Caught the live action remake of How To Train Your Dragon with the roomie today. She loved the original and didn't want to go see it alone so I tagged along.
It was nice. Very faithful adaptation. A few casting choices were bizarre to me and there was some clumsy attempt to explain the Vikings as, essentially, 'colonizers' of the island. If it wasn't current year Hollywood and faggetry wasn't sprinkled throughout this industry like dogshit in tall grass, I wouldn't have thought twice about it. It's just a throwaway line, barely worth remembering, which brings up the question: why even add it in?
For the most part, it's nearly a 1:1 recreation of the animated film, which was swell and a lot of fun. The effects for the big dragon at the end are a sight to behold. HBO only wishes it could do this with House of the Dragon and these are cartoon flying lizards (!) flitting about and being silly for most of it.
The cast is pretty great and do well. Gerard Butler reprises his role as Stoic from the animated film and he slides comfortably back into the character. He really was born to play boisterous warriors with Scottish accents. Nick Frost is fantastic as Gobber, very sympathetic, and leads Mason Thames and Nico Parker are delightful as Hiccup and Astrid.
They add some messaging in there about Hiccup's privilege, being Stoic's son, (which he doesn't actually have?) and Astrid is given some background about coming from nothing and NEEDING to be the top slayer because it's all she's ever wanted and has worked very hard, uphill in the snow both ways, for. She girlbosses a bit too close to the sun and is borderline unlikeable at times (Zendaya levels of cuntery in both Dune and Spider-Man), but in the end, she shows a softer side and I find her transition to being Hiccup's love interest while still having an unexpected character arc (given these new wrinkles) believable. Heartwarming, even. I can't be too critical of it, even though it sounds like I am being just that. I like Astrid in this version and Nico Parker has a brilliant future in film as long as she doesn't allow herself to be typecast in roles like this-the sun has set on the girlboss archetype and she won't be doing herself any favors if she doesn't grow beyond it. I wish her the best of luck. Perhaps she can succeed where Zendaya failed.
The final battle is a spectacle and simply must be witnessed in a theater. There is a scope to it that simply can't be effectively captured on the small screen.
Anyway, if you got kids or you feel like one inside, go check it out. It's a good time.
4 out of 5.
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