Read Mixed User Reviews for How to Train Your Dragon 2

5

TVJerryJun 25, 2014

This sequel takes place 5 years later, when brave Hiccup and his dragon have united their species in harmony. Then comes a villain who wants to enslave them all. The plot and dialogue are pretty mundane, the characters lack any spark orThis sequel takes place 5 years later, when brave Hiccup and his dragon have united their species in harmony. Then comes a villain who wants to enslave them all. The plot and dialogue are pretty mundane, the characters lack any spark or originality, but the animation is lovely. There's too much dialogue for young audiences, but enough action sprinkled throughout to entertain. Overall, an uninspired and unspecial followup. (I don't understand why several of the Vikings in this village have Scottish accents.)… Expand

3 of 5 users found this helpful32

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4

SoapertJun 14, 2014

As soon as the movie started I could tell something was off. The only character that expressed any real emotion was Toothless, everyone else seemed so lifeless. During most of the dialogue the characters mouths moved and words came out, butAs soon as the movie started I could tell something was off. The only character that expressed any real emotion was Toothless, everyone else seemed so lifeless. During most of the dialogue the characters mouths moved and words came out, but they were so inexpressive it didn't feel like they were actually living characters with something to say. The entire film lacked in humor and had less charm than a single frame of a Disney or Pixar film. This was disappointing because I quite enjoyed the first one.… Expand

10 of 19 users found this helpful109

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6

CrackerJack77Nov 4, 2015

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. How to Train Your Dragon 2 is a mixed bag for me, on the one hand, its disjointed, annoying and preachy, but on the other its gorgeous, thought provoking and deep. It has many amazing shots and touching pieces of dialog, but it has just as many polar opposite moments. If I had to sum up my thoughts on this movie in one word, it would be disjointed. There are many amazing scenes in this movie, when Hiccups father is reunited with his wife it is truly touching and extremely emotional. But the surprisingly plentiful scenes of the girl twin swooning over arin son arit son of arene son of Arathorn, is strait up stupid, its totally disconnected from the tone of the rest of the movie and was clearly thrown in there because every family movie needs to have comic relief characters. Ugh, actually the friends in general, aside from Astrid, are painfully stupid to watch. They don’t add to the story and they do not need to exist, why are they even such main characters in this movie? You could have had just Hiccup, Astrid, Stoic, and hiccups mom be the main characters, it’s really baffling. And while you’re at it, add Gobber to the list. He is probably the worst offender aside from the twin girl. When he interrupts the scene where Stoic and Hiccups mom are singing to each other just pulls me out of the scene every time. He completely breaks up the scene and it feels completely separate from what we are experiencing. In the first movie he was the kids mentor and he taught them and the audience about dragons, but here… he’s just pointless! Except for creating laughs for the kiddies to giggle at, and that’s not a character. I don’t care about Gobber when him and Stoic are going after Hiccup, I care about STOIC! Gobber is one dimensional and not funny… to me anyways. *sighs* and all of these points can be put towards the twin girl and the rest of the friends as well. Its funny they actually have a resolution for the two guys trying to impress the twin girl, like what the heck? Why should I care about that? Short answer, I don’t. Its jarring compared to what’s actually happening and it just pulls me out of the movie and leaves me wishing they were just eradicated from the whole movie. And if they did that, then it woulda been like 20 minutes shorter!
But other than that, I really do like this movie. While I do have more negative reactions inside when I here this movies name, I do like quite a lot in this movie. Like the animation, its stunning. Anything to do with water, ice, or hair looks photo realistic. Its insane. The character models have gotten a MUCH needed upgrade. Hiccup ACTUALLY looks like a freaking human! But I do think that because they used motion capture, the people do seem a little jerky… particularly in the first act. But its not really a problem, just an observation.
The relationship between Stoic and the mom is really heart wrenching. I do feel like these two are in love I believe their story, and it really is heart breaking when Stoic dies, while I don’t think Hiccups reaction is handled very well at all, I do feel for him and when they send him to… val hallah? Right? Right. The relationship between Hiccup and Toothless is really the anchor for the whole thing. You really get the idea that these two have been best friends for a while and they have gotten really good at working together. However I do have a problem with toothless, and the portrayal of dragons in general.
I think they went a little over board with the intelligence of dragons and they make them borderline human. In the first movie, Toothless was intelligent, he had coherent thoughts and a distinct personality. But he was still an animal, it never felt like he was just as smart as his human companion. In Dragon 2, he is borderline human. And it is really disjointed from the first movie. Now, the designs of the new dragons are far, FAR better than the first one. They look truly awesome. One
last thing about the dragons, is anyone else perplexed at why night furies would evolve to have their back spikes be split in two, without them knowing? Like toothless almost lost hiccup twice because he couldn’t fly alone, but he had this hidden feature that his species hid from themselves? What’s the evolutionary advantage? Why would toothless not know about this super useful ability that is a part of his physiology? It makes zero sense, but that’s really just a nitpick and doesn’t affect the overall story.
Overall, How to Train Your Dragon is a mixture of downright amazing, and painfully silly. It’s deep and emotional, and stupid and silly. I have quite a few problems with it, but all in all it is a great time.
HtTYD2 gets a 6/10, stunningly beautiful, yet painfully silly.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

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4

EmmeNov 4, 2014

The storytelling in this movie is really bad, the emotional elements like loss, sacrifice etc are just dealt with on a very superficial, bad tv style level, there are a lot of plotholes. The dragons are cute, though, but I feel this is one ofThe storytelling in this movie is really bad, the emotional elements like loss, sacrifice etc are just dealt with on a very superficial, bad tv style level, there are a lot of plotholes. The dragons are cute, though, but I feel this is one of the animated movies that drags the genre down instead of lifting it up.… Expand

2 of 5 users found this helpful23

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5

Genghis_SeanJun 13, 2014

Pretty steep step down from the original which I thoroughly loved. It's significantly darker than its predecessor and less funny. The characters, story, dialogue, and writing have all gotten worse. I took my daughter, who really likedPretty steep step down from the original which I thoroughly loved. It's significantly darker than its predecessor and less funny. The characters, story, dialogue, and writing have all gotten worse. I took my daughter, who really liked Astrid in the original. Though a girl, she was driven in a way no other character was and outperformed all the boys with her determination. In the second book, she's abandoned all that ambition and spends most of the movie doting on Hiccup. She identifies now seemingly as nothing more than his future wife and has hardly any lines. That was disappointing. They did introduce another major female character, but she was nowhere near the inspiration that Astrid had been. Similarly, the lessons from the first movie, to see past our prejudices, are nowhere to be found. The story is muddled, and the jokes don't work nearly as well. I'm sure kids will like the action, but adults will be mostly bored. I certainly was.… Expand

6 of 16 users found this helpful610

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4

foxgroveJun 29, 2014

Beautifully animated and astoundingly designed, this is never- the- less let down by a so so story line that is unwieldy, over indulgent and finally quite boring. It's a shame because the first film was such a surprise. Alas, there in liesBeautifully animated and astoundingly designed, this is never- the- less let down by a so so story line that is unwieldy, over indulgent and finally quite boring. It's a shame because the first film was such a surprise. Alas, there in lies the key. The first film was quite fresh. This sequel may not necessarily be re-hashing events, but the spark of originality has gone. Aside from the afore mentioned pluses only the score adds any further distinction.… Expand

3 of 8 users found this helpful35

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5

SEROJAug 4, 2014

Decent animation! I'm not going to spoil anything! You may like it but trust me it's really not that good as everyone say. 5/10 is the only true rating for this movie

1 of 3 users found this helpful12

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4

AnevaySep 5, 2014

I think that them killing of the father lowered my experience of this movie to horrible. It would have been much better movie if the king would have survived. The director needs to get fired and work at mcdonalds.

1 of 3 users found this helpful12

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4

DudeUnknownDec 30, 2014

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This was a pretty bad movie. First of all, the audience targeted was poorly executed. They tried to make it for kids and adults, but kind of failed. The dark and violent atmosphere vs. the random cartoon guy you all love! The one part that really made me hate it was the stupid idea to kill off Hiccup's dad right after he got reunited with his wife he hadn't seen in years. It reminds me of the insane, unnecessary plot twists and drama in Downton Abbey, which was terrible.… Expand

1 of 3 users found this helpful12

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6

masseyJan 17, 2015

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Five years have passed since the events of the first movie and we're already thrown into how much Berk has changed since then and how much more of a community it feels with the presence of dragons. Things such as Dragon Racing at Berk are fun to watch and it's nice to see all the different ways in which dragons have come to use and how everyone has become adapted to being around them. Hiccup's new inventions were very cool; kudos to the filmmakers for coming up with those very nifty ideas.

One of the things that struck me at first was how beautiful the film looked; the visuals and animation were vastly improved on the first and characters, dragons and scenery looked and felt more alive than ever. There's a lot of attention to detail such as small character quirks and Toothless playing about in the background with other dragons. That being said though, having dragons pop in and out of frame in the background is overdone by just a touch and distracts from important dialogue and events occurring in the foreground.

The introduction of Hiccup's mother in the movie feels a little too rushed; I thought that maybe she would have been brought in in the third film. Furthermore, the little mention of Hiccup's mother earlier on in the film takes away from the surprise of the reveal. However, it's nice to see the two finally get to bond, Hiccup discovering that he takes a lot from his mother, and the reunion with the whole family, when Stoick stumbles across his wife, is very heartwarming indeed. "You're as beautiful as the day I lost you." - this may or may not have brought a tear to my eye...

The moment when the film begins to lose its balance, and almost ejects you from the immersion is when Drago Bludvist, the antagonist, is given very little build-up, despite the mystery surrounding the character at the beginning of the story, and is suddenly seen launching an attack on the dragon home inhabited by Valka, Hiccup's mother. The remainder of the film at this point feels rushed, as if the filmmakers realised they'd forgotten about the threat they'd introduced at the start of the film. I wasn't entirely convinced that Drago was a menacing villain, despite his plans and actions in the film, and the filmmakers hit a bit of a sour note on making the antagonist black, something a little cliché in animated films and just a little bit racist too.

The battle at this point in the movie feels a little too reminiscent of the final battle in the first installment, making it hard not to draw comparisons between the two. Stoick's death was emotional but I expected a greater reaction from everyone else, especially Hiccup and Valka as they'd just lost the chance of being reunited as a family. Having Stoick killed off and Valka there to 'take his place' as a parent for Hiccup just seemed a little too convenient.

I felt a little disappointed with the climax and ending; though it regarded more the connection between Toothless and Hiccup, the final battle at Berk was a little too short for my liking. Other than Hiccup becoming chieftain and taking his father's mantle, the ending just makes it feel like not much had happened, that there wasn't much of a lesson to learn and that there was little difference between the beginning and end events of the film.

Though I don't mind the emphasis put on the relationship between Hiccup, his mother and his father, I feel that other characters weren't developed enough and that some of them were merely there for comic relief. The changes made to Astrid felt a little off; yes, you can tell that it's meant to be the same Astrid from the first film and yes, five years have passed but the character's appearance and characterisation is softened and a little watered down from the strong character that she was in the predecessor. It felt like she was only there to be the established 'love interest' who we don't really get to learn much more about. Eret, the dragon trapper and a new character to the series, was one of the only other characters who had sufficient development and subsequently had believable motivations.

How To Train Your Dragon 2 is a good film and is worth the watch, carrying a lot of heart and is guaranteed to make you smile, laugh and maybe even break into tears but the sequel loses its footing with a story that rushes itself in its second half and fails to develop characters as it did with its predecessor.… Expand

1 of 3 users found this helpful12

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6

MercentJun 13, 2014

Your ten year old will probably love every minute of it but you will just have to enjoy the popcorn. How to Train Your Dragon 2 sticks to the tradition of lackluster animation sequels. 6 points, for old time's sake.

5 of 18 users found this helpful513

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6

imthenoobOct 22, 2014

Hated the first movie but decided to give the second one a chance and it's such a massive improvement. The story is well done and it's interesting from start to finish. Manages to keep both kids and adults entertained as well. Only complaintHated the first movie but decided to give the second one a chance and it's such a massive improvement. The story is well done and it's interesting from start to finish. Manages to keep both kids and adults entertained as well. Only complaint is that it drags on a bit too long.… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

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6

Larry223Oct 26, 2014

Esta película no es demasiado alejada de la anterior. Hay muchos cliches y aunque quiere tener una trama mas seria, los personajes no se toman con seriedad si por ejemplo: esta apunto de llegar una guerra entre cientos de dragones. Ademas elEsta película no es demasiado alejada de la anterior. Hay muchos cliches y aunque quiere tener una trama mas seria, los personajes no se toman con seriedad si por ejemplo: esta apunto de llegar una guerra entre cientos de dragones. Ademas el protagonista Hipo aquí tiene 20 años pero parece muy tonto, cuando tiene un dragón enfrente que esta por matarlo el se queda quieto sin hacer nada en ves de huir, defenderse o intentar calmar al dragón. otro problema es que cosas como un reencuentro o la muerte de alguien es algo de 5 minutos para superarlo. Las emociones no son tan reales como en la anterior película. La animación es muy buena igual que como la anterior pero eso es lo único que mejoro ligeramente de la anterior. Ademas hay cosas que no entiendo como el control mental del jefe dragón, todos los reyes dragón tienen eso? Si es así, pues, como el de la primera película no uso lo mismo para evitar que los dragones escaparan para que el si comiera? Ademas al final sale un Deus Ex Machina. No me gusto tanto como la anterior. Le doy un 06/10 no supera a la anterior, es casi decente.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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6

LelchelseaJan 19, 2015

How to Train your Dragon 2 was not a bad movie but it certainly wasn't the best. I believe it didn't improve on its predecessor but instead fell short of it. The dynamic of the group in the first one was much stronger and even then focused onHow to Train your Dragon 2 was not a bad movie but it certainly wasn't the best. I believe it didn't improve on its predecessor but instead fell short of it. The dynamic of the group in the first one was much stronger and even then focused on many more characters. In the second movie it is more focused just on Hiccup and his family making other characters seem boring or unnecessary. Many people believe this was a deep and dramatic turn animation film that is a masterpiece to withhold but just because it tackles many mature aspects doesn't mean it succeeds with them. How to train your Dragon 2 is still a good movie but really isn't the stuff of animation legend.
.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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6

TyranianApr 7, 2019

Perhaps a bit better than first film with good villain and visuals but dodgy screenplay.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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4

DolphinReviewsJul 21, 2022

A pretty weak sequel. Came out of the theatre feeling empty. It's below average.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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