Can't wait to take my wife and daughter to see this next week. Was gonna watch it no matter how bad the reviews would've been. Loved loved loved part 1
Just saw this in 3D and it blew me away. Everything lived up to the original; the score was fantastic, the animation set a new bar, and the story was phenomenal. Best sequel since Empire Strikes Back. Cannot wait to see it again.
movie was amazing, but I wish the villain didn't exist -- dragged the story down
animation is top notch, happy with the sequel, no sequelitis there.
impression spoilers
the love story in the movie is the best one I've ever seen in an animated film and I'm fucking pissed they killed off stoic immediately after because that should've continued into the next movie
Story was a little disconnected and didn't flow very well, I wonder if there was some issues with script development?
Aside from that -- loved it. Some really immense and impressive moments emotionally and visually all throughout. Can't wait to get into the soundtrack.
It was such a fucking letdown... just... ugh. It was just so damn emotionally hollow. Everything it did felt like it was them going "Oh people liked this from the first movie so do that more," except without any of the buildup or heart behind it. And what are supposed to be big emotional moments just come off as empty. The villain sucked, Astrid sucked, Hiccup's whole "arc" had nothing to it. Just... ugh.
Two or three good sequences, but otherwise, doesn't come close to the first one.
No joke, I personally go to movies now to care about what happens to characters and how they progress. I actually feel the film is perfect, minus some small censorship issues to hold it back to a PG rating.
After watching Miyazaki films for their stories/2d animation for over 15 years, and really enjoying the first HTTYD...this film is something really really special.
Just saw this in 3D and it blew me away. Everything lived up to the original; the score was fantastic, the animation set a new bar, and the story was phenomenal. Best sequel since Empire Strikes Back. Cannot wait to see it again.
No joke, I personally go to movies now to care about what happens to characters and how they progress. I actually feel the film is perfect, minus some small censorship issues to hold it back to a PG rating.
After watching Miyazaki films for their stories/2d animation for over 15 years, and really enjoying the first HTTYD...this film is something really really special.
I actually disliked this film very much. I have quite a few issues with it, but I think the main problem is how it deviates so much from the first film's direction and focus. Clearly an unpopular opinion, I admit, I probably just had different (not necessarily high) expectations.
Still holding up on RT. My goal from the get go was for it to hit 90%, so I am pleased thus far:
I am not surprised at some of the negative reactions. From time the second trailer hit it seemed clear that this film would have different emotional timbre from the original. This was bound to put off some fans of the original film.
Still holding up on RT. My goal from the get go was for it to hit 90%, so I am pleased thus far:
I am not surprised at some of the negative reactions. From time the second trailer hit it seemed clear that this film would have different emotional timbre from the original. This was bound to put off some fans of the original film.
Fantastic film, I liked it quite a bit better than the first one (which I still loved). Breathtaking visual direction and attention to detail. The main good characters were well written, with the villain and side characters sort of not all that, but it didn't really detract from the film as they really nailed the good stuff. Story wise, briskly paced with lots of good ups and downs. I found the last 15% of the film not quite as good as the rest, but not by enough to detract from the rest of the film.
Overall I would definitely agree with the current RT scoring of 90-100%. In the upper echelons of animation for sure.
My favorite scene was:
Where his mother was first introduced, before we knew who she was. The way she appears from beneath the clouds and then disappears before swooping in, it was a sort of perfect non-hostile 'Dragon Rider Duel' that I would imagine. Followed up with a quick down moment with Toothless nearly drowning and then a massive up with the reveal and ensuing scenery. Great stuff.
So far the biggest disappointment of the summer for me. It wasn't bad, I would give it a B-, but I loved the first one so much that my hype was through the roof for this one. It was charming and funny and the animation was amazing but the movie just didn't work for me. I think my biggest problem was the lack of world building. There was none, the whole universe is made up of a few rocks and Berk it seems and people just show up as the plot dictates. Again its not bad by any stretch but ESB it is not. Not even Toy Story 2 levels of world building or story telling.
Just came back, and as someone who loved the first and considers it one of the best CG animation movies ever made, I was really disappointed by this one. If you told me if this was a just a cash grab sequel, then I wouldn't have even bothered to watch it. So yeah, the hype added to the disappointment quite a bit.
There are cool moments, funny scenes, and great animation, but I had a lot of problems with the story. It was unfocused, contrived, and had barely any character development. The character development that exist couldn't hold a candle to the first movie. It was like oh bad guy becomes good guy for no real reason whatsoever and suddenly are we expected to cheer for the character? There's multiple events that I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes because it just happened so it can setup a cool scene later with no natural progression (stupid villain syndrome as one of the prime examples).
It also made the events of the first movie retroactively worse as most sequels with the same characters do. But nah, I'll just pretend the sequel never existed. You can say this is a kids movie anyway and I'm expecting too much, but unfortunately the first movie was so good at development of the relationship between Toothless and Hiccup that I really had to be disappointed with the sequel.
Also,
what's up with his mom acting all wild with the mask on? It wasn't developed on at all and there's no real reason for her acting all feral within the movie which didn't translate at all to her actions without the mask on. That was all for nothing but looking cool.
It's not that the ideas were terrible, but they were executed terribly. I would have kept the same story arc, split it into two movies, with more focused development on the individual themes presented plus some real world development. The exploration angle went nowhere fast.
Thought it was pretty good but it wasn't as solid structurally as the first one. The story was a bit nessy. Still very enjoyable but first one was better.
This movie was fantastic. I, my wife, and our 6 year old son loved every minute of it. Amazing animation, light, color variety, by turns touching, tragic, thrilling and funny. Just a great, great movie. I want to see it again, there's just so much detail and so much going on I'm sure I missed a lot.
I liked this film a good deal. It didn't meet up to the insane hype, but it was a very well-done, gorgeous film. This is something that would have met old Pixar's standards. Dreamwork, I am glad you are no longer garbage.
I also decided to watch the official trailer. How could marketing make such an utter mess? This is on the same level as Terminator Salvation.
Eh. I have not seen it yet, so I cannot say, but just go see it for yourself and decide.
While reviews are not an end-all metric, they are still a good guideline as to the chances of whether you will like a film or not. I don't see that going to a movie with a 92% RT score is a big risk.
I was pretty let down by this one. It was more focused on the uninteresting supporting cast than I would have liked. The thrilling world building and the relationship with Toothless and Hiccup gets the short shrift after a fun 5-10 minute section near the beginning. Its overall structure also felt too familiar to the first and way too rushed in some aspects. Major bummer, but still has a few fun sequences and has decent ideas, just not all that well executed. I'd give it a C+.
what's up with his mom acting all wild with the mask on? It wasn't developed on at all and there's no real reason for her acting all feral within the movie which didn't translate at all to her actions without the mask on. That was all for nothing but looking cool.