How To Train Your Dragon, directed by Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders follows the story of a young Viking boy named Hiccup, whose entire village is wrapped up in the task of defending themselves against swarms of dragons that habitually attack them for livestock. As his name may suggest, he's the outcast of his people because he is somewhat small and clever, rather than being buff and bloodthirsty the way he should be. Because he's the picked-on outcast, you can already guess the awesome things that must be in store for him. Namely, he manages to incapacitate a rare and dangerous dragon, and ends up befriending him rather than killing him. In the process he learns more about the ways of dragons, and comes to discover that the Vikings and the dragons could have a better and more beneficial relationship.
This movie had a lot going for it from the very beginning, but one of its many strong points is its characters. The Viking characters all have parallels with modern day stereotypes: You have the nerdy overweight kid, the show-off jock, the beautiful and talented love interest, and the competitive twins. The leader of the Viking village is of course an enormous bristly muscular Viking, brilliantly played by Gerard Butler. His performance definitely invoked visions of him screaming his famous line, "THIS IS SPARTA!!" from 300.
Then of course there is Toothless, the Night Fury dragon that Hiccup befriends. His design is incredibly interesting, because he managed to remind me of a cat in his behavior (if a cat was really super dangerous and reptilian) and a axolotl in appearance. But Katie! What is an axolotl? Are you making that up? Nope. It's quite real I assure you. Toothless manages to be both very dangerous and just incredibly adorable, so that I was always convinced that he was a powerful creature, but at the the same time able to fall head over heels in love with him.
Being a fan of all things monstrous, and dragons especially, this movie was eye candy for me. I am willing to say in full confidence that this movie was actually worth it to see in 3D. The only other film I would say used 3D just as well would be Coraline directed by Henry Selick. I don't generally advocate seeing movies in 3D because I don't usually care for it. It adds nothing to live action films and is more expensive. Not to mention it makes me feel rather nauseous after a prolonged viewing. The colors are somewhat dimmed as well due to the fact that you are wearing dark glasses. But despite all of this, I feel that How To Train Your Dragon used it extremely well. I could see every hair on the Vikings' arms, and every detail in vivid clarity, and it made the flight scenes with Toothless extremely exciting and exhilarating. It started to fall short a little bit towards the end because there was so much action going on that it was becoming difficult to discern what was happening. But otherwise, I don't regret paying extra for it.
I would definitely see this movie again if I had the chance, it was fun and hilarious, the danger felt very real, and the sadness felt very real. And for goodness sake that dragon makes me melt like a little marshmallow inside. I give it 5/5 Staryus.
I would definitely see this movie again if I had the chance, it was fun and hilarious, the danger felt very real, and the sadness felt very real. And for goodness sake that dragon makes me melt like a little marshmallow inside. I give it 5/5 Staryus.
