family stuff just Gets to me, okay. Though when Stoick died I just -- crap, poor kid, he spends his whole life thinking he's lost one parent, and then as soon as he discovers she's alive, he loses the other one. Poor Hiccup, ugh. (And damn it, I liked Stoick - even with, or maybe because of, all his flaws as a parent).
So, yeah. Good movie! Go see it if you liked the first one. :D
This entry was originally posted at http://yuuago.dreamwidth.org/3328939.html. You can comment here or at the original entry.
If you do go to see it, though, I recommend watching the first one a few days before that. I did, and I think that it was a good decision. It meant that the story of the first movie, specifically the struggle to find peaceful co-existence with dragons, was fresh in my mind, and it meant that the state of the world at the beginning of the second movie had a greater impact. If I didn't have that going in, I don't know if I would have enjoyed it as much as I did.
Anyway. Visually, it was awesome! In terms of everything else, it was also good! I'm going to talk about it a little bit more, but I can't go into specifics without giving some really spoilery stuff away, so. Under the cut--!
Oh crap, where to start. Uh.
Well, I guess I'll start with the biggest thing: Hiccup's mom. HOLY CRAP, IS SHE EVER COOL. And to think, when I was doing the rewatch of the first movie, I kept thinking about how disappointing it was that she wasn't in the picture (apparently dead), because it would have been cool to have her there. I wanted some awesome warrior women, damn it. Astrid is cool, but she wasn't really what I was looking for in that regard (I wanted an older, motherly warrior kind of character. There were some in the background, but none with speaking parts). But here she is!
Anyway. Tl;dr, I fucking love Valka. When she first appeared I was like HOLY SHIT. Though of course I had no idea who she was, it was obvious she wasn't a villain, but holy shiiiiit her "battle" costume....! AND THEN. When she's interacting with the dragons. It was just so cool, the way she bonded with them - similar to Hiccup, but different, more... graceful? And how caring she was toward the dragons who'd received injuries because of the villain, it put her in kind of a healer role, and -- well, I like that kind of character.
I think that there might have been a few changes to concept somewhere. In the first film, what little information we get seems to imply that she's a big broad lass with a similar build to Hiccup's father Stoick. But then in this film, she's built more like Hiccup. So, I dunno, it made me wonder if they hadn't originally planned on a second movie. Perhaps not.
There were a few things about the film that I didn't quiiiite like and wish could have been snipped a bit or something. Firstly, the whole... minor character love triangle thing between Ruffnut and the guys in that friends group. I get that the kids from the first movie are teenagers/early adults now, but did there reeeealllyy have to be that "fighting over the girl" stuff? Honestly. Are girls hard to come by in Berk or something? (Actually, considering the state of the town in the first movie before they made friends with the dragons, it's actually possible that they would have population issues of some sort, and that people would be really focused on getting married early so that they could have kids before dying in battle against dragons. That cultural aspect wouldn't change easily, I think. But this wasn't discussed in the film). Anyway. I wouldn't have minded a LITTLE bit of it, but the amount that was there kind of annoyed me.
Another thing that bothered me was... well, just one scene. That one where Stoick is singing to Valka and there's all this tension... I get what the aim was; some kind of tension and reconciliation, some kind of trying to get back what was lost. But for me, it didn't come out the way it had been intended; it wasn't as... effective as it was intended to be. Maybe that scene was just a tiny bit too long? It might be something like that.
But honestly, aside from those two things, I didn't really have an issue with it. I don't feel it's quite as good a movie as the first one, but it's a really nice addition onto it, and I'm definitely glad that I went to see it. Though I ended up crying while I watched it, hah! (Or... two or three times... I'm such a damn sop). Couldn't help it, though. Family stuff just Gets to me, okay. Though when Stoick died I just -- crap, poor kid, he spends his whole life thinking he's lost one parent, and then as soon as he discovers she's alive, he loses the other one. Poor Hiccup, ugh. (And damn it, I liked Stoick - even with, or maybe because of, all his flaws as a parent).
So, yeah. Good movie! Go see it if you liked the first one. :D
This entry was originally posted at http://yuuago.dreamwidth.org/3328939.html. You can comment here or at the original entry.