How to Train Your Dragon 2; Movie Review

I must say, this movie far exceeded what my initial expectations were. Set five years after the first film, How to Train Your Dragon 2 boldly ages its characters from teenagers to young adults. Our hero Hiccup is now 20 years old, has picked up a lot of new tricks since we last saw him, and he's acquired a slick new arsenal that includes a custom wing suit, a duel-purpose prosthetic leg and, most notably, a telescoping fire sword.

Now, looking less like Harry Potter and more like Luke Skywalker, the older Hiccup is a natural adventurer, always on the lookout for new and exciting places to go. As Hiccup puts it in the movie, "With Vikings on the backs of dragons, the world just got a whole lot bigger."  However, Hiccup's father Stoick (Gerard Butler) has nobler plans for his son and hopes that Hiccup will take his place as Berk's Chief.

Naturally, this idea doesn’t sit too well with Hiccup. All the while, Hiccup has been trying and pushing Toothless, his dragon, to new heights and distances. Everyday Hiccup and his dragon will ride out to lands undiscovered by their village yet to see if there is anything else out there to be seen or needed by his people.

But, in all stories like this one, when exploring for things that haven’t been seen before, you usually find something. In one adventure out into new lands, Hiccup finds himself in front of a huge iceberg unlike any he’d ever seen before. It wasn’t natural. It was tall, thin, and had many spikes coming out from it. While looking at this ice, he is spotted by men that seem to be dragon hunters that try and capture Toothless. Hiccup finds out this man capturing dragons is Eret and he is doing this to give them over to Drago Bludvist. This man is a typical bad guy, wants all the dragons to himself, thinks he is the only one who can control them, wants to rule the world. Pretty much ripped from the pages of Bad Guys 101.

But one thing from this movie that is the most memorable part has to be Hiccups discovery of his long lost mother Valka. Now I don’t want to spoil too much, but let’s just say  she plays an important role in Hiccup’s fight against Drago and shares some emotional amazing scenes with her husband Stoick that fleshes out both of the characters.

With saying all of that, I don’t want to spoil the entire movie for all who have not seen it, but let’s just say, in my personal opinion, How to Train Your Dragon 2 is far better than the first and is a must see for all ages.