Pretty much what you'd expect in any sequel

Rating: 7/10 (28 May 2015)

The best thing about "How to Train Your Dragon" was its originality. While "Toy Story 3" won the Oscar (hardly an original film), I much preferred the dragon movie. The second best thing were the eye- popping CGI graphics. The sequel, "How to Train Your Dragon 2" at least features one of these things and is worth seeing despite being completely unoriginal and, in some ways, a step back for the franchise.
The film features most of what you'd expect--a formulaic baddie, characters growing into themselves and the great flight scenes. What I did NOT expect was the unnecessary and confusing introduction of Hiccup's mother--something that NEVER made much sense and made her seem like a horrible person. The tribe didn't understand her and her love of dragons...so she left her husband and newborn baby!! Huh?! To make it even more confusing is that Hiccup, his dad and everyone else accepted her back with open arms. Call me odd, but I thought this entire plot line made no sense and was very poorly realized. Yet, despite all these defects, the film is entertaining and nice to look at...but nothing more.