Lets get the two most important things out of the way first.
I cried... oh baby, I cried. The entire last fifteen minutes of the movie in fact I think.
The effects and visuals in this movie are astounding. There was more than once where I thought that the water could just have been real actual footage of water it was that damn good. And the textures, light and smoke effects, hair, dragon eyes... so many things that were stunningly beautiful.
Okay, now that that's been dealt with.
HTTYD:THW is a beautiful climax to the story of Toothless and Hiccup and the denizens of Berk, both viking and dragon. If anything, it's a simpler story, like the first one rather than the second.
Dean DeBlois has finished off the trilogy with the same heart and deftness of touch that I've come to expect from him and from this series.
And even though the villain, played with requisite malice by F. Murray Abraham, is fascinating (even without a ton of screen time), this story continues to be about the connections between fathers and sons, even if, as in this case, the son is a dragon. It's about letting go of something you love because that's what is right for them, rather than what is right for you.
Jay Baruchel continues to project so much emotion into Hiccup, but has also subtly aged the character vocally from the awkward teenager of the first movie to the man he's become in this one. America Ferrera maintains the no-nonsense Astrid as the Yang to Hiccup's Yin and makes you believe that she honestly loves this man.
To be perfectly honest, I could have probably done with a lot less of the supporting players this time around... Snotlout, Tuffnut, Ruffnut and Fishlegs all feel out of place somehow... or at the very least, mostly surplus to requirements. None of them really add anything to the Hiccup story, they all have a little bit of their own business to do, but it doesn't feel necessary (particularly Snotlout and Tuffnut).
I was glad to see that Cate Blanchett had returned as Hiccup's mother Valka, but it wouldn't have been quite the same if they hadn't also brought back Gerard Butler as Hiccup's father, albeit only in some perfect little flashbacks.
Side note: Both Craig Ferguson and Kit Harington return as Gobber the blacksmith and Eret, son of Eret respectively...and given what the previous movie "revealed" about Gobber (heavy sarcasm on the word revealed there), I can't help but wonder if this movie did the same with Eret, if only due to a very brief and even more subtle scene towards the end. And if so, what does that mean about Gobber and Eret... of course the answer to that could be that I'm reading entirely too much into it.
I also appreciated that the callbacks in this movie are often quite subtle... I'm sure that some of the scenes towards the end are set up almost exactly like similar scenes from the first movie, which gives you that wealth of emotion as your brain makes the visual connections.
And even with my minor complaints, I honestly don't care. This movie concludes the trilogy beautifully and that's really all I care about.
yani's rating: 4 lightfuries out of 5
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