Another hit, truly inspired

Rating: 8/10 (18 July 2014)

I loved the first movie.... the TV series also is brilliant. So I was keenly awaiting the sequel. Glad to say that I was truly impressed and very pleased with this movie, my children raved about it and we all left the cinema happy.
Is it as good as the original? That I am not sure about: the charm of the original; the growing friendship between toothless and hiccup; made the first film endearing, a "bromance" between dragon and boy. Dragon 2 is a great movie, indeed I think it is a brilliant, exciting and captivating movie; but there were more action scenes (which seems to be the norm for sequels: to include more action and CGI to pad out the story line) that started the warning bells ringing. I say this only because I note that Dragon 3 is already in production and I fear the descent into an all-out action movie.
There was some character development in Dragon 2, notably between Hiccup and his mother, but there were a lot more 2D characters; the story that begs to be told is the relationship between Hiccup, Astrid and their dragons. Although I enjoyed the action, I missed the character progression from the original film leaving some of the main figures in the background.
In summary, a great film, but worried that it might become too action orientated in the next installment.