As Hiccup fulfills his dream of creating a peaceful dragon utopia, Toothless’ discovery of an untamed, elusive mate draws the Night Fury away. When danger mounts at home and Hiccup’s reign as v...
Thanks,Universal. You already spoiled me the important bits in the Teaser (the only trailer I’ve seen for this movie). Aren't you PROUD?
Also,I hate the new DreamWorks logo. That music feels like a perfect 80s VHS intro,aside the interesting animation.
Onto the review.
Ok,so...Now that DreamWorks is owned by Universal,I know what you're thinking.
I'll talk worm squat about this movie,then telling you not to go see it. Right?
Not this time,dear! (or,at least for 50 or 70% of it?)
How To Train Your Dragon 3 is a great movie,and it's chock-full of stuff everyone will enjoy,but it's also a tiring point for DreamWorks’ style of making sequels.
But let's get the positives out of the way.
I love how the story writes Hiccup. Sure,now he's the “alpha” of Berk,but how is he going to handle everything going on and try to make Berk a safe place?
The villain is also great. While they steer to the Ethical Villain route (where he thinks he's making good choices,but really,he isn't),they try to make him just as likable as Drago (who is still the better villain of these movies). Hell,with a shot of Grimmel killing a dragon like nothing,you're starting to cook things up nicely.
It's visually spectacular,yeah,but also very busy. So many things are going on,and sometimes,it's so chaotic,right from when we see a Busy,Busy Berk.
And the score by John Powell is nothing special and really good at the same time. The beginning set the music up for some greatness,but then,it had a balance with Good and Great,aside from the 3rd Act filled to the brim with fantastic choral work. It’s right up there with Lisa Gerrard’s choral work on Gladiator (2000)
The relationship between Toothless and the new Light Fury was...Interesting...although it's mostly used for Dragons Schtick.
That’s where I say “Too bad this franchise caper feels like DreamWorks getting tired of their traditional Sequel formula” (‘Who really am I?’ and ‘Gee,I wonder where my parents are…’).
It’s not DreamWorks’ fault,though,as they make clear in the Screenplay that “Sometimes,you’ll need to let go of your beloved one”,polite and good enough for an animated franchise. Believe me,I’m struggling to find other good stuff about this movie.
The Screenplay,aside from that gold nugget,feels like Dean DeBlois getting tired of the franchise and writing this as the epic finale,since he understands the franchise finished its gas (something studios like Universal doesn’t want to understand). Hey,at least someone understood this car ran out of fuel.
Unlike the first two movies,they try to shoehorn in the secondary characters too. While Gobber,Astrid and Eret (the Jon Snow character) are still hilarious,the kids,on the other hand...Get ready for what are they going to do with it.
There’s a romance B-Plot in here that it’s so weird,it’ll make the kissing scene from Venom look like the Church sequence from Kingsman 1.
And,once in a while,they just stop the movie to make you look at the visual prettiness,and it’s something I’m kinda starting to despise. I get it,your movie is gorgeous.
I don’t know,man,maybe it’s my head telling me “IT’S A UNIVERSAL MOVIE. GIVE IT A NEGATIVE RATING”,but at the same time,I’m battling with the traditional movie critic head against the Universal Virus. That sure as hell felt better than the actual movie.
This could’ve been one of the greatest animated trilogies of all-time,but sadly,I can’t say it for how this conclusion turned out to be. But hey,it’s still one of the best trilogies of a book-to-movie adaptation,so a cup of cheers for that ;-D
