How to Train your Dragon: The Hidden World

Vikings and Dragons are back together in Dreamworks' animated spectacle, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. This is Dreamworks' first animated film distributed by Universal. It's a great way to start their partnership. May it last longer than the last....

In the last film, young viking Hiccup succeeded his father, Stoick the Vast, as Chieftain of the island of Berk. In this film, he and his Night Fury dragon, Toothless, lead their community of humans and dragons. There's a lot of humans and even more dragons and even less space. That's a problem. So Hiccup sets out to find the "Hidden World," a mythical dragon community, and maybe relocate his people and dragons there. 

Hiccup has a few more issues. His fellow vikings want him to tie the knot with his best friend, Astrid (America Ferrera). Toothless falls for a female White Fury dragon. Hiccup plays wingman for his dragon. But the White Fury won't let him near them. An evil dragon hunter Grimmel the Grisly (F. Murray Abraham) wants to slay Toothless. Perhaps it's best the dragons go to the Hidden World without their humans.

Writer and Director Dean DeBlois returns to finish the story he helped start with Chris Sanders in 2010. It's a fine story. A major part of the film involves Hiccup and Berk relocating to a new island. They essentially decide home is where you make it. It's almost like Thor Ragnarok's ending. But it's good. Toothless and the White Fury's (they never give her an actual name?!) scenes are delightful. Grimmel's goal is to satisfy his own ego; it works because he's that deranged. 

Amongst the cast, highlights include the returning duo of Tuffnut (Justin Rupple) and Ruffnut (Kristin Wiig). They're so annoying they're actually funny. Rupple gets points for his flawless impersonation of Tuffnut's original actor, TJ Miller, who had to be replaced due to certain circumstances. You can hardly tell if some of Miller's work remains. Cate Blanchett's Valka is another welcome return. Though I don't know what to make of the viking Fishlegs's (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) attraction to her.

It's another technical wonder like its predecessors. The new and old dragons are visually appealing. The White Fury's glittery skin is especially striking. The opening sequence, where Hiccup and his fellow dragon-riders, liberate caged dragons from captivity, is a great action scene. The final battle with Grimmel and his forces is just as amazing. It helps that now Oscar winner Roger Deakins helped with the film's look. The animated environments are just as appealing as the character designs. The Hidden World is a sight to behold. And John Powell has another score ready for the magnificence.

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World promises that it's the end. That may dissatisfy anyone hoping for more adventures. But we have Toy Story 4 in June, so maybe.... But the final scene with Hiccup and Toothless is certifiably emotional. It may hit you more if you've followed the franchise since its beginning. It's still an exciting animated fantasy adventure. Let's see how it fares in next year's Oscars.

Alita: Battle Angel

Do we need four Avatar sequels? Two is fine. But four? They better be good. We'll see how good Avatar 2 is when it debuts in December, next year.

In the meantime, we have another James Cameron feature to behold. His long in development, long-delayed and long-anticipated adaptation of Yukito Kishiro's manga Battle Angel Alita (aka Gunm). Producer Cameron left the director's chair to Robert Rodriguez for the end result, Alita: Battle Angel. Let's move on before we question the title switch-around.

In the way distant future, the wealthy live above the masses in floating cities. Or, they did. There was a war called The Fall that sent all but one floating city to Earth. That city is Zalem, which floats above the trash-heap Iron City. There, scientist Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz) finds a trashed cyborg in the junkyard. He rebuilds the cyborg into our heroine, Alita (Rosa Salazar).

Alita can't remember her past at first. But she's curious and is a skilled combatant in the vicious art of Panzer-Kurst. Her first human friend, Hugo (Keean Johnson), introduces her to the suitably violent sport of Rollerball Motorball. Dr. Ido doesn't want her to partake in the brutality. But she does, and she even signs up to be a Hunter-Warrior (a bounty hunter). Mr. Vector (Mahershala Ali), the commissioner of Motorball, wants to take her out. She'll just have to stop him.

Cameron and Laeta Kalogridis's screenplay skims through the manga in 122 minutes. We jump through many plot points in the first half-hour alone. A few characters, namely some other Hunter-Warriors, get lost in the narrative shuffle. The visuals have more impact than Alita and Hugo's doomed friendship. It all builds up to an abrupt ending. You'll know it when you see it. Strangely, much of the basic plot is comprehensible. But it's so hard to distill it in a few easy paragraphs.

The film's visuals are worth the $200 million budget. The production design by Caylah Eddleblute and Steve Joyner visualizes a fascinating future world. Iron City is a crowded, yet visually pleasing crowded metropolis. Much of it was filmed on actual sets. Props like Dr. Ido's rocket hammer are a delightful collection. The robots are an eclectic bunch of perfectly rendered CGI. The CGI for the cyborgs is flawless. Mostly. 

And then, there's Alita. The film visualizes her with convincing motion-capture effects. Her large anime eyes threaten to push her into the uncanny valley. But they'll become easy on the eyes (ha!) after a while. As a character, Alita's personality transcends the script's problems. She pulls no punches against cyborg villains like Vector's top man, Grewishka (Jackie Earle Haley). She's also naive and caring. It's easy for her to get the audience's support.

The film's unfocused narrative is its biggest problem. There are some aspects, like Dr. Ido's tragic backstory, that are captivating, but needed more development. Still, Alita: Battle Angel is a capable action film. It left me curious for a potential sequel. Whether or not it'll get one is a another story. But you still have a unique looking film.

Let's just see about Avatar 2.

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

So I won't see Beale Street before the Oscars. How disappointing. So let's move on to this year's slate of films.

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is a silly sequel to the silly The Lego Movie. It's a fun romp through Legoland even if it's not as good as the first film.

The Lego Movie ended with our hero, Emmet Brickowski (Chris Pratt) and his friends, confronted by "evil" Duplo Aliens. The Duplo Aliens wreck our heroes' city, Bricksburg. Repeatedly. Eventually, the citizens keep the city destroyed and rename it "Apocalypsburg." A cool, grungy, post-apocalyptic town too cool and serious for kids' movies.

Except for Emmet. He's still bright and cheery.

The Duplo General Sweet Mayhem (Stephanie Beatriz) shows up. She nabs Emmet's friends, including Lucy/Wildstyle (Elizabeth Banks) and Batman (Will Arnett), and takes them to her leader, Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi (Tiffany Hadish). Emmet turns his house into a spaceship and goes after them. He runs into an asteroid field and gets saved by tough guy Rex Dangervest (also Pratt).

The Queen wants to marry Batman. Batman eventually accepts. But is the Queen planning something evil? Is their more than what Rex is telling Emmet? And what is this "Our-Mom-ageddon?" Emmet's plan to stop the Queen isn't as simple as he thinks.

All of this is presented as representations of live-action siblings Finn and Bianca playing with Lego. And fighting and reconciling.

Director Mike Mitchell takes over for Phil Lord and Chris Miller. The screenplay/story Lord and Miller conjured with Matthew Fogel is a good one. The Lego brand silliness is present and accounted for in Apocalypsburg and Beyond. Rex Dangervest's backstory is absurdity with a straight face. But it knows when to be serious (sort of). It proves it with Everything's Not Awesome, a downer, then triumphant reprise, of the first film's Oscar-nominated Everything is Awesome.

Did I mention this is a musical? It is. Jonathan Lajoie wrote much of the songs, while Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh composed the score. It's serviceable music. Despite the film's Catchy Song insistence that "This song will get stuck inside of your head."

Its biggest flaw is its repetition. In particular, Finn and Bianca's relationship is basically, un-ironically, Finn and his dad's (Will Farrell) relationship in the first film. Nobody brings that to the film's attention. At least the film admits that the Duplo aliens are only "evil" because of poor communication.

The Lego brand visual style is alive and well. Apocalypsburg perfectly replicates Mad Max Fury Road's visual style in Lego form. The other planets in the Lego universe are cool, too. The Duplo temple even looks like a giant wedding cake! The character designs are still great. The best one has to be Queen Watevra; her morphing effect was stellar. And as usual, look for Lego cameos.

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part makes for a good 107 minutes. It's not as exciting and new as the first film, but that's OK. There's a bit of visual and story creativity that makes it worth it. There's also a few funny gags. It's a good start to this year's slate of animated films. We'll see more of it when How to Train your Dragon: The Hidden World, debuts next week. But until then, this Lego Movie makes for a good family matinee.