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Httyd2 Reviews [spoilers]
Topic Started: 12 Jun 2014, 23:51 (9816 Views)
Berknation
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[color=red]
[b]Titan Wing
[/b]
[/color]

Here you can express your thoughts of the new movie.

Did you enjoy the music? The characters? What was your FAVORITE part?
Did you dislike anything?

We want to hear what YOU have to say!
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Tessem7
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Dragon Trainer

First I'll start with the cons:

I thought that some of the plot was forced, but otherwise I loved it. Drago didn't have much time to develop, but I think he'll be back for the third film since it doesn't show what happened to him. Hiccup looks over the cliff for his body and sees nothing. I also really didn't like Gobber in this film. I liked him in the first because he played a good supporting role. He is a main character in HTTYD2 and I just find him annoying, which I suppose is the point of the character. But how fucking dare he interrupt Stoick and Valka's song, twice!
I also didn't like the lack of explanation as to why Toothless is now able to glow blue and explode out of an ice prison. His fight against the Alpha was really cool, but I just want to know how he got out of the ice prison and why he couldn't do that before. Maybe there will be further explanation in the third film since he is now the new Alpha.

And now for the pros:

The atmosphere of the movie is brilliant. Berk is full of bright colors and it cheers you up when you see it. Valka's cave is dark and scary. The beach outside of Valka's sanctuary is dull and grey and gives a nice somber tone for the battle.

The music. Holy shit, is the score good. It's a lot different from the first, though. The first is big and heavy. The score for this movie is lighthearted and jumpy. I didn't like it at first, but the more I listen to it, the more I like it.

Animation and lighting. Overally, animation and lighting quality is much improved on the first movie, even though it was amazing to begin with. The movie is a treat for your eyes.

The fight scenes. They were all good. The giant battle felt big. It had multiple main characters running around the battle doing different things. It was chaotic, it was fun to watch. The best fights, in my opinion, were Valka vs Drogo and Toothless vs the Alpha at the end. Toothless at the end of the movie just asserted his badassery. It was fun to watch and it was a good buildup for the third movie.

The Hiccup/Toothless bond. This element made the movie. How do you trust your best friend if he kills your father, even if he wasn't in his right mind? The movie was an emotional rollercoaster for Hiccup and it showed. He's frustrated with his father, meets his long lost mother, reunites the family, then loses Stoick and Toothless at the same time and eventually gets Toothless back. This really builds on Hiccup's character and makes him much more determined leading into the end of the film.

And last but not least, Stoick's death. It was done well and tastefully. Stoick goes out in a blaze of glory by saving his son from a threat he didn't expect. I knew it was coming (spoiled it for myself with the soundtrack titles) and I still cried like a baby. It was a proper sendoff for a great character.

Overall, I give the movie a 9/10. I really, really loved it, but there were some problems with pacing and developing Drago as a character.
"Thank you for summing that up."

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HideousZippleback
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[color=blue]I'm just here for Snotlout.
[/color]

One thing I want to point out is that for me the music just didn't fit most scenes (especially the war scene) and made it feel less dangerous and thrilling in my mind...
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And...Yep...I'm a Nerd
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Terrible Terror

Pros:

- Unreal animation. Seriously it should get an Oscar nod simply because of this. I've not seen it's equal. Every little detail was perfect.
- The score set the tone for each scene wonderfully in my opinion. At least for me, music is about half of a movie's emotional resonance.
- It never forgets what it's supposed to be about. It nurtures the friendship between Hiccup and Toothless like it should.
- Hiccup and Astrid is done as it should be done. Enough to satisfy the shippers without turning the story into Twilight.
- Voice actors are on point. Lines are delivered with the appropriate amount of weight and characterization.

Cons:
- Hyper fast pacing left little room for enhanced characterization. As a result I was left wanting when it came to explaining why Valka never returned to her family and Drago's motivation.
Hiccup: Dragons are kind, amazing creatures that can bring people together
Drago: Or tear them apart...
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KentuckyWildcat
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Raw Vikingness

I finally got to see it this afternoon, so I might as well contribute a review here.

The good news is that not only is the movie visually stunning, it never once felt like a sequel made out of corporate obligation. There's a very clear narrative arc here, and that story is worth telling. It primarily follows Hiccup as he's unsure of his place in the world as he grows up and is expected to become chief. He knows he isn't a traditional Viking warrior like his father, Stoick. Instead, based on his past experience at convincing the residents of Berk to accept the dragons, he considers himself to be an unrivaled peacemaker who can convince even the worst of men to see the light just by talking to them. The lesson he learns costs him dearly as it takes Stoick's death to show him that fighting for those you love isn't always a bad thing. This leads to a wonderfully emotional scene in which he realizes that lesson at his father's makeshift funeral. I couldn't keep from crying a bit, and that almost never happens to me. By the end, he's fully embraced the challenges of being a leader and protector even if his style is a bit different.

There's other plot lines going on as well, most importantly Hiccup being re-united with his long lost mother Valka. This actually works better than I was afraid it would as they're both initially wary of each other and Valka fully realizes her mistake in never returning to Berk and asks Hiccup (and later Stoick) for forgiveness rather than coming off as perfect. The roguish dragon trapper, Eret also makes an interesting new character. He starts out as a supplier of dragons to the primary villain Drago, but switches sides once he's about to be executed after outliving his usefulness to Drago. It's never really clear whether he's completely good at heart, or if he's mostly just looking out for himself, but I like the ambiguity in this case.

However, there are some flaws, some more major than others. On the minor side, I was let down that Hiccup's stong-willed girlfriend Astrid did very little besides serve as his cheerleader during the climactic battles. She got one good scene at the beginning to show him some legitimate emotional support, but beyond that her only real purpose was to blurt out something dumb in front of Drago that caused him to turn his attention to Berk when he might not have otherwise. Given that she's generally far more intelligent and cool under pressure than, say Snotlout and the twins (who were present at that moment), it seemed out of character for her.

Drago's motivation for seeking world domination also needed more attention than it received. He hints that his village/family were slaughtered by dragons long ago, and shows off the missing arm he evidently sustained during the attack. It would make sense for him to harbor resentment towards dragons, which he does to a certain extent, but it's never made clear how he made the leap to using an army of dragons to dominate other men. I would have liked to see that fleshed out more completely.

My biggest complaint was with the ending though. It relied heavily on the poorly explained concept of there being an alpha dragon which can somehow exert mind control over the other dragons. The scenario starts with Valka living with a benevolent alpha (a massive Bewilderbeast) which provides sanctuary to her and the dragons she's rescued from Drago over the years. Drago's secret weapon turns out to be his own cruel Bewilderbeast which promptly kills Valka's apparently makeing it the new alpha by default. It promptly forces all of the dragons, including highly intelligent ones like Toothless and Valka's dragon Cloudjumper to serve Drago.

The latter point is important to my gripe with this whole thing, because despite obedience to the alpha apparently being involuntary for adult dragons, the loophole that allows the good guys to stay in the game is that baby dragons are immune to the alpha's influence simply because "they don't listen to anybody". This naturally begs the question as to why other dragons couldn't just choose to disobey the alpha, especially when Toothless is able to snap out of it after all with some convincing from Hiccup. Things get even more convoluted when Toothless challenges the alpha. Up to this point, it would seem that only a Bewilderbeast can serve as an alpha and the mind control is an ability inherent to that species. However, Toothless proceeds to challenge the alpha, and despite not defeating it in any tangible way starts exerting his own mind control on the rest of the dragons who flock to his side because they can somehow sense that he's the good guy. It's all a logical mess in my opinion, and it hurts the movie a bit as a whole.

Overall, I would definitely recommend it. The heart that made the first movie great is still very much there, the new characters are mostly worthwhile additions, and the animation is beautiful, and the primary narrative is great. The only thing holding it back is a very confusing (if not downright illogical) ending. I'd give it 8.5/10
Come death. Come suffering. I will not live in fear. In this fleeting life where time escapes us, the path of least resistance is a slow quiet death. I'd rather burn out than fade away.
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Berserk Shieldmaiden
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Superior Warriorness

Just got back from seeing the movie. I thought it was a very beautiful and amazing movie.

Didn't care much for Gobber interrupting during beautiful moments.

I loved Valka's character. She's feels for dragons the same way I feel about reptiles. I identify with her.

The viking funeral scene was beautifully done.

I loved the test of Hiccup and Toothless's friendship.

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Toothless
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the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself

I don't think the alphas use mind control. They probably use a type of intimidation. Therefore allowing the toddlers or baby dragons to not be under it's control. The whole part where toothless chalanged the alpha was amazing and I didn't want an explanation at the time because none of the Vikings knew how toothless did it either. I don't know how toothless snapped out of the alphas intimidation trance but I just granted that to him and hiccups extremely powerful bond. I didn't like eret though I felt as though he were almost unnecessary except to take stoicks dragon and be head of the dragon trapping outfit ( which could have been unnamed characters ) but that's just my opinion. 9.5/10 generous

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Cartoon Freak
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Deadly Nadder

This is probably getting way off-topic, but I'm going to say something. Intimidation isn't going to do the following two things:

1. Drastically change how your eyes look.

2. Get you to try to kill your best friend.

So yeah, it's definitely mind control, or something close enough to it. And the more I think about it, the more I'm inclined to just entirely ignore the concept of alpha-ism as actually granting power, and just go with "Bewilderbeast mind control" for all relevant scenes. It fixes all the plot problems that aired from the concept of alpha-ism, and only creates one minor characterisation problem. Well, that and a problem of execution, of course, but that's definitely a lesser evil.
Number of times I've watched the trailer: 18.

My pet peeve: people who refer to complete strangers by their first name. The correct ways to refer to a "John Smith" whom you have never met are Smith, Mr Smith, or John Smith. Not "John". He's not your buddy.
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Toothless
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the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself

It's probably not intimidation then :-/ but my other theory was that the bewilderbeast controls the dragons much like the red death did. and in the first movie they compared the red death to the queen bee of a bee hive so maybe they are alike but I don't know enough about bees and how they work to prove this

But maybe it is just mind control

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Pyr0mancer
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Hatchling

I finally got to watch it!!! Anyways... I wonder if there is ever gonna be another night fury? Maybe at itchy armpit:). Also something I realised that when Valka drew her map, it resembled alot like Earth as a whole, what do you think? Was Valka able to discover that much in 20 years?
I also loved it when Toothless drew whatever he was trying to draw:)

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