Not as good as the ratings would indicate

Rating: 7/10 (16 October 2010)

I am rarely the guy who rates a movie lower than others. So let me discuss why.
I will start with the main reason - the characters. I hate to compare movies, but I have to use some reference here. Take Kung Fu Panda, perhaps the new gold standard in animation movies. Every characters was interesting in some way. They were all captivating.
Compare to this movie. I was not enthused with the main character. He was so...plain. About the only really interesting character was the female viking. She was a bit cliché (the tomboy thing,) but she held my attention more than the rest.
Then there's the plot. The underlying moral of the story is fine. It's standard now, in these movies, for some happy moral to be expressed. This movie is no different. And I have no issues with it. But the plot is almost non existent. The movie drags. I think because his interaction with the dragon drags a bit. There's the dragon, the training, the conflict with father, and the final scenes (where something finally happens.) That's about it.
Now the last 15 minutes...great, impressive, inspiring. So 7/10 for the last 15 minutes. Pull out all the stops here, I guess.
So by all means see this. And some people will enjoy more of the movie than I did.
But the ratings imply this is really good, over 8 out of 10. Very high for IMDb. I am not seeing it. Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, Robots, Cars, Finding Nemo ... all 8+. But not this movie.