It’s very tempting to just say that the live action remake of How to Train Your Dragon – made by the same filmmaker who made the animated version – is the exact same movie. Beat for beat, scene for scene, and almost line for line there’s nothing new about the new How to Train Your Dragon, except that it has been made into a massive, live action blockbuster with stunning visual effects. If you saw the first movie, you have literally already seen all this has to offer.
Critically, this puts me in a very tough spot, because I want to like How to Train Your Dragon in both of its various forms. Dean DeBlois’ animated original is a near perfect movie, something that got everything right the first time and doesn’t need to be tinkered with. To his credit, DeBlois doesn’t mess with his previous success all that much, so he doesn’t bother. It’s an admirable bit of a writer-director knowing and having faith in the strength of their material. It also allows for some striking images and outstanding visual effects to bring everything to life in a different digital realm.
But it’s also exceptionally lazy, right down to the fact that DeBlois has instructed his new cast of performers to essentially do impressions of the actors that previously voiced the same roles, save for Gerard Butler who’s actually playing the same character he did in the original (and looking like he’s having a ball). Outside of producing this to make more money, there’s no need for it. Even some of the worst live action updates of animated classics at least took chances with the material. No such luck here, meaning that at best How to Train Your Dragon emerges as a dutiful copy-paste job instead of a work that’s trying and failing on its own merits.
That’s really all I have to say about this one. Good effects, decent cast, and the material still holds up. In that respect it’s a good movie. Just nothing to get excited or angry about. It’s just kinda… there. If a movie is going to be this lazy in its execution, I shouldn’t give much effort criticizing it. But I guess if you haven’t seen the original (or it has been a long time), this is kinda worth it. I guess.
How to Train Your Dragon opens in theatres everywhere on Friday, June 13, 2025.
