I have felt each film in this series is more of an exercise in visuals than in story telling. I find each story (the first being the best) to be weak and very thin, and the execution of that story to be handed to us instead of unfolded. I find most often the film makers seem so obsessed with putting the biggest possible spectacle on the screen that they run out of time to develop characters or narrative.
But I know so many people love these films so there must be something about them that work. It just doesn't work for me.
In this one, early on we are treated to the spectacular Berk, a village of remarkable advancement and beauty which, for no apparent reason is built like a house of cards. This is remarkably asinine since Berk is designed to be the home where humans and dragons live together. So despite being filled with large flying beasts, the village is set up precariously dangle over the side of a cliff, everything built on wobbly posts, so that invariably it crumbles apart once one of those beasts moves in just the wrong way.
It makes no frickin sense. But oh how spectacular it looks when it's all crumbling apart. And no one seems to mind!?! Other than looking a little frustrated with having to clean up what is the equivalent of the Avengers' third act. The people of Berk just act like the dragon knocked over a bowl of food.... no the entire cockadoodie town.
And the whole film (in fact series) is like this. Everything is huge and catastrophic, even when the story doesn't organically call for it. I know. Nitpicky. It just isn't my vibe. While I get that others like this. It's just not for me. I need more fantasy worlds to be set in a way that I can buy into them and I never have been able to with this series. And The Hidden World doesn't improve upon this for me.
For example, the whole point of this series has been about how dragons and people need to learn to be together. This film upends all of that rather quickly and without sufficient justification to basically say the opposite, that dragons and people can't live together and need to go their separate ways... until we can all live in peace... WTF?? So the solution to intolerance is apartheid?? I honestly just don't get it.
Mild spoilers from here on out:
So we get to what the film makers clearly hope will be the ending to Toy Story 3 and the audience is crying and I'm just sitting here going... when will this be over? Yes get your falsely constructed goodbyes over Hiccup and Toothless. I'm bored with it already. I had to suffer through a truly boring villain who we were supposed to see as some super hunter but never gave us any reason to think he was anything special. Now I'm going through a goodbye scene which doesn't feel honest.
And guess what? It wasn't. Moments after we see them say goodbye we see that Hiccup and Toothless back together again so really they didn't have to say "goodbye" just "see you later." But unlike Andy driving away from his childhood forever, Hiccup is just moving down the road. It not the same emotional weight. The film doesn't really support that sort of heart string pulling.
So overall, HTTYD just wasn't my cup of tea. I'm fine with others enjoying it. It's just not something I want to have to experience again. Yet despite the filmmakers saying this is the last one, something tells me we may not have seen the last of these dragons.
How to Train Your Dragon the Hidden World
Starring: Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Cate Blanchett, Craig Ferguson, Gerard Butler, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kristin Wiig, Justin Rupple, Kit Harrington, David Tennant
Writer/Director: Dean DeBlois
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