Universal Pictures’ new How to Train Your Dragon is a good live-action remake. It looks great, its strengths far outweigh its issues, and it hits all the right emotional beats. It’s a good movie. For sure. The problem is none of that stops it from still feeling totally pointless.
If you like director Dean DeBlois’ 2010 animated classic you’ll almost certainly like director Dean DeBlois’ 2025 remake of his own movie. The live-action How to Train Your Dragon is exactly the same story with humans and only the smallest of changes. It’s a de facto shot-for-shot remake that omits a few minor scenes and adds in a couple small ones. A few others are slightly extended or have added dialogue. (The most notable added dialogue is a whole lot of setup for the sequel.) There are no big, meaningful changes in the live-action How to Train Your Dragon, so if the original version works for you—and why wouldn’t it since it’s great and still feels modern?—this one will, too.
Staying so true to the original (which, again, is just 15 years old) creates an obvious problem for anyone who has seen that film. It’s impossible not to view this live-action version through the lens of its predecessor, which is a superior film. The live-action How to Train Your Dragon version suffers in comparison in ways it wouldn’t if it existed on its own.
The first problem is that Toothless looks identical to his animated counterpart in the live-action How to Train Your Dragon. He looks better than the film’s trailers indicate, but he still just looks like a cartoon. Meanwhile Berk’s other dragons all get live-action updated. They feel fresh and like they belong in this version of the world. By keeping Toothless and all that accompanying sweet Toothless merch locked into his original appearance, he feels out of place.
An even bigger problem is that while talented main human star Mason Thames is genuinely good and will have you rooting for Hiccup the whole time, he is simply too handsome and too put-together for the role. The original cartoon Hiccup looks so much younger. Thames is 17 but looks much older in the film. Cartoon Hiccup was also all limbs, thin and gangly. He was the type of awkward kid you wouldn’t trust to walk to his bedroom without tripping. Combined with Jay Barcuhel’s distinct voice, that Hiccup clearly stood out as different in Berk. But while the live-action How to Train Your Dragon film keeps telling us (far too often) that Thames’ Hiccup has the same exact issues, it’s not a convincing argument. He looks and sounds like a leading man.
A horrible haircut can’t cover up for him physically looking like he absolutely belongs among his fellow Vikings. Especially in comparison to many of his other dragon-training classmates who actually don’t look like they belong.
The nearly two-hour-long film also suffers from some pacing issues in the first half. It’s too slow and really starts to drag, which is no surprise since this remake adds roughly 25 minutes to the original’s runtime. Fortunately, the film really soars in the second half, which is both exciting and emotional. But at no point is it ever as funny as the animated version. That’s not from a lack of effort. There are some good laughs in the movie, but too many attempts at humor fall flat to call this movie actually funny.
Still, those are really the only flaws the film has. Everything else works. The visuals are great, the action sequences are intense, and Hiccup’s most important relationships are all still moving, well-developed, and meaningful.
The best justification for this remake’s existence comes from the two most important humans in Hiccup’s life. I absolutely loved Gerard Butler’s live-action Stoick in How to Train Your Dragon. This might be my favorite performance from him ever. It’s like the fantastic, bombastic animated character literally came to life. He also sounds just like the cartoon Stoick.* Meanwhile, Nico Parker’s Astrid is everything fans would want from the character. She’s fierce, fearsome, and fearless. She also ends up being a huge emotional anchor in the story and a big reason the second half is so good.
You already know why that’s true because you already know this story. It’s so similar that it results in a strange theatrical experience. Despite it being my first viewing of this version, the whole time it felt like I was rewatching it. And since it’s good, but just not quite as great as the animated film, what’s the point? The point is obviously “money.” This is a big franchise for a company that just opened up a new theme park with a whole How To Train Your Dragon land. There were obvious good business reasons to remake this film.
That is not my concern, and it won’t be for people who opt to see it. They only care if the movie is good, and while it is essentially pointless artistically, the live-action How To Train Your Dragon remake is good. It’s a good movie for both kids and adults. Just as it was for its better, identical animated version.
*This is called a joke. If you already yelled at me on social media without realizing you missed the joke please attend a local standup open mic night as penance.
Content shared from nerdist.com.