Too Bad the Story Was Dragon

Rating: 5/10 (8 January 2011)

Let's get the positive out first, for a first. I LOVED the graphics in How to Train Your Dragon. In a lot of ways, even though it was animated, it was thoroughly more believable than the similar Avatar.
Yep, I said positive, as in singular, not that the movie was bad, or was dragon (ha, uh, never mind) but the story was so incredibly basic, clichéd, predictable and overdone that even though it might have had "heart" at its core, I was so overwhelmed with the same'ole'same'old'stuff that I couldn't get into the characters. It probably doesn't help that I CANNOT STAND Jay Baruchel. Even his voice. And he's the main character, Hiccup.
I've been told this is geared towards kids. Yeah, blah, blah, I know, but in the age of Pixar, or heck, the last of the great Disney Dynasty films: The Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin or The Lion King, there is NO excuse for not having a great, even mesmerizing script. And because of the weak screenplay, it shares more qualities with Avatar than just dragons(-like creatures.)
Like I reported: the graphics were amazing and brought you into their fantasy world. But so did Wall-E, and tell me which one was better when it came to having both cool effects in conjunction with a great story?
AnyhooHiccup is the weakest link in the village'o'vikings who battle dragons on a daily basis and being the son of the leader of the pack, Stoick (Butler) he has to prove himself. But, surprise, he can't when he does land one of the rarest of dragon breeds. Another surprise – if the title doesn't give it away – is that he both befriends and aids the recovery of the dragon when his tail was cut. Further surprise occurs when he learns they're not the threat his town folk fear and he becomes affectionate with Toothless, the dragon.
I'm having trouble coming up with more words that would precede "surprise" so let's sum up the rest: a girl he likes becomes suspicious, he must lie to protect both himself and his "pet/friend" and the finale's seen a mile away if you already knew the above after pretty much just the first surprise/spoiler's revealed.
I will say, the one "twist" they put on this century's old plot, was the dragon's motivations. I admit I liked that, but it wasn't enough to mask the other 95 minutes of predictability.
The REAL story here, and why I am recommending this, is the cinematography. The movie's beautiful and extremely well crafted. I've suggested leave-your-brain-at-the-door movies before, so I will here because otherwise you'll miss out on the beauty of this film. That said, I won't be rushing to see the inevitable sequel, but I'm glad I experienced this cinematic experience.