The time has come for the epic story of How to Train Your Dragon to come to an end. So, what force could possibly destroy the inseparable bromance between Hiccup and his dragon, Toothless? What else? Chicks, man.
Yes, this is the final How to Train Your Dragon movie both in marketing and function and, honestly, it’s the kind of movie that, when it’s over with, you don’t want anymore movies. I mean that in the best possible way… like, the story is over in a satisfying way and no more movies are necessary not like, Oh God, they’re really making a Shrek 5? I don’t want that!
Without giving too much away as Dreamworks is playing it fairly close to the chest on this one and the movie was way more enjoyable when you don’t know what’s going on when you go in, Hiccup and the citizens and dragons of Berk are making a name for themselves in the world and, thusly, are becoming a bigger target for dragon hunters who conspire together and hire the hunter who is not only intelligent and dangerous, but is also the jerkwad responsible for hunting down and killing all of the nightfuries.
Stuff happens after that, it all leads to an ending, and my face leaked mostly due to allergies as I’m a grown damn man and don’t cry over cartoon characters.
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is probably the lesser of the three Dragons movies. It doesn’t feel as nuanced and layered as the previous two and has a very obvious pacing problem in its first act where it almost seems like next to nothing of consequence is happening. It gets better after about thirty or forty minutes, but it’s noticeable and it’s a drag on the rest of the movie.
Other than that, it’s a very heartfelt goodbye to the series. The emotions are real, the action sequences are very well done, and the animation is really top notch. It’s weird for me to notice something like this, but the water in this movie looks amazing.
I was very leery of the choice to pair Toothless up with another dragon as a love interest, but I’m happy to report it’s not as annoying as I thought it would be. Heck, the sequences between Toothless and the Lightfury were probably the best in the movie… each one performed wordlessly with only the lovable expressions of the two dragons conveying the intention of the scenes. I don’t go for that mushy stuff, but I liked this.
It’s a good movie, not the best, but if this is the worst that How to Train Your Dragon gets, the series has nothing to be ashamed of.
Jason Gaston 