Fun but lacking

Rating: 4/10 (16 November 2014)

Five years have passed since the events of the first movie and we're already thrown into how much Berk has changed since then and how much more of a community it feels with the presence of dragons. Things such as Dragon Racing at Berk are fun to watch and it's nice to see all the different ways in which dragons have come to use and how everyone has become adapted to being around them. Hiccup's new inventions were very cool; kudos to the filmmakers for coming up with those very nifty ideas.
One of the things that struck me at first was how beautiful the film looked; the visuals and animation were vastly improved on the first and characters, dragons and scenery looked and felt more alive than ever. There's a lot of attention to detail such as small character quirks and Toothless playing about in the background with other dragons. That being said though, having dragons pop in and out of frame in the background is overdone by just a touch and distracts from important dialogue and events occurring in the foreground.
The introduction of Hiccup's mother in the movie feels a little too rushed; I thought that maybe she would have been brought in in the third film. Furthermore, the little mention of Hiccup's mother earlier on in the film takes away from the surprise of the reveal. However, it's nice to see the two finally get to bond, Hiccup discovering that he takes a lot from his mother, and the reunion with the whole family, when Stoick stumbles across his wife, is very heartwarming indeed. "You're as beautiful as the day I lost you." - this may or may not have brought a tear to my eye...
The moment when the film begins to lose its balance, and almost ejects you from the immersion is when Drago Bludvist, the antagonist, is given very little build-up, despite the mystery surrounding the character at the beginning of the story, and is suddenly seen launching an attack on the dragon home inhabited by Valka, Hiccup's mother. The remainder of the film at this point feels rushed, as if the filmmakers realised they'd forgotten about the threat they'd introduced at the start of the film. I wasn't entirely convinced that Drago was a menacing villain, despite his plans and actions in the film, and the filmmakers hit a bit of a sour note on making the antagonist black, something a little cliché in animated films and just a little bit racist too.
The battle at this point in the movie feels a little too reminiscent of the final battle in the first installment, making it hard not to draw comparisons between the two. Stoick's death was emotional but I expected a greater reaction from everyone else, especially Hiccup and Valka as they'd just lost the chance of being reunited as a family. Having Stoick killed off and Valka there to 'take his place' as a parent for Hiccup just seemed a little too convenient.
I felt a little disappointed with the climax and ending; though it regarded more the connection between Toothless and Hiccup, the final battle at Berk was a little too short for my liking. Other than Hiccup becoming chieftain and taking his father's mantle, the ending just makes it feel like not much had happened, that there wasn't much of a lesson to learn and that there was little difference between the beginning and end events of the film.
Though I don't mind the emphasis put on the relationship between Hiccup, his mother and his father, I feel that other characters weren't developed enough and that some of them were merely there for comic relief. The changes made to Astrid felt a little off; yes, you can tell that it's meant to be the same Astrid from the first film and yes, five years have passed but the character's appearance and characterisation is softened and a little watered down from the strong character that she was in the predecessor. It felt like she was only there to be the established 'love interest' who we don't really get to learn much more about. Eret, the dragon trapper and a new character to the series, was one of the only other characters who had sufficient development and subsequently had believable motivations.
How To Train Your Dragon 2 is a good film and is worth the watch, carrying a lot of heart and is guaranteed to make you smile, laugh and maybe even break into tears but the sequel loses its footing with a story that rushes itself in its second half and fails to develop characters as it did with its predecessor.