2010's original was a real surprise, brave enough to finish things up with – spoiler! – the amputation of its hero's leg, and while How To Train Your Dragon 2 does what it can to surprise again the story it has settled on to do so doesn't have the power to astonish however entertaining the visuals might be.
Jay Baruchel's nasally Hiccup is five years older and is being readied by blustery dad (Butler) to become clan chief. Before Hiccup can tell him he's not up to it, news of a legendary dragon hunter Drago (Hounsou) reaches Berk and Hiccup and Toothless fly off to change Drago's dragon-hating heart just like Hiccup changed his father's. However, as Hiccup is side-tracked by the mysterious Dragon Rider, his friends gear up to face Drago and his army...
First things first. The animation is spectacular, the flying battle sequences exciting, the Dragon Rider is quite unlike any character seen in a kids’ movie, and it isn't afraid to age its characters or kill off a major one. The film says to at least attempt meeting irrational hate with peace, which is great. Dean DeBlois (taking over sole directing duties from The Croods' Chris Sanders) isn't interested in just rehashing the first story – this one expands the world and explores the character.
However, doing this means... Dragon 2 falls victim to a lesser-spoken sequel trap: with the hero overcoming whatever issue was troubling in the first outing, there's a tendency to aim for more depth, which means more introspection, which means less action; it then falls on the original's supporting characters to carry the bulk of the action. This would all be terrific if DeBlois had found anything in Hiccup worth further exploration and the audience were in any way invested in the support cast of America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Kristen Wiig et al.
None of this would be a problem if DeBlois wasn't in such a rush to tell his story but little is given room to breathe – there's hardly a sniff of Hounsou's Drago or what he's about and a big battle is upon us. And the title doesn't make sense anymore, unless you swap Train for Pacify, Your for Their, and Dragon for Hate.
It does what it is expected of a sequel in that everything is bigger – Remember that giant dragon from the first one? Well… - but there just isn't enough inspiration and heart that made the original so great.