Frozen II (Quick Review)

Frozen II is one of those strange examples where a lot of stuff occurs yet it feels like very little happens.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (Film Review)

To quote Emperor Palpatine: Augghhhh!!!

Ford vs Ferrari (Film Review)

Ford vs Ferrari is a good film that's structure has been seen many times before.  It adheres closely to the Hollywood biographical drama formula just with a new setting of the titled auto manufacturing companies competing to win a car race.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 Revisited or: A Sequel that Succeeds on Multiple Levels and Exceeds the Original in Certain Areas (Film Analysis)

How to Train Your Dragon 2 was a very anticipated film for me back in the summer of 2014.  I went so far as to avoid all trailers and spoilers so as not to sully the experience, including avoiding looking at McDonald's cartons that had pictures of what Hiccup and friends looked like as young adults.  Sounds crazy, definitely kind of crazy, but that's just how hyped and determined I was to see this film with a fresh mind.  I had seen and loved the first film and watched both seasons of its TV series DreamWorks Dragons that had aired at the time.  This wasn't just a sequel to a previous film for me, but rather a continuation of a story I had become genuinely invested in.

Note: This is my second review of How to Train Your Dragon 2.  Here's my original review from 2015, written back when the film first released.

How to Train Your Dragon Part 2: How Visual and Sound Turn a Good Story into Something Amazing (Film Analysis)

LINK TO PART 1!!!

Using the knowledge gained from his time with Toothless, Hiccup succeeds in passively defeating and/or befriending the training dragons in fighting class.  Despite such successes gaining his peers’s praise (aside from Astrid, who grows jealous over Hiccup becoming the new star student), Hiccup is more preoccupied with getting Toothless back in the air again—for a more accurate lesson Hiccup was taught is that a downed dragon is a dead dragon.  Being the inventor that he is, Hiccups begins designing a tail flap to replace Toothless's missing scale.  Hiccup discovers, however, that the artificial wing will not remain open when Toothless flies alone.  As such, Hiccup builds a saddle for him to ride and help assist Toothless in flying.  The film’s excellent pacing is shown off here with a split montage of Hiccup building the flying device while training at classes.  I love how naturally the scenes move from Hiccup just trying to build an artificial scale for Toothless to saddling up to fly with him.