How to Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World

RATING: B

DreamWorks Animation has really fallen to the wayside in recent years. Yeah, they've generally not been as good as Pixar; but for a long time, they were their greatest competitor for better or for worse. And they had a few great franchises of their own; namely How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda. But the problem is: they haven't made an original movie that even approached good since 2013's The Croods. Since then, we've been given a couple good sequels, like HtTYD 2. But we've also been subjected to drivel like The Boss Baby and Trolls. 

Drivel like those movies has also been what's kept us waiting way longer than we should have for the third movie in this trilogy. It's been five years now since the last movie. And now in this movie, we have Toothless meeting a female Night Fury; or rather, a Light Fury, as Astrid deems it (since it's entirely light-colored instead of dark). Elsewhere, Berk and its people and dragons come under fire from a new threat named Grimmel, who wants to put an end to dragons in general. As a result of all this, Hiccup and Toothless find themselves looking for a mythical "hidden world" that Hiccup's father told him of, where they and their dragons will be safe. 

Let's get the main thing out of the way: this movie is not as good as its predecessors.While the second movie progressed near-perfectly in terms of both world-building and character development, this film doesn't make much progress aside from the "hidden world" and introduction of the Light Fury. In fact, in terms of character development, it bizarrely seems to take a step backwards. 

Hiccup, who is now chief of Berk, is having issues again with doubting himself; to the point where a few people seem to question if he's fit to be chief. Hiccup had self-doubt problems in the last movie too, but it made sense then as he wasn't sure he should be chief. But by the end he seemed ready to take the challenge on. But Hiccup just does not seem as strong of a character here; besides the fact that he seems a little weaker here (until the end--again), it also starts to not feel like his story anymore. 

But another problem is Grimmel, the antagonist. The first movie didn't have a human antagonist, but the second one did in Drago Bludvist, who was quite good and turned out to have a decent backstory too. Grimmel wants to kill dragons... because he can, basically. And he's just not as entertaining. He's not given much characterization, making him sort of a by-the-numbers villain--not what you want in your third and final movie. The acid-fire-breathing dragons he carries with him are better antagonists than he is. And that's not good. 

What does work best is, for starters, the "hidden world." The animation in this movie is already quite great, but the hidden world is an astounding work of visual art. What's unfortunate is that we don't spend enough time here--another big mistake by this film was not having its final act take place there, especially since this place is supposedly so important. Elsewhere, the relationship between Toothless and the Light Fury is also a high point due to the humor it often brings. And though the action scenes seem a bit tamed down from what the last movie gave us, they're still pretty fun. And the friendship between Hiccup and Toothless which has helped carry this series is still pretty nice. 

Then there's the matter of the final act. The climax is another misstep for the film, because there's scarcely ever a sense of danger; it just feels too easy for Hiccup and company. It does feature a pretty awesome gambit by Hiccup at the end, so that helps make up for it. But then we get an ending which really should have had a lot more impact, but it's so obvious that it's going to happen long before we get there, and then the very final scene only serves to confuse me in terms of just how much finality there is here (even though it's still a pretty good final scene). 

The Hidden World is not a bad movie by any means, and it's quite an acceptable finish to the trilogy. But it's still more inherently flawed than its predecessors, and given how much natural progression the second one showed, it's odd that this one shows quite a bit less. Nonetheless, it's still a film well worth watching if you liked the previous two (like most people did), and concludes DreamWorks Animation's probably best trilogy/franchise of all. Just keep in mind that--aside from maybe how amazing the hidden world looks--there won't be anything as good/breathtaking here as Toothless's and Hiccup's flight (with his flying suit) near the beginning of the second movie. 

Goosebumps 2

RATING: C-

The first Goosebumps movie probably was good at least partially by accident. On one hand, getting Jack Black to play a fictionalized version of R.L. Stine (the author of the books) was an interesting move that worked out pretty well. But though the movie itself turned into a surprisingly delightful blend of Gremlins and Jumanji, it could have just as easily felt tired and derivative. And in principle, was a Goosebumps movie really something we needed? Maybe it could appeal to some weird "horror-for-kids" niche, but it would've been hard to get scarcely anyone else interested. But it worked. 

Although a sequel really wasn't needed, we got one anyway. In a few respects, there's almost a "soft reboot" aspect to this one. Aside from Jack Black (more on that later), the entire original cast and characters are ditched. That's not necessarily a huge loss, but the problem is the new characters (and the vast majority of the cast playing them) really aren't any good. 

Actually, even though this movie is relatively watchable for the most part, the first 20 minutes are surprisingly terrible. We get hit with boring characters, stunningly terrible writing and dialogue, and just a whole lot of nothing in general happening. At least the "protagonist with divorced parents who moves into new neighborhood" thing from the first movie was mildly interesting, even if super cliched. 

Things change a bit when two of the new main characters (Sonny and Sam) discover an unfinished Goosebumps book in an abandoned house. And out of this one comes... Slappy? Yup, the same crazy puppet dummy from the first one. And if you're wondering how he ended up in that book, forget it. It's actually not impossible this is a different Slappy entirely--only once is it hinted that he remembers the events of the first movie. Anyways, this time Slappy is concerned mostly with just causing general chaos; though this time he wants a "family" to do it with. (If you think they're making him sympathetic, think again.) Eventually he uses some weird magic to bring a whole host of Halloween decorations/costumes to life and into monsters (a family of monsters. Get it?). However, some of them just bizarrely turn into the same monsters from the last movie. If it wasn't clear, this film does a bit of rehashing. 

Slappy is actually arguably the best thing about this movie. The first half of the movie (once he shows up, anyway) is essentially just him trolling everyone, and it's pretty amusing at times. Somehow, a scene where he's playing Rocket League with Sonny and Sam and says "I'm crushing you guys and I'm not even using my powers!" is one of the most memorable parts of the movie (probably by accident). 

However, this movie does still ultimately fall well short of the mark of the first one. This is in part because particularly in the second half, it's a little too similar to the first one--and despite Slappy's over-the-top antics which amuse, it just doesn't hit the mark as well as before. Hence why the first one may have been good by accident. There's also those pretty bad first 20 minutes, which are a slog to sit through--and a pretty ridiculous sequence where our characters get attacked by Gummy Bears. I wish I was kidding. (We do get a "You'll never take me alive!" moment at the very end of it which I chuckled at--but it's not enough to redeem the scene.) 

Probably the biggest problem of all, however, is that Jack Black is basically relegated to cameo status in this one. Even though his performance was one of the best things about the first, he doesn't show up until halfway through and even then only probably has about five minutes screen time. It seems pretty clear they were working with a lower budget this time--Black doesn't even voice Slappy like he did in the first one (though Mick Wingert does surprisingly well in his stead). 

Goosebumps 2 isn't as awful as the first 20 minutes will probably make you think it is. But it's hardly anything that good either. At times, it seems like it doesn't totally know what it is--whether it wants to be a rehash of the first one, or "Slappy: The Puppet That Trolled Everyone." Furthermore, the film can't decide if it wants to be more kid-oriented or take a more grotesque approach at times than the first one did. If you liked the first one, you probably won't hate yourself for watching this one. It helps that it's quite short at only 90 minutes. At least we probably won't get a third movie.