How To Train Your Dragon 2

krudler

Saw this the other night and it's pretty great. Keeps the same kind of tone from the previous film but a bit darker, it loses some of the sense of wonder from Hiccup and Toothless' bonding in the first film but it has a good few laughs and a couple of emotionally surprising moments, including one that had my hair stand on end. The music is fantastic again too, John Powell has been knocking out some incredible scores one after the other.
Performances wise it's a bit iffy in places, Kit Harrington is pretty bland and Cate Blanchett seems to have an Irish/Scottish accent that veers from one to the other throughout as well for some reason.

I saw it in 2D and it looked glorious,some of the lighting and textures are stunning looking, not sure what it'd look like in 3D and for some reason it's mostly Europe getting the IMAX 3D version.

BlitzKrieg

This needs more attention, saw it at the fathers day screenings 2 weeks ago and I cannot emphasize how good this is, it easily beat every other summer blockbuster i've seen so far on every level and its criminal how it's been so well recieved critically but not pulling in the numbers in the US since its release.

krudler

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

This needs more attention, saw it at the fathers day screenings 2 weeks ago and I cannot emphasize how good this is, it easily beat every other summer blockbuster i've seen so far on every level and its criminal how it's been so well recieved critically but not pulling in the numbers in the US since its release.

It's a shame it's not doing better, it's easily as good as the first if not better.

Lisha

I loved the first how to train your dragon and I am do excited hoping to see it next Tuesday

Just wondering if 4 yr old is too young to see it?

uck51js9zml2yt

Lisha wrote: »

I loved the first how to train your dragon and I am do excited hoping to see it next Tuesday

Just wondering if 4 yr old is too young to see it?

My son didn't like the first one. He's 3 1/2.
While the family are away I'll get to see it. Not been to the cinema in months.

full_irish

I loved the first one, really great story line, funny throughout but it got me right in the feels as well.

I didn't even know they had released a second one. Did they scrimp on the promotion this time round?

krudler

Lisha wrote: »

I loved the first how to train your dragon and I am do excited hoping to see it next Tuesday

Just wondering if 4 yr old is too young to see it?

It's a bit darker in places than the first but they'll probably love Toothless and its really funny too.

The music alone is worth seeing it for its amazing

(dont read the track listing its spoilery)

57 mins in is just a stunning piece of music, even moreso in context in the movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M15ubp-V2zQ

BlitzKrieg

Lisha wrote: »

I loved the first how to train your dragon and I am do excited hoping to see it next Tuesday

Just wondering if 4 yr old is too young to see it?

I dont know, if your 4 year old has watched most of the disney greats on dvd with you (Beauty and the beast, The lion King, Hunchback of notre dam) then this is pretty much on the same level. But those 3 films would be a good measuring stick on the atmosphere and tone of the movie for the most part.

Really looking forward to seeing this over the weekend, my little brother finishes school tomorrow and he's coming up to Galway so that I can take him to see it. Got a phone call half an hour ago from him all excited to tell me that we were going to "hiccup".

James74

Heading to London with the family next week was thinking about booking IMAX 3D in the Odeon BFI. Never been to any imax cinema before so want to see if there are any opinions on best imax cinemas in London. I'm also trying to nail down a budget but can't see any info on whether you have to buy/pay for 3d glasses on top of the ticket price, anybody with experience of this?

Devostator

i seen the movie yesterday it was amazing till the middle end part

constitutionus

gonna go see this tomorrow as theres a 2d version showing in me local.

on the earnings front can anyone remember how the first one did upon release ? my recolection was it was a bit of a sleeper hit that no one really saw coming but word of mouth got about.

personally i loved it and its still one i can watch if its on the telly so i dont think its fair that the sequel is getting a slagging in certain quarters cause it didnt do gangbusters the first week.

krudler

constitutionus wrote: »

gonna go see this tomorrow as theres a 2d version showing in me local.

on the earnings front can anyone remember how the first one did upon release ? my recolection was it was a bit of a sleeper hit that no one really saw coming but word of mouth got about.

personally i loved it and its still one i can watch if its on the telly so i dont think its fair that the sequel is getting a slagging in certain quarters cause it didnt do gangbusters the first week.

217million according to boxofficemojo. I hate this notion these days that a movie is a failure unless it breaks 100 mil on its opening weekend. It's out against the world cup, the kids are still in school over this side of the pond and 22 Jump St is doing great business.

BlitzKrieg

constitutionus wrote: »

gonna go see this tomorrow as theres a 2d version showing in me local.

on the earnings front can anyone remember how the first one did upon release ? my recolection was it was a bit of a sleeper hit that no one really saw coming but word of mouth got about.

personally i loved it and its still one i can watch if its on the telly so i dont think its fair that the sequel is getting a slagging in certain quarters cause it didnt do gangbusters the first week.

the first one was a sleeper hit, but it also came out in march and basically stayed in cinemas all the way through to late may early june.

critically the first won the annie awards, I mean literally ran away with it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/38th_Annie_Awards (with controversy due to disney's boycott)

while oscars it was beaten out by toy story 3.

krudler wrote: »

217million according to boxofficemojo. I hate this notion these days that a movie is a failure unless it breaks 100 mil on its opening weekend. It's out against the world cup, the kids are still in school over this side of the pond and 22 Jump St is doing great business.

It was an odd decision by dreamworks to try for the blockbuster slot, it was spring break in the US of course a movie like 22 jump street was going to do better then a kids film, and because it's out in the middle of all the big blockbusters it's less likely to stick around for as long as cinemas will push it out in favour of transformers etc.

krudler

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

It was an odd decision by dreamworks to try for the blockbuster slot, it was spring break in the US of course a movie like 22 jump street was going to do better then a kids film, and because it's out in the middle of all the big blockbusters it's less likely to stick around for as long as cinemas will push it out in favour of transformers etc.

Exactly, a later summer slot would have made more sense, colleges are finished here but schools arent. Then there's the world cup, and between 22 Jump St last week and TF4 coming out today it's been sandwiched between two more adult orientated films, even though Dragon 2 is better than both (I havent even seen TF4 and I can say that :pac: )

Lisha

krudler wrote: »

It's a bit darker in places than the first but they'll probably love Toothless and its really funny too.

The music alone is worth seeing it for its amazing

(dont read the track listing its spoilery)

57 mins in is just a stunning piece of music, even moreso in context in the movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M15ubp-V2zQ

Gorgeous music

I showed spoiler to kids earlier and 4yr old daughter said 'yay I love toothless' !
It's been ages since she saw it and I was amazed that she remembered his name.
I'll ve taking her and her brother who is nearly 7 and hus friend also 7.

She is great to follow a story but she is too able to follow emotions in a film do I'm worried she'll find it a bit sad in places.
To give an example when watching the croods when the dad went away from his family she was very sad then she patted me on hand and said 'don't worry he'll be back daddies always do!'
Think that was a yr ago when she only3.

My son is so excited to see it as am I.
Roll on Monday

Lisha

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

I dont know, if your 4 year old has watched most of the disney greats on dvd with you (Beauty and the beast, The lion King, Hunchback of notre dam) then this is pretty much on the same level. But those 3 films would be a good measuring stick on the atmosphere and tone of the movie for the most part.

She only seen lion king and loved it, Must buy the other too, thanks a lot

constitutionus

just back from this now.

its good ! not great like the first but definetly a good popcorn chomper.

it hits all the emotional beats, there some lovely conflicts going on, and the characters have all grown up a little from their first outing.

two things stand out for me though.

1. the music. it really is fantastic and adds alot to the emotional core of the film

and.

2. the animation. its gorgeous. there really is some sumptous designs in this film and i love how theyve kept up the varied nature of the dragons designs. theres hardly a bit in this film where you just wont enjoy LOOKING at it.

speaking of which im delighted that theyve kept up the dragons visual range of "Acting". theres many a time in the film where two characters are talking and ya can amuse yourself watching the dragons in the backround chasing each other or fighting ove a stick like dogs.

its a subtle thing but i found it immensly enjoyable and fun. toothless did alot of this in the first with expressions and theyve expanded that to the other dragons.

its not as good as the first, but its a damn fine sequel.

7/10

and a happy one at that.

krudler

constitutionus wrote: »

speaking of which im delighted that theyve kept up the dragons visual range of "Acting". theres many a time in the film where two characters are talking and ya can amuse yourself watching the dragons in the backround chasing each other or fighting ove a stick like dogs.

I liked that too, toothless behaved exactly like a curious pet would when the camera wasn't on him, lot of laughs from the kids during those scenes.

I really can't stress how good the score is, it's magnificent.

Lisha

I just spotted that how to train your dragon 1 is on rte 1 just about to start now

SarahBM

Just been to see How to Train Your Dragon 2 in the iSense in the Odeon. It was brilliant! as good if not better than the first.
I downloaded the soundtrack a few weeks ago but I held off on listening to it until I had seen it. I am obsessed with the soundtrack from the first film.

Im a big child really but I absolutely love Hiccup and the clan.

riders of berk is great too. must get that on dvd too dont know if I will be able to stand the wait for HTTYD 2 dvd release.

titan18

Cinema only has day times for this. Last time at 6. Hopefully that changes next week

SarahBM

titan18 wrote: »

Cinema only has day times for this. Last time at 6. Hopefully that changes next week

sucks being an adult, doesnt it!

FortuneChip

Went to see this earlier today.
Really enjoyed it. The only downside is that because Toothless & Hiccup are now friends, we don't get a scene as special as their "Forbidden Friendship" scene in the first.

There's still a lot of good movie in here though. Toothless is such an amazingly well animated character, and his background scenes are really joyful. Hiccup has become such a likeable character as well.
Drago is a decent new addition without being perfect, but I really enjoyed Valka's & Eret's characters.

The score is again superb, exciting, heartfelt and colourful. Maybe even better than that first soundtrack.

And how many ways can they design a dragon?

Lisha

We loved it, a truly fantastic beautiful film.
Just gorgeous.

The kids did find some parts a bit sad but a real thumbs up from us.

BlitzKrieg

Lisha wrote: »

We loved it, a truly fantastic beautiful film.
Just gorgeous.

The kids did find some parts a bit sad but a real thumbs up from us.

there's a reason I asked if they sat through the lion king

barone

loved loved loved it

johnny_ultimate

Quite enjoyed this. Wouldn't call it truly exceptional or anything, but it's a very well made and engaging film. The core character stories hit their mark with surprising force (

at least this follows through on its major death scene without forcing through a cheeky reversal like most family films would these days - I'm looking at you, The Croods!

). Like the first film the flying sequences are magnificent, especially the first one with Toothless and Hiccup. HTTYD2 isn't what you'd call subtle, but apart from the action scenes I feel the film is a little less hyperactive visually then many of its recent counterparts - it's more intimate, and there's some gorgeous shots throughout

(like Hiccup looking out over his father's flaming burial boat, his figure highlighted by the fiery glow)

. I wouldn't say this about many films, but I do feel it was maybe too short. Felt like the second half of the film could have done with more (fire) breathing space. The first half in contrast felt a little bit scattershot, although it only really becomes apparent after that they've been setting up a lot of the key payoffs in the process. But it was enjoyable, superior American animated fare - still fairly formulaic and 'safe' as far as mainstream American animation goes, but at least done with a touch more artistry and class, pulling slightly fewer punches than most of its contemporaries.

I haven't seen the first film since it was in the cinema, and I don't particularly remember it standing out then, but I have to be honest: I hated Jay Baruchel here. His voice felt 'disembodied' from the character, and I don't know didn't feel like it 'fit' in with the world (even when Jonah Hill and others are also voicing characters, although very much on the sidelines). It was less a strong voice performance from a well known actor and more a case of Jay Baruchel talking into a microphone as normal, and that was distracting.

e_e

The beautiful score and the near-tactile sense of detail are what made it stand out for me. It all lead to action that had more weight than plenty of its live-action counterparts (like Amazing Spider-Man 2).

I usually hate Dreamworks' animated movies so this and the original (which I only watched 2 days ago) were a pleasant enough surprise for me.

krudler

e_e wrote: »

The beautiful score and the near-tactile sense of detail are what made it stand out for me. It all lead to action that had more weight than plenty of its live-action counterparts (like Amazing Spider-Man 2).

I usually hate Dreamworks' animated movies so this and the original (which I only watched 2 days ago) were a pleasant enough surprise for me.

if you haven't seen them yet give the Kung Fu Panda movies a watch, the second one is brilliant. Jack Black is annoying in them but Gary Oldman as a maniacal peacock is worth watching

Saw it last week and really enjoyed it. My little brother enjoyed it so much that he went to see it again the next day and had just as much fun. At just under 2 hours it really could do with an extra 20 or so minutes, the film seemed to fly by and there were a number of moments that I would have liked to seen expanded upon.

There was a real 80s feel to much of the film, it's one that wasn't afraid to do the unexpected and that there was no cheap cop out make it all the better. It's also nice to have a kids film that strives to be so much more, at the screening I attended there were far more adults than kids which is rare.

For me the most enjoyable aspect was watching my little brothers reaction to the film, when Toothless licked Hiccup he would wipe his face and tell me "that it doesn't wash out". He was acting out the film himself as it happened on screen and it really was just a joy to watch.