HTTYD2 + Trance
Jul. 3rd, 2014 05:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wishfulclickingJust came back from How to Train Your Dragon 2, and here is a rundown:
-The multitude of kinds of dragons and how they move and their actions is fantastic. What I came out most impressed with is how awesome the dragons look, especially Toothless' mannerisms.
-In contrast, the human characters do not move their faces as much to show emotions; this was less of a thing in the first b/c there weren't multiple moments of closeups that were about human emotion as there are in the second. Also, I can take that kind of animation Dreamworks does when the characters are younger, but with Hiccup and co supposedly in their 20s it just jarred a bit.
-Stoic's beard was wonderful.
-I did like the introduction and backstory of Hiccup's mother; I especially liked how odd she moved before she is unmasked. Her pursuit of dragon safety as a goal of peace without full consideration of people contrasted well with Stoic's locking everyone in Berk to protect them well. It was funny how both she and Stoic repeated the same line about reasoning with Drago.
-I did not care for the dance/song scene.
-Is there a hint that the forge/smith blond co-parent of Hiccup hinting at him being gay?
-The flirtation between the girl twin, the chubby dude, and the one with the smattering of upper lip hair was cute. I just kind of imagined them falling into a V before she cornered Eren? into seeing her charm.
-Let's talk about villains and animated/or fantasy lands. I have been broken to accept that most of fantasy lands will not contain diverse skin tones, which will mostly be of the pale persuasion. It's cool. If a work does interesting turns, expands gender roles, does something fresh with consequences and having characters be permanently changed but still pushing on the way HTTYD did, I do not fault that media. I love pretty much everything about HTTYD: Hiccup and his father's conflict with no bad guy, Astrid, the lesson being learning not to attack everything that fears you, Hiccup winning by not with complete brawn buy by doing science stuff, Hiccup and Toothless having permanent injuries.
But when a movie decides to bring in one character who does not look like the rest and have him be a monstrous, hulking, sociopath, warmonger, I'd rather they didn't. I try to see him as a very tanned Viking but the self delusion doesn't hold.
-Compared to the first, the sequel does more conventional things: one true chief/king, chosen one, needing the parent death to push on to the next stage of adulthood. It does it well but it lacks the sparkle of the first. Rumor is at first the mother was supposed to be the antagonist, which I am almost interested in seeing, but I don't know how good that would be considering how they handled the villain in this one. Maybe if she was so pro-dragon she didn't care for humans any longer?
-I totally spotted Kit Harington's voice (aka Jon Snow on GOT) and he did well. Antagonistic at first, hapless at times, arrogant and charming in different scenes. Now that I've seen more of Jonah Hill, I could recognize his voice too. I guess all the 22 Jump Street and This is the End paid off.
Trance - I remember wanting to see this in theater when it came out b/c of McAvoy and my long held crush on Vincent Cassel; wow, am I glad that I waited. There are some interesting, gorgeous shots, and some confusing ones. Tons of color, and I wanted to pick up a life of crime if I could live in the apartments of the characters. The movie chugs along well, giving away the surprises b/c it's leading to an even bigger one that just doesn't hold b/c it expands the character and situation to a point where the film just can't support; especially the Rosario Dawson character just doesn't deliver the confession part well and makes the movie just seem so very dumb. McAvoy does a good turn in still being believable but just barely. The ending just goes for something way too sentimental.
-The multitude of kinds of dragons and how they move and their actions is fantastic. What I came out most impressed with is how awesome the dragons look, especially Toothless' mannerisms.
-In contrast, the human characters do not move their faces as much to show emotions; this was less of a thing in the first b/c there weren't multiple moments of closeups that were about human emotion as there are in the second. Also, I can take that kind of animation Dreamworks does when the characters are younger, but with Hiccup and co supposedly in their 20s it just jarred a bit.
-Stoic's beard was wonderful.
-I did like the introduction and backstory of Hiccup's mother; I especially liked how odd she moved before she is unmasked. Her pursuit of dragon safety as a goal of peace without full consideration of people contrasted well with Stoic's locking everyone in Berk to protect them well. It was funny how both she and Stoic repeated the same line about reasoning with Drago.
-I did not care for the dance/song scene.
-Is there a hint that the forge/smith blond co-parent of Hiccup hinting at him being gay?
-The flirtation between the girl twin, the chubby dude, and the one with the smattering of upper lip hair was cute. I just kind of imagined them falling into a V before she cornered Eren? into seeing her charm.
-Let's talk about villains and animated/or fantasy lands. I have been broken to accept that most of fantasy lands will not contain diverse skin tones, which will mostly be of the pale persuasion. It's cool. If a work does interesting turns, expands gender roles, does something fresh with consequences and having characters be permanently changed but still pushing on the way HTTYD did, I do not fault that media. I love pretty much everything about HTTYD: Hiccup and his father's conflict with no bad guy, Astrid, the lesson being learning not to attack everything that fears you, Hiccup winning by not with complete brawn buy by doing science stuff, Hiccup and Toothless having permanent injuries.
But when a movie decides to bring in one character who does not look like the rest and have him be a monstrous, hulking, sociopath, warmonger, I'd rather they didn't. I try to see him as a very tanned Viking but the self delusion doesn't hold.
-Compared to the first, the sequel does more conventional things: one true chief/king, chosen one, needing the parent death to push on to the next stage of adulthood. It does it well but it lacks the sparkle of the first. Rumor is at first the mother was supposed to be the antagonist, which I am almost interested in seeing, but I don't know how good that would be considering how they handled the villain in this one. Maybe if she was so pro-dragon she didn't care for humans any longer?
-I totally spotted Kit Harington's voice (aka Jon Snow on GOT) and he did well. Antagonistic at first, hapless at times, arrogant and charming in different scenes. Now that I've seen more of Jonah Hill, I could recognize his voice too. I guess all the 22 Jump Street and This is the End paid off.
Trance - I remember wanting to see this in theater when it came out b/c of McAvoy and my long held crush on Vincent Cassel; wow, am I glad that I waited. There are some interesting, gorgeous shots, and some confusing ones. Tons of color, and I wanted to pick up a life of crime if I could live in the apartments of the characters. The movie chugs along well, giving away the surprises b/c it's leading to an even bigger one that just doesn't hold b/c it expands the character and situation to a point where the film just can't support; especially the Rosario Dawson character just doesn't deliver the confession part well and makes the movie just seem so very dumb. McAvoy does a good turn in still being believable but just barely. The ending just goes for something way too sentimental.
