How to Train Your Dragon2025

It used to be that movies like this were a dime a dozen. Films like The Neverending Story, Legend, The Princess Bride, etc., and we took them for granted. Now it seems like the only way to get stories like that is in the form of live-action adaptations. Which is dreadfully unfortunate. Especially considering how well done this one is and how well poorly made ones (like Lilo and Stitch) seem to do.  As I don’t have a lot of nostalgia for this franchise (I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of the films besides the first, and I’ve only seen that one a handful of times), so the story is still somewhat fresh for me, and thus this movie probably worked better for me than it would for a lot of other people.  I was originally going to give this movie a 3 1/2 at most simply due to the nature of its existence. But I was genuinely surprised by how well made this movie was. Some amazing shots, a soaring score, and a strong lead all made this a really enjoyable watch. Some humor didn’t work for me, but a lot did.  It’s just a shame that like 90% (if not more) of this movie’s DNA are all from an animated film that works just as well, if not better, making this movie completely unnecessary and superfluous.  In a bubble, I would probably like this movie even better than the animated version. But I know what it’s based on, where it came from, and why it exists at all. And so I’m going to give this movie a 4.  But I’m not happy about it.