Fantastic!

Rating: 9/10 (16 June 2014)

Intense, powerful, stunning. These are a few words that you may hear used to describe Dreamworks Animation's How To Train Your Dragon 2. It is certainly one of the best sequels ever made. The film picks up the beloved duo of Hiccup and Toothless five years after the also excellent first film, and walks a new path in family-oriented animation. To explore the depth of this incredible film, we'll look at Story, Character, Music, and Animation. Starting with story, which is after all the heart of a good film. Ultimately the story is that of a young man struggling to find who he is inside, and having to face the sometimes harsh realities of growing up. He must deal with adversity, and anger while finding the courage to fight for all that he knows and loves. He must face an enemy called Drago Bludvist who is out to destroy all that is good. The story is written by Dean DeBlois who, for the first time is minus his co-writer Chris Sanders who worked with DeBlois on titles like Lilo and Stitch. Personally, I think he's done a better job on his own, and a magnificent story is the result. Overall, the story and plot flow nicely. Some may think it to be a little rushed, but in reality that's the point in order to keep the audience on their toes. In the end, there are plenty of loose ends, but that's okay, because we have Dragon 3 to wait for in 2016 where lots of questions will be answered. Now moving on to characters where there may be some weak points. Let's start by saying that Stoick, Valka, Hiccup, Gobber, and Toothless are well written and don't really have much room for improvement. However, Astrid, Eret, Drago and the other dragon riders do. Astrid for example is a voice of reason for hiccup... for a scene, makes Drago mad... for a scene, and is Hiccup's cheer leader... for the rest of the film. She could have had a better part in all that happens, but she didn't. Eret, as many notice in the trailers turns over to Hiccup's side, but it seems a little too fast. it is understandable because it's made clear that Drago is cruel to him, and the dragon riders were a perfect opportunity for him to turn his back on Drago. If you ask me, I think his turn could have been drawn out just a little to add some dramatic flair into the story, but in the end, the way it was done worked great. Drago Bludvist, the villain was introduced fairly late on, and we never find anything out about him. Of course there is the third film on its way and surely we'll find out some things about him like why does he have a dragon paw for an arm? Or why does he hate dragons so much? Drago is an example of an undeveloped character but it just adds to the mystery of the man. Finally the other dragon riders. Once again, they are kind of just there for comic relief. They don't do anything noteworthy, even though there were several opportunities for at east one of them to do something of the sort; unfortunately, I doubt this will change much in the third film. Now, the grandiose score which is once again composed by JOhn Powell. Powell's score for the first film was nominated for an academy award, and this new one most surely will also be nominated and hopefully win this time. On it's own, the score can pluck at your heartstrings, and when added into the context of the film, there are several moments where it amplifies the emotional content drastically. Like any well written film score, it tells the story, and makes the film better. Powell built off of and re-arranged some cues from the first score to fit the new content and tone, while introducing some incredible new themes including two collaborations with musician Jonsi. Ultimately, the score makes the film what it is, without the score the film would be almost dead. There is bad news in this because Powell will not be returning for the third film and we can only hope whoever picks up the franchise will do just as good of a job. Lastly: animation. The quality is extremely good. It's damn near believable. New techniques and software were applied to make bodily movement as realistic as possible. Also, Lighting coordinator Roger Deakins returns! Deakins is an award winning cinematographer who understands lighting well enough to make animation look realistic, which adds to the overall quality of the film. The amount of time, care and detail put into the quality of animation on this film really shows on screen. Overall, this film is incredible. It's will be a hard one to beat for this year. It possesses the ability to make the audience laugh, or cry, or just sit dumbfounded by "what just happened". "Dragon 2" is deep, emotional, fun, and visually stunning. It really is far better than the first, whether you look at it on it's own or in context of the big story. It is the rare kind of sequel that instead of just being there, it expands on the plot of the first film, and leaves room for the next, which doesn't happen often enough. How To Train Your Dragon 2: in a word, sturdy, and will surely be enjoyed by generations to come. It is a film worth seeing, and it's fun for the whole family. Overall rating: 8.6 Recommend: without hesitation.