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I just got back from seeing it, and I thought it was awesome. But if I had to make one change it would be to move Stoick's funeral to the end of the movie. Because right before it, Hiccup yells at Toothless and then the villain takes him away. So the emotion that I was supposed to be feeling in the funeral just wasn't there becuase the entire time I was like STOP WASTING TIME AND GO SAVE TOOTHLESS GAAAH. I mean that whole thing with Toothless was sadder to me than Stoick dying (though I kind of expected Stoick to die so I wasn't shocked by that) cause Toothless didn't have any control over his actions and Hiccup yelled at him  So I just wasn't able to really focus on the funeral. It's not a bad scene at all, it just shouldn't have been until the endOtherwise the movie was awesome and they somehow made Toothless even cuter in this one. I would've just shuffled that scene around so it would've had more impact.
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Jun 14, 2014 05:15
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now that I've actually seen the movie, I kinda see where the complaints are coming from. The closest Drago came to torturing the dragons was... Yelling and waving his harpoon around. Oh and smacking the chains the Bewilderbeast was pulling the boat with. Also, Hiccup keeps going on about "keeping the peace", it got really weird by the end
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Jun 14, 2014 05:16
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Triskelli posted:now that I've actually seen the movie, I kinda see where the complaints are coming from. The closest Drago came to torturing the dragons was... Yelling and waving his harpoon around. Oh and smacking the chains the Bewilderbeast was pulling the boat with. Also, Hiccup keeps going on about "keeping the peace", it got really weird by the end Well I thought the point was going to be that the dragons that Drago had captured were also "[Hiccup's] people" and needed saving, including the Bewilderbeast. It kept felt like it was coming up to that point but it never did?
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Jun 14, 2014 05:18
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One strange thing I noticed that they only brought up once and never again is that they never found another Night Fury. Although I think I'm okay with this, because I didn't want some weird Don Bluth ending where the animal sidekick unnecessarily scores a random girlfriend at the end.
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Jun 14, 2014 05:51
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Yoshi Jjang posted:One strange thing I noticed that they only brought up once and never again is that they never found another Night Fury. Although I think I'm okay with this, because I didn't want some weird Don Bluth ending where the animal sidekick unnecessarily scores a random girlfriend at the end. This seems like an obvious thing for the third movie, and I'll be shocked if that's not at least one of the things in the story that's gonna happen. And also it's obvious that Drago is coming back in the third one right? Alongside his Bewilderbeast. They dive into the water and disappear. There's an extended shot of Hiccup looking into the water they dived into. And also there's that bit where Toothless shot off one of the Bewilderbeast's tusks, his left one to be exact, so he's now missing his left tusk just like Drago is missing his left arm. Just like Hiccup and Toothless each missing their left appendages. Plus it seemed like they were going to be setting up Drago to fall by the Alpha's ice breath because his cape could withstand fire and that didn't happen, so I think we're going to get a bit more of Drago in the third one. Macaluso fucked around with this message at 05:57 on Jun 14, 2014 |
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Jun 14, 2014 05:53
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Yeah, that's my strong assumption.
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Jun 14, 2014 06:08
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Triskelli posted:now that I've actually seen the movie, I kinda see where the complaints are coming from. The closest Drago came to torturing the dragons was... Yelling and waving his harpoon around. Oh and smacking the chains the Bewilderbeast was pulling the boat with. Also, Hiccup keeps going on about "keeping the peace", it got really weird by the end The dragons of this universe are, for lack of a better term, emotional mirrors. They reflect your own traits back to yourself, which is how Hiccup and Valka "saw themselves" in Toothless and Cloudrider. They also give back to you what you give to them, which means that if you try to befriend them, they'll try to befriend you right back. But if you try to kill them, they'll just kill you right back as well. This is why Drago's "method" of domination actually made sense to me instead of him, I dunno, whacking them about with whips and stuff, because if he did that then they'd just eat his rear end. (And it kind of makes sense that dragons would be susceptible to what Drago does, because apparently this entire genus of creature is biologically predisposed to following the will of stronger, more dominant personalities. Even the first movie featured a kind of "alpha" that ruled them through fear and outright mind-control.) Which isn't to say that all of a sudden anyone can just dominate any dragon just by being empathetically forceful; it certainly requires a really specific sort of power and will to do so. If Hiccup tried to dominate an alpha like that, I'm sure he'd end up as a smear on the wall. And so the good thing about Hiccup's "way" of connecting with dragons, along with it just being nicer in general, is that anyone is able to do it. BrianWilly fucked around with this message at 06:47 on Jun 14, 2014 |
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Jun 14, 2014 06:43
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Irisi posted:And the score is amazing, John Powell was robbed of the Academy Award for best soundtrack. Bloody Trent Reznor and The Social Network. Are you me? Because this is literally my bedtime prayer every single night.
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Jun 14, 2014 06:48
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Just back from it, and enjoyed it quite a bit. One minor thing bothered me, though. Wasn't Toothless MUCH faster than all the other dragons in the first movie? It felt like he slowed down a bit between films.
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Jun 14, 2014 06:52
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computer parts posted:Yeah the twist is not an ESB level spoiler, it's more like in Kung Fu Panda 2 when you find out that Po is adopted. Thanks for the spoiler, I liked the first one but never got around to seeing the sequel.
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Jun 14, 2014 07:38
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ComposerGuy posted:Are you me? Because this is literally my bedtime prayer every single night. I think every film score fan agrees with that. An I -liked- the Social Network score.
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Jun 14, 2014 17:14
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ClearAirTurbulence posted:Thanks for the spoiler, I liked the first one but never got around to seeing the sequel. A panda whose "father" is a goose is fairly obvious.
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Jun 14, 2014 17:23
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computer parts posted:A panda whose "father" is a goose is fairly obvious. You're right, someone should make a joke about that...
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Jun 14, 2014 17:28
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BrianWilly posted:See...to me, the connection between rider and dragon, and even dragon and other dragons, is entirely one of empathy, both positive and negative. This actually makes total sense.
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Jun 14, 2014 17:28
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This was pretty good and I think in terms of sheer enjoyment I got as much out of it as the first one. There's also no way the third film doesn't revolve around finding one or more other night furies. I also think there's a good chance Drago will show up again.
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Jun 14, 2014 22:35
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After rewatching the first one yesterday and seeing this one today, I think this one falls a little short (of a really rad movie so this sequel's still really great anyway go see it). The flight scenes and new dragon designs are incredible and it's amazing how much better the animation is only four years later. The reunions between Valka/Hiccup and Valka/Stoick were beautiful and probably the best parts of the movie! My one really big hangup is Drago. Considering the themes of the first movie and how Hiccup spends the whole first half of the film trying to persuade everyone to just let him talk to the supposed bad guy and reason things out, the actual resolution to that threat was really disappointing. Stoick and Valka are both like "yo we have to protect our own he can't be reasoned with!!!" and Hiccup's like "hey guys it's okay we got this little thing called theme" but then, no, we just need to blow this irredeemably evil dude's face up. Okay. I know there's a third movie coming and that Drago and the bad Bewildebeast are almost certainly gonna crop up again (probably), but the end of the movie backpedaling on what I feel is a strong and good message about communication and understanding kinda left a bad taste in my mouth. But now I gotta get that artbook for that gorgeous concept art.
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Jun 15, 2014 04:23
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Saw this earlier and I came out happy but thinking back on it I'm not sure if it holds up. It felt really really short, someone in the thread mentioned something happening 75% into the movie and when that moment obviously came up it clicked in me and I was like "Wow it's already this far into the movie?" The big bad felt really awful even for a kids movie and it just felt like nothing happened outside Stoick's death Maybe I should see it again, I dunno, just didn't click with me
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Jun 15, 2014 07:36
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ThisIsACoolGuy posted:Saw this earlier and I came out happy but thinking back on it I'm not sure if it holds up. It felt really really short, someone in the thread mentioned something happening 75% into the movie and when that moment obviously came up it clicked in me and I was like "Wow it's already this far into the movie?" Yeah, seconding all of this
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Jun 15, 2014 08:35
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Kaincypher posted:Yeah, seconding all of this Now I kind of feel this way too. I think the wishy washy wrap up without a really strong or convincing resolution is the issue here. Still really enjoyable and definitely visually stunning. That all being said, I feel like the first movie was a complete surprise and the development of the relationship between Hiccup and Toothless was a complete delight--it would be really difficult to recapture that, and I think this wouldn't be quite so bad in contrast to just how good the first was.
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Jun 15, 2014 10:30
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Saw it tonight - didn't think I'd see TWO Kaiju movies this year. And it was better built that the other one released this year, OR the one from last year. That being said I thought the movie was going to end when they were stuck on the island after the funeral. And it's pretty obvious that the bad guy who fell off a cliff and we didn't see the body, WILL be back. Along with a female Nightfury. I really hope they don't replay this plot in episode 3 of the franchise though. And I hope we get more time with the Dragon Hunter guy, he seemed to be being built up as the Han Solo scoundrel, but didn't have enough time to do it.. I give it 7/10, but the previous movie rated a 9/10.
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Jun 15, 2014 12:11
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It had the pretty standard animated movie runtime of an hour and 45 minutes. Actually, most animated movies are an hour 30.
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Jun 15, 2014 14:22
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I mean, the point with Drago is that there are some people that cannot be reasoned with. I mean once you get to the point of building an army spreading the message of "peace and love!" isn't going to be changing Attila the Hun's mind. Hiccup may have been right about the dragons but Valka and Stoick were right about Drago.
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Jun 15, 2014 15:02
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BrianWilly posted:See...to me, the connection between rider and dragon, and even dragon and other dragons, is entirely one of empathy, both positive and negative. But I suppose it's easier to make a villain a villain by showing him incapable of positive relationships with anyone, and it's still in line with his character to show him using domination and force to bring dragons to heel. The last animated film I can think of that had a villain with positive relationships was the evil king from Epic, grief-stricken over his son. I also really appreciated how, as you've said, Hiccup's method of training makes dragon-bonding available to anyone willing to empathize with a dragon. A lot of fantasy dragon novels (Anne McCaffery's Pern series, for example) like to go with the "imprinting" method, where dragons take to humans right out of the egg. But a major theme of this film (both films) is humankind's capacity to change and evolve away from prejudiced tradition. They have a similar theme in Naomi Novik's Temeraire series (think Patrick O'Brien's Master and Commander combined with How to Train Your Dragon - Napoleonic Wars with dragons gently caress yeaaaaaaah), where long-lived dragons actually inherit other riders - typically the offspring of the humans they initially flew with. It's a slow-paced series but hot drat the worldbuilding is phenomenal.
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Jun 15, 2014 16:46
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I would just like to give a great big "WTF?" to the UK promoters for putting a special early screening out for a movie that killed off Hiccups' most excellent dad in the single most traumatic way possible. On Fathers' Day. Seriously, the cinema I was in was full of twitchily traumatised small children and their daddies; it was the bloody Lion King all over again Apart from that, lovely movie. Totally agree with the pacing and plotting problems, but visually magnificent, glorious score, gorgeous moments between Stoick and Valka and Hiccup. Toothless continues to be my favourite animated character of all time by a significant margin; there are moments of purest genius in his design and mannerisms. And while I did like Valka -especially early on in the film, where her mannerisms are animalistic and marvellously creepy- I am wondering where on earth she was meant to be from. Cate Blanchett is an actor of many talents, but that accent she adopted was of no Celtic or Nordic country I've ever encountered.
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Jun 15, 2014 18:59
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To be fair neither is Hiccup's. Or any of the kids really.
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Jun 15, 2014 19:30
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redcheval posted:To be fair neither is Hiccup's. Or any of the kids really. Yeah, I suppose, but I can deal with that; it's the actors natural accents and it doesn't ever sound forced. Blanchett can do an English accent pitch-perfect, just let her do that, not...some odd, strained Scots-Irish-Yorkshire-Cockney-Cornish mashup. Kept taking me out the movie, wondering what part of the British Isles we were going to visit next.
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Jun 15, 2014 19:48
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All the adults have a Scottish accent in those movies, what with being voiced by Scotts (Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, David Tennant) I guess she was trying to go for the same thing? I don't know, I haven't seen in english yet. I guess Drago is a bit disappointing if you think about the theme they seemed to be going for at the beginning of the movie, but I never really doubted Stoick's word when he called him insane and dangerous, not to mention the thing about branding Eret for his failure. However, as a straight-up Maleficent-like baddie, I thought he was great! Great design, imposing presence, powerful, scary! As some said, having his relationship with the Alpha be sincere and loving, not unlike Ursula and her eels in The Little Mermaid, would have been great! Too bad that they missed out on that.
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Jun 15, 2014 21:15
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I'm really glad this was a good rear end sequel, it would be super easy to coast on how much of a big thing this franchise is now (I haven't seen any of the TV show so I don't know if they've been 'maintaining the brand' any well or what) but aside from the issues others have said that I pretty much agree with this was a quality experience. Me and my dumbass nerd friends all had a good time. I do agree the whole DRAGON TORTURING BAD GUY thing felt kinda weakly done and thus Hiccup looked kinda weird, but the general overall thrust of the story was solid enough that he didn't look like some crazy dude or whatever. It's a kid's movie at the end of the day, you can't show him really going to town torturing a dragon. There's enough in there that you know 'ok this dude's a piece of poo poo and he treats dragons like crap. That's enough push to make Hiccup hate him at first.
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Jun 16, 2014 00:08
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ThisIsACoolGuy posted:Saw this earlier and I came out happy but thinking back on it I'm not sure if it holds up. It felt really really short, someone in the thread mentioned something happening 75% into the movie and when that moment obviously came up it clicked in me and I was like "Wow it's already this far into the movie?" I didn't see the first one until a few months ago on Netflix. I really enjoyed it though. We saw this last night and I wanted to love it. There are parts I loved, most of all Valka's battle outfit design. The whole thing left me feeling emotionally jerked around. You get DANGER then AWE then HAPPY TEARS, and then what feels like minutes later SAD TEARS. Then you barely have time to process either of those before BIG ACTION-PACKED CLIMAX. I can deal with that in a three-hour Harry Potter style film where the story has more room to breathe. I can understand why they chose to kill Stoick, but I would have enjoyed the movie a lot more if they'd found some other way to have Hiccup mature and accept the Chief title. Maybe if Stoick survived, but Hiccup/Toothless had to kill Drago onscreen, or at least unambiguously. Hiccup would still have to deal with the consequences of his actions, but it would have felt less manipulative for the viewer. That would have been a more satisfying ending for me. Save the other event for a story where it is more than this also happened. That's my over-thinking a children's cartoon about dragons.
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Jun 16, 2014 06:53
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I never saw One but I figured I'd give this a go. Easy 75% of the people in the theater were boys 5 to 15 and they all came out wide eyed and grins ear to ear so I shrugged it off that I was in the dark on the appeal.
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Jun 16, 2014 10:14
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Wow, this only made $50m and was outgrossed by 22 Jump Street.
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Jun 16, 2014 14:31
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Josh Lyman posted:Wow, this only made $50m and was outgrossed by 22 Jump Street. "Only" made $50m is a bit of a mislead since the first one grossed about $7m less than that on its opening weekend. It also doesn't really have any competition for its target demo moving forward for several weeks, so I imagine it won't be much of an issue.
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Jun 16, 2014 16:00
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I saw this movie yesterday with my dad. Enjoyed it -- didn't think it was as good as the first, but that it stood up okay, anyway. The dragon designs were phenomenal, and seeing so much of the gorgeous concept art in the credits sequence made me want to go out and get the art book right away. I DID get the soundtrack as soon as I left the theater. Agreeing with the others who think the theme got somewhat confused and that the ending didn't have exactly what I wanted to get from the movie. The whole thing felt a little like it wasn't sure what message it was trying to sell.
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Jun 16, 2014 16:24
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I also thought the introductory scene with Astrid was leading up to her becoming chieftan instead, because they're going on about how she's more suited to that lifestyle and those responsibilities, where it would mean Hiccup giving up what he really loves.
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Jun 16, 2014 16:53
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Just saw it again, and I've gotta say the level of emotion they were able to convey through facial and body animation is astonishingly better than anything else they've done. Looks like their new animation pipeline is paying off.
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Jun 16, 2014 17:34
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Magnus Condomus posted:Just saw it again, and I've gotta say the level of emotion they were able to convey through facial and body animation is astonishingly better than anything else they've done. Looks like their new animation pipeline is paying off.
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Jun 16, 2014 18:08
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I loved that they frequently had Toothless and one of the other dragons doing things in the background when two characters where talking about something. The Astrid/Hiccup scene at the beginning for instance had Stormfly and Toothless playing in the background the whole time and it was adorable 
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Jun 16, 2014 18:11
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I enjoyed it, but thought it was kind of dumb they just retread the same "big dragon has mind control over others" BUT WORSE.
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Jun 16, 2014 21:05
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Pick posted:I also thought the introductory scene with Astrid was leading up to her becoming chieftan instead, because they're going on about how she's more suited to that lifestyle and those responsibilities, where it would mean Hiccup giving up what he really loves. I dunno, I think the point they were making was that Astrid would be very much a Chief of the old-Viking way; all bluster and bone-headed impulsiveness that just leads to more fighting. Her actions on Dragos' ship, where she gets carried away trying to intimidate him and gives away the fact the whole of Berk has tame dragons ripe for the taking was...unwise at best. Whereas Hiccup is suited to leading both his own clan and the dragons towards a more peaceful, cohesive future. Just because he doesn't like the idea doesn't mean he wouldn't be good at it. One of the points of the movie was about how you can't run away from your responsibilites just because they don't fit in nicely with what you feel like doing.
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Jun 16, 2014 21:17
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Pick posted:I also thought the introductory scene with Astrid was leading up to her becoming chieftan instead, because they're going on about how she's more suited to that lifestyle and those responsibilities, where it would mean Hiccup giving up what he really loves.
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Jun 16, 2014 21:29
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