‘How to Train Your Dragon 2’ flies away during opening weekend

I got the opportunity to go see “How to Train Your Dragon 2” in regular 2D in theaters just days after its release June 13. The sequel to “How to Train You Dragon”, which was released in 2010, made almost $49.5 million during its first weekend with both 2D and 3D. “How to Train Your Dragon 2” received second in the box offices right behind its opening competitor “22 Jump Street”, which made $57 million.

The story continues with Hiccup and his dragon Toothless as the two come across dragon trappers. These dragon trappers are capturing dragons all over for Drago, an evil man set out to control all the dragons. Hiccup and Toothless start on another adventure to keep the peace between dragons and humans while going through personal discovery and tragedy.

Although this film does have some sadness, it is still entertaining and hilarious. Toothless is still the loyal, dog-like dragon that melts your heart. Hiccup played by Jay Baruchel is perfectly casted for this unordinary hero. Cate Blanchett is the voice of Valka, who is Hiccup’s mother, goes together nicely with Gerard Butler who is the voice of Stoick, which is Hiccup’s father.

The animation for this film was good. During the flying scenes, it made me feel like I was flying, or wishing I could fly. This film had more variety of dragons because there are hundreds of them throughout the film. Although the animators did create several new dragons, I was disappointed with the lack of types of dragons. Many of the main dragons were used again and again with the exception of Toothless, who was the only dragon of his kind. I would have like to see more detail in all the different types of dragons instead of just changing the dragon’s colors to make new dragons.

I was also unimpressed with the direction in which this film went. I thought there needed to be more time focusing on the dragons themselves and all the different kinds of dragons and their unique abilities. There was hardly any of this in the film. I would have also liked the movie better if it wouldn’t have tried to rush through the scenes with all the dragons in it. This movie is specifically about dragons and I think they should have tried to give the dragons as much detail as possible.

With that said, this movie is still enjoyable for all ages. It will take you on a roller coaster of emotions but still keep you laughing. The ending of this film did not set it up for another movie to come out, but it took four years for this second film to hit theaters. Depending on how well this film continues to do, we may just find ourselves gearing up to watch “How to Train Your Dragon 3” in years to come. I’m going to give this movie a 3.5 out of 5 stars.