Review of How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) by Genghis_Sean — 12 Jun 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 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.