How to Train Your Dragon

Whatever happened to Brenton Thwaites? For some reason that crossed my mind as this thoroughly entertaining fantasy adventure gets off to a rollicking start and keeps going. Now if you are the Hagar-esque Viking chief (Gerard Butler) expecting your son to take over as fearless dragon-chaser after you, why would you call him Hiccup? Might as well call him Buttercup? Anyway, that hapless lad (Mason Thames) maybe isnt the most adept on the muscle front but cerebrally he has something of the Leonardo Da Vinci to him as he determines to set about devising a weapon that will tackle the most formidable of their foes - the Night Fury. Well, would you believe it - his contraption actually works, but instead of slaying the thing this young man decide...

The How to Train Your Dragon live-action remake is a shot-for-shot remake of the original 2010 animated film. It is DreamWorks Animation's first foray into live-action and original screenwriter and director Dean DeBlois returns.

The few highlights of the live-action version of the film are that the majority of the dragons transition to live-action or are computer generated to extremely satisfying results. Monstrous Nightmare (the red dragon with the long snout that can ignite its entire body on fire) is exceptionally cool.

Visually, How to Train Your Dragon is stunning. Many live-action shots are realistic copies of what was accomplished in the animated film which is a major accomplishment regardless of whether it was shot on location...

Maybe some of the stellar reviews are based on some sort of nostalgia for the 2010 animated movie but I don't hold the same regard to that movie, although I did enjoy those movies. However, this live action version, like the ones Disney has been churning out, feels a bit pointless even though most of the CGI wasn't bad. It is certainly watchable but I found myself a bit bored having seen most of this before in the 2010 version. That said, the cast was pretty good, and I did like Nico Parker as Astrid. Not sure there's really any reason to see this one, just re-watch the animated version... 3.0/5