I don’t remember the first movie very much, but I do remember liking it a lot and thinking it on par with what Pixar was doing at the time. Dreamworks isn’t (at least in my eyes) known for great sequels (i’m looking at the terrible milking of the Shrek franchise), so I went in skeptical even though reviews made it seem like Dreamworks made magic again and show “How to Make a Sequel”.

Unfortunately it wasn’t as great as everyone was saying. I mean, I enjoyed the film, was kept entertained, but I didn’t walk out thinking the film was anywhere as good as the original, & nowhere on par with Pixar’s good films. To be honest, if it wasn’t for just one moment of the film it would have felt like a direct to DVD sequel. I don’t mean that as a huge knock, I enjoy a lot of direct to DVD animated sequels.

During key moments of this film like in the trailers where they find out the main characters mother was still alive, I found myself not giving a shit. This happened for bigger moments throughout the film, and I could tell it’s their fault. Moments could have been delivered in a much better way to tug at the little heart strings I have left for empathy.

Overall it’s still a good animated film, just definitely not great. The animation is great, though i wish there was more depth while watching in 3D. All that dragon flying could’ve looked much cooler. The 3D effect is so subtle that the only reason I remember i’m watching a 3D film is the extra pair of RealD lenses weighing down my regular glasses.

I give How to Train Your Dragon 2 a 7.5 out of 10

(Score based on school grading in which 10-5 mean A-F, and 5-0 lets you know how badly it failed, just to rub it in)