How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
Rating: 3/5
By: Nathaniel Simpson
After two very successful films from Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, they needed to hit a home run once again to conclude the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy. In the effort to satisfy the fans in how the series will end, DeBlois gives us How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. Not having seen any of these movies before, I was the most excited for this one as it seems like it has a promising premise, beautiful animation, and a very climatic ending to the franchise. While it does have beautiful animation and great performances, the story here simply doesn't work for me. I feel like the movie kind of moves its way through the motions at a snail's pace, and doesn't earn the payoff it is trying to go for at the end of the film.
After the death of Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler) in the previous film, it is now up to Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) to take over the mantle of chief and lead the village of Berk. However. the land has become too overpopulated with dragons and vikings, forcing them to have to search for a new place for them to expand. Hiccup vows to bring them to the Hidden World, which is a haven for the dragons and the vikings to live peacefully. However, when dragon hunter Grimmel the Grisly (F. Murray Abraham) makes it his personal mission to destroy every dragon, especially one of the last Night Furies, he won't stop til his mission is complete.
This film had a very good idea for a great movie. We finally get to see Hiccup rise up and become what his father wanted him to be, and we are now seeing him take charge in protecting his village and stopping dragon hunters. Yet, this is not the film we got. This movie seems like it tried way too hard for the comedic moments or painting this idea of Toothless and his girlfriend. I do like the idea of Toothless finally finding a girl dragon, but they sort of went at it in the wrong way and consumed too much of the runtime of him chasing her. It seems like they really put the Hidden World idea, the idea that the movie is literally named after, on the back burner and then realized towards the end of the movie they had to tie it back in.
I don't think Grimmel is too great of a villain here. There is nothing that stands out about his character or makes him remotely dangerous. They have gone up against much more powerful and scary antagonists, so Grimmel seems like such a lackluster character for this conclusion to the trilogy. This goes to show once again how it seems like they had these ideas they wanted to do that they just threw them all together and prayed it worked. I wish we got so much more from the antagonist or at least made him much scarier or more threatening.
Not only does the story not really work for me here, but the entire thing is just a dull and boring drag. They combine all of these different ideas and character-driven scenes that don't all combine to make a good picture. Sure, they're fun and enjoyable at times (when Ruffnut (Kristen Wiig) gets captured and annoys Grimmel so much he lets her go), but they all don't work together. It's lazy writing, and they have scenes and segments that go on for way too long. I found my mind wondering throughout a lot of this movie and having to pull myself back in to what I was watching.
However, even though those are glaring negatives in terms of a storytelling aspect, the technical aspects are quite great here. The animation is beautiful once again, perhaps maybe even containing the best animated scenes in the entire franchise. When they go to the Hidden World, it is absolutely beautiful and breathtaking to see. The voice-acting performances here are again quite fun and you can really start to see the actors give it their all and feel incredibly comfortable in these roles. This is their third time around for most of them, so it feels like second nature to them now. I do wish we got more of Hiccup and Toothless together, but I did enjoy the chemistry that Toothless and the Light Fury had. While they did go in the wrong way about capturing their moments, I think there is something there that should have been explored.
There is no doubt in my mind that this franchise deserved a much more satisfying and rewarding conclusion than it got here. There are many elements I do like about this movie and there are many elements I despise, and it seems like they couldn't find a good balance between all of their ideas here. It's unfortunate that this is the finale we received, but I don't think it should tarnish everything this franchise has done up to this point.
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