Plot: The film takes place five years after the events of the first film. Since then, Vikings and dragons have been living together as friends, Hiccup and Astrid are engaged, and Hiccup's bond with Toothless has become stronger than ever. But while exploring new parts of the world, Hiccup and Toothless come across men who are hunting dragons under the leadership of a man named Drago. When Hiccup's father hears about this, he refuses to tell Hiccup about what he knows about him aside from stating that he's very dangerous. Hiccup doesn't listen to his father however, and goes on a search to find Drago in attempt to convince him to turn from his ways. But along the way, he and Toothless are captures by Valka, who turns out to be Hiccup's long-lost mother, and she shows him a utopia for dragons.
Just learning half of what the story is from one of the trailer of this movie made me feel a hundred and ten times more interested than I ever really was in the first movie. For those of you who haven't read my review for it, I more or less said that it is good considering it's unique world of all the different locations and kinds of dragons they came up with...but what really hurt the film was how the story line - especially when it concerns Hiccup keeping Toothless a secret and his relationship with his father - was a little predictable. So ultimately, I thought it was good, just had a story that kept me from wanting to watch it again. This movie on the other hand, blows the first one out of the water hands down. If I wasn't invested in the first film, you can be darn well sure I was with its sequel. I'm not sure where to begin with what makes it so much more interesting. I guess I'll start off by saying that I really like the idea that it takes place years after the first one. With Hiccup especially, it's great that we have him be less of more or less a wimp in a sense, and now has grown up to be smarter, less clumsy, and more mature. Just the mere design of his character for this film says it all really. Plus he now has this suit with all these different kinds of features, which was pretty cool. I also found myself enjoying his relationship with Toothless a lot more. And I enjoyedlike the moments between him and his mother. They both have grown to have this passion for learning about dragons and how they are not evil, and it is nice to see how easily they bond because of that. The comedy is much stronger in this movie too. I don't think I even really chuckled at anything in the last film, but this one had some pretty cute moments. Also they went bigger and better when it comes to the different locations and dragons. The animation for the places in the movie is so much more creative and I really enjoyed how they kept giving us more and more different species of dragons. The mere concept of the Alpha dragon along with the plain design for the Bewilderbeast is a great idea. If there is only one problem with the film, and sadly it's a big one, that would have to be Drago as the villain. In short, he was sadly very one noted as villains go. My brother, Johnathan, who watched the movie with me and our mom stated how its especially a shame that he turned out to be not all that interesting, despite how much they built him up. A good portion of the first half of the movie consists of people like Hiccup's father or the dragon trappers stating what a crazy and dangerous man is. And when we get to him...his design is kinda cool, and some of his actions do cause some serious devastation to the main characters. But his motivation is cliched on top of really rushed, his personality was nothing new, and on the whole, he was kind of a bore.
And that's my review for How to Train Your Dragon 2. The animation was better, the world was bigger and more creative, the characters are much more developed and enjoyable to watch, and the story is much more stronger. The villain was a dud, but at the end of the day, this to me is another perfect example of what a good sequel should be: a film that takes the world, characters and story from the previous film and expands it to much more creative lengths. If you haven't seen this one yet, I highly recommend it.
Rating: 90%
Brilliant review, but I felt the movie is near better than the first and but otherwise I would never gotten to the cinema and see it that in the big screen for myself. It is but a worthy sequel although I may watch again after seeing it in two times before.
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