The almost perfect animated movie. Made me highly ambivalent

Rating: 8/10 (13 June 2014)

This movie is great in many ways. The visuals are absolutely breathtaking. The dragons are cute and powerful. The dragon battles and flying scenes are amazing. The character designs fit perfectly with everything about each character. Hiccup now has designed an arsenal of awesome dragon related tools including his own wings and a flame lightsaber (don't worry, it's explained well).
In a deeper way, this movie has many great aspects. The movie takes place 5 years after the first one, making Hiccup 20. Early on, you find out that Astrid and Hiccup are engaged. They're relationship doesn't get much screen time but the screen time it does get is well used. They really only spend 2 moments being "couple-y". In the first, Hiccup and Astrid discuss whether he will become chief of Berk as his father now wants him to be. They have a healthy, good discussion that is a great model for real couples. Absolutely brilliant. Later on they have a stereotypical "We Won" kiss scene at the end but it's still quite sweet and cute. As far as the other teenagers from the first movie, they seem to all be infatuated with the apparently sole other teenage female in Berk (with the exception of her twin brother, of course). This is weird, forced, and unnecessary throughout the whole movie. I'm not really sure why it was there and than that it was kind of funny (but this movie had much funnier and less questionable moments so this seemed a waste). This is the first of my three complaints about this movie.
The other relationship we see a lot of in this movie is Valka, Hiccup's mother, and Stoic, Hiccup's father. They are also sweet and cute. This relationship is really well done throughout the whole movie. But, after a really epic battle scene between Stoic and Drago Bloodfist (the antagonist, if the name didn't give that away), Stoic is killed...by Toothless while Toothless is under the mind control of a crazy super dragon who was under the control of Drago. Maybe I didn't see the meaningful reason for Stoic's death, but to me it seemed like a lazy way to force Hiccup to become chief at the end of the movie (which, had they decided to keep this plot line up to the standards of the rest of the movie, could have been resolved without Stoic's death and with much more reflective growth on the part of Hiccup). This is my second and biggest complaint.
My final complaint is that it is never really explained how Drago can control the Alpha dragon which controls all other dragons. It is vaguely suggested that he does it through intimidation and fear but how he could control the beast that dwarfs the thing at the end of HTTYD1 isn't really elaborated on.
This movie has a lot of meaningful elements in relation to Hiccup and his parents, and the nature of control (which of course, because the movie is good, rails against it). In the end, Toothless, after having defeated the Alpha and become super over powered, is the new leader of all dragons and decides to liberate them.
The movie is good and a lot of fun but seems to be lacking in a few key areas. Naturally, as the second part in a trilogy, it felt highly incomplete. Definitely worth seeing but might leave you conflicted