Good addition of concepts and depth to a sequel story

Rating: 7/10 (14 June 2014)

The story still focus on Hiccup, the hero from the first movie. Now, five years from the first movie, Hiccup's village Berk has already adapted to the dragons. Hiccup's father Stoick grooms him to be the next chieftain but he's reluctant at it and prefers to explore new areas. One day while exploring, Hiccup and his dragon Toothless found a band of dragon trappers, who work for Drago. Hiccup tells Stoick about it but Sroick gets afraid and seals the village. Hiccup escapes to go and talk sense into Drago about dragons. In his journey he stumbles to a masked dragon rider, who turns out to behis mother Valka. She reveals to Hiccup about a less-known alpha dragon, which all dragons obey.
Stoick and friends follows Hiccup. Stoick reunites Valka, right in time when Drago attacks. Valka calls upon the alpha but to everyone's surprise, Drago brought his own alpha, which wins the battle against Valka's alpha. Thus all the dragons, including Toothless, surrender to Drago. Toothless, against his will kills Stoick with his fire burst. Drago then goes on to bring the battle to Berk. Hiccup and his band of riders get the baby dragons, the immature dragons which don't listen to the alpha yet, to Berk where he then manages to disenchant Toothless. Toothelss then challenges Drago's alpha and wins, and the alpha and Drago flees. The rest of the dragons then bow to Toothless.
The base story is quite good because it gets more mature and dramatic compared to the first movie. Now the movie gets more emotional by giving not a perfectly happy ending, instead the story executes a character change from one character to another by the means of a return and death. The story design is quite nice because it's able to stand as itself without the overwhelming need to watch the first movie.
Instead I found some discrepancies to some detail that will be clear especially if you've watched the first movie. For example, the story is set from the first movie, when Hiccup was still a 15-year old teenager, but the funny thing is that Hiccup's voice doesn't really change, when he should've grown an adam's apple which would've deepen his voice. Also, while Astrid gets a bit of body work in five years, Hiccup's body growth is virtually unnoticeable.
But the changes offered but this installment is quite nice. About four years from it's prequel, the thing about Hiccup's mother appearing is a good thing, though it should've been predictable from her absence in the first movie.
The cast is quite the same from the first movie, which is a good ensemble of actors. The new additions of voices from Cate Blanchett and Djimon Hunsou is also a good one. About Djimon Hunsou especially, he has quite an easily recognizable voice, and the character design can compensate this well enough by giving the white raced Drago dread-lock hair.
The new concept of ice-spitting alphas, and the ensuing epic alpha battle, is just a great addition to keep viewers' eyes on the screen. The practical jokes of dragon behavior gets more cute and funny in this installment, having new dragons join in to the dragon roster.
For me, How To Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) deserves a 7 out of 10 score and a definite recommendation to go and see in the cinemas. It's a fun and good family movie to enjoy together.