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| It's a Viking with an iron prosthetics wielding a retractable flame blade, on a dragon. This is officially the most awesome thing I've ever typed. |
The opening starts with a bang, a spectacular dragon race. It shows one of the very thing that the fans of the first movie came for: fluid and exhilarating flight sequences. The animators already showed that they have done quite a research on aerodynamics in the first one, but there they certainly outdone themselves here. The combination of dynamic camera angles, actually effective use of 3D effects, and fantastic soundtrack that is a great reprise ("Where No One Goes" by Jonsi) of an already great theme from the first movie ("Test Drive" by John Powll), made the flights feel like what I dreamed they would feel like when I was a kid.
In fact, all the action scenes were absolutely glorious - fights on air, fights on ground, dragon vs dragon, viking vs viking - in terms of action scenes, I'd dare say it is far beyond the level of most hectic festival of explosion, brawl, and noise that is most big budget summer blockbuster movies. Unlike some of those, however, ''Dragon'' didn't have an annoying shaky-cam that was an ineffective rip-off of Paul Greengrass of Bourne series fame, so the action scenes were a very clear and comprehensible, something that I absolutely loved about Joss Whedon's "The Avengers"and Disney's ''Tangled.''
The opening was also a part of what I personally find the most impressive about this movie. Vikings adapted after the introduction of dragons, such as stables, feeding stations, fire-extinguishing system, etc. Not only that, with the help of his dragon buddy Toothless, Hiccup was managed to make a map of the world around them. I especially loved when Hiccup said that ever since they became friends with dragons, they learn more about their world and understand people better. That kind of elements are exactly what should be in a good speculative fiction, be it science fiction or fantasy - if a speculative elements are introduced to a setting, there should be an in-depth exploration how it influences the society the characters live in and how it makes it different from reality. That is what it means to have imagination, that wonderful thing which breathes life into a speculative fiction.
Adding to the speculative elements, there were plenty of humanistic elements as well, in particularly character interactions that were enjoyable to watch. It find it amusing that there are so many instances of romance in this one than the first one; ineffective love around Ruffnut, both receiving and giving end, young and developing love between Hiccup and Astrid (who has grown into quite a tender-hearted beauty), and mature one between Stoick and Valka...it was quite lovely (I make no apology). Fortunately, it didn't make the blunder that most non-romance movies make and didn't let romance taking too much focus and overtaking the movie, using it just enough for cuteness and humor, and aid for character development and and poignancy, just the way I want romance to be handled. At least, such is my attitude regards towards non-romance movies; I'm sure different standards might apply in chick flicks and romantic comedies.
Of course, there are far more to character interactions in this movie than just the romantic. The crux of character drama was Hiccup (who has grown into a quite awesome gadgteer badass) and his conflicts on looming responsibility as next village chief and inevitable battle with the main villain are the source of tension in this movie. Throughout the movie, the theme of maturity and responsibility were explored in a consistent manner. Although far from completely satisfying, this movie managed to take an already developed character and developed him further, which is quite impressive, even if you don't compare it to vast majority of works that don't even have any kind of development at all. The last time I've seen this kind of feat is Hiromu Arakawa's magnum opus graphic novel, Fullmetal Alchemist and its (more faithful) adaptation, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. I find it hard to not to have any kind of feeling of awe and respect when Hiccup and Night Fury are crowned as the village chief and the Alpha.
Unfortunately, I wouldn't quite call this movie perfect, and I must agree with many critics that the movie wasn't quite as good as the first one. The one I found the most obvious was that there were just a bit too much going on in terms of plot and characters. In the first movie, it was pretty much just about Hiccup and Toothless, with side-dish of Stoick. The movie kept the main story arc simple, but filled with plenty of subtle details and progressed the story in a meticulous way, the element that, in my opinion, made the movie so unique and stand out, not just from animation, but from many works of speculative fiction that came out from last decade.
In this one there were simply not enough time and space for newly introduced plot elements and characters. This becomes especially apparent in Hiccup's reaction to shocking turn of events, such as meeting his mother who was thought to be dead, or witnessing his father's death upon the hand (claws?) of his friend, even though the latter was under mind control. I believe those scenes required at least a bit more display of confusion, anger, or any other form of emotional struggle, but they were resolved a bit too quick for my taste. In most animated works I wouldn't expect those sort of depth, but I think it is fair to do so this time.
In addition, I felt that Eret was tad bit redundant as a character. His main character arc of learning the better side about dragons were something that was already covered in far deeper depth in the first movie. His place in the plot was far too insubstantial in proportion to his screentime. I suppose Ruffnot having crush (that borders on lust) on him did make a good comedic material, but all in all, I believe that even without him the plot wouldn't have been changed too much. Perhaps he wasn't really meant anything beyond a comic character with a short moment of action.
I think that more screentime should have given to the main villain, Drago Bludvist, who I think is the biggest of the problems of this movie. There is no doubt that he was a a threatening character, a force to be reckoned with. Outside of his arguable awe-inspiring way to control dragons, however, there was not a whole lot to distinguish him from generic overlord type villains, the kind that I strongly believe that fantasy fiction should grow out of, with even more generic excuse. Oh dear, he experienced dragon attack since he was a child? That certainly distinguishes him from vast majority of the characters in this series.
Everything around him is really a lost potential. He was a man who ''initially'' wanted to protect people from dragons, but ended up as an overlord who only interested to subjugate dragons so he can do the same to people as well. Other characters in this movie thought that he was irredeemable and unchangable, but Hiccup at least initially thought he could be changed. I think it would have been interesting to explore in depth Drago's corruption from a protector to a dictator the reaction of Hiccup of seeing the ideal that he thought was a truth being challenged. To give the the movie credits, though, the conclusion of the last battle and the ending narration by Hiccup could be viewed as the triumph of harmony and friendship over power and fear.
That said, none of the flaws I pointed above are really significant enough to hinder the sheer fun and emotion that the movie exude. It was so full of energy, imagination, and emotion that there wasn't a single moment that I wasn't entertained. While not quite up to the standards, this is a truly worthy sequel, the kind that goes beyond just retracing on the success of the previous film. There is the third movie on its way, and let's hope that the creators keep up the good work, and that Dreamwork doesn't abandon this franchise even though this film didn't success as commercially as hoped.
