Films for Thoughts on Thursday: How To Train Your Dragon 2 Review

This is a weekly meme that I am hosting here at Reviews from a Bookworm. To take part all you have to do is share a movie review once a week, link back to Reviews from a Bookworm and add your link to the linky tool.


This weeks movie review will be for:


How To Train Your Dragon 2

A 20 year old Hiccup!

I've actually seen this film twice now, which is good because it makes it easier to review. It divided my opinion for one reason and one reason only. One particular event had me so angry that I kind of wanted to give it 0 out of 10 and then rant about it. It's a great movie though and deserves a much higher rating.

The movie is set five years after the events of the first film. I was surprised by that, as I didn't thin they would go that far ahead when they plan to make a lot of sequels. But it makes sense for the story that they want to tell and it works really well. The village of Berk are still living with the dragons, each person has their own dragon. They're happy and Stoick is even thinking of letting Hiccup take over the role of Chief. The only problem is that Hiccup doesn't know if he is ready for that kind of responsibility yet. He spends most of his time flying with Toothless, exploring and discovering new places as he tries to find more dragons. It's on one of these trips that he meets Eret, a dragon trapper, who works for a rather insane man named Drago Bludvist. Drago sees himself as the only controller of dragons and he is after war, he will strike Berk just to steal their dragons. Hiccup wants to find Drago and change his mind, but Stoick believes war is inevitable. Hiccup won't listen and flies off with Toothless to try and find Drago.


The first time I saw this movie was after a really bad day at work, and I mean really bad. I was really excited to go see this film because I was sure it was going to be funny, entertaining and would cheer me up. And it was funny at times, it was definitely entertaining  but it did not cheer me up. My friend sat in the cinema and laughed at my horrified expression as this movie destroyed me a little bit. I didn't know exactly what I was expecting from this movie, but I didn't expect it to be anywhere near as sad as it was. The second time I saw it I knew what to expect, but I was still upset. And maybe a little bit angry. It seems they took a few lessons from Game of Thrones when they were making this movie.

I was actually blown away by how good this movie was and how well it was done. As far as sequels go, this movie is on par with Catching Fire. Yes, it's that good. It's one of those animated movies that you can watch and tell it's going to be nominated for a ton of awards. It feels like it takes inspiration from a few different movies and TV shows, but it still feels fresh and original. It has a darker story then a lot of animated movies you see, but that works really well. They balance it with the humour you want from the movie and the brilliant Toothless moments that make you wish you had a dragon.

I was really impressed with the pacing of this movie, it was absolutely perfect. It doesn't have any moments where it feels dragged out or like it goes on too long. There aren't moments where you wonder why a certain scene is even there or where you want it to just hurry up and be over. It balances everything really well, there's always something going on and happening. It has it's happy moments, funny moments, shocking moments and even sad moments.

I'm hoping that future children's animated movies start taking lessons from How To Train Your Dragon 2. I think it really set itself apart from the other animated films we have seen this year and in recent years. It was a lot darker than I had first expected, but it showed how the characters had grown up and how their world was changing. Its a movie that's funny and light enough that children will love it as much as the first, but it has it's dark and sad moments that make it a lot more appealing to an older audience.

9.5/10 Butterflies

If I am totally honest, the first time I watched this film I was so angry and upset that I wanted to give it 0 stars. I then wanted to rant about how I was just looking for a light-hearted, funny and entertaining animated movie to cheer me up. I wasn't expecting it to be a gut-punch to the feels or a movie that took inspiration from Game of Thrones on how to shock audiences (Oberyn anyone?!?). It has a truly solid storyline though, it's pacing is perfect and you won't ever feel bored or like it's slowed down too much. I think it's a lesson on how to do an animated sequel and do it right. I can only describe how good it is by comparing it to Catching Fire - it was that good a sequel. It might have been soul-crushing at times but it was an amazing movie. If you were a fan of the first then I highly recommend it. If you haven't seen the first then clearly there is something wrong with you. So go watch the first and then go see this! I took off 0.5 of a Butterfly because of how sad this movie made me.

I have been meaning to take part in both of the following memes for a while now, so its nice to finally be able to get to them. I will be taking part in Reading is Fun Again's Thoughtful Thursday and Okay, Let's Read's  Thursday Thoughts, picking between them or doing both topics each week.

Action & Romance 

How descriptive action sequences and/or romantic situations are usually depends on the author. Some authors spend several pages describing an action or romantic scene while others describe these situations in a few paragraphs or less. What is your preference?

That's actually a really good question and I think my answer would change depending on the particular book or scene. Some scenes really do require pages and pages in order to describe them. Other times it would just feel really dragged out and unnecessary. My problem with some New Adult is that they are mostly just the romantic scenes that are really dragged out and unnecessarily long. But in a book where it's building up to that kind of scene, you don't want it to be over within a few sentences because then it's a bit too anti-climactic. Action sequences are ones that I feel are understandably long at times, especially if it's a massive fight scene or something along those lines. I don't have a particular preference, I just don't want the scene to feel rushed or as if it's been dragged out a lot longer than necessary. That's a hard balance to find but a lot of authors are perfect at it - Sarah J. Maas is a genius at it! My Throne of Glass love isn't going to let up any time soon.

Bookish Shame

Do you read exclusively one of the following or a mix: Adult, New Adult, Young Adult, Middle Grade? What are your opinions on shaming adults who read YA? Do you agree or disagree that adults reading YA deters actual young adults from reading because they may 'feel as if their genre is taken over?' Do you think NA as a whole gets a bad reputation? Do you think it's deservedly so?

 Ashley has given such an amazing topic today and I could probably ramble on for ages but I will try to make this as short as possible. I don't exclusively read anything, I will happily read any of the four mentioned. I have always read a large amount of YA and read it a lot more since I have started blogging. I love a lot of Adult Fiction, and have some favourite authors that only write that. I have also read and loved some New Adult - Colleen Hoover is a genius at it and I adore her books. I probably read Middle Grade books the least out of all four, but I am sure I have read a few. 

Do I think adults reading YA deters actual young adults reading it? No. In my honest opinion, I don't think it puts young adults off of those books at all. I don't feel like they feel it's being taken over, although maybe a teenager wouldn't want to read a certain book if their mum was reading it. Mainly just because when you're a teenager you don't really want to be seen doing anything your parents are doing. But I was always that teenager who read and loved a book and then tried to get my mum to read it because she had to know how amazing it was. A lot of YA books have become massive thanks to their movie adaptations - The Hunger Games, Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars being great examples - and it hasn't deterred teenagers from reading it. In fact, I work in a library and have seen teenagers come in with a parent and get the book with the intention of both of them reading it. I think it's a great thing that adults and young adults are reading a lot of the same books and I don't think it's something that we should see as a bad thing.

New Adult having a bad reputation, I think that is actually really true. Some people who haven't read it think that it's mainly just about sex, it's full of drama and angst and poorly written. Why do I think this? I have been told it so many times I have lost count when showing people our NA section in the library. It definitely has a bad reputation but I am not completely sure why. I have read books that were all of those things and they were just hideously awful and put me off the genre. But you have to remember that it's one book of millions and you might have just read the one terrible book. I read Slammed by Colleen Hoover and realised that before that I had just not found the right New Adult book or author for me. I think she's amazing and her books are so good, if you're new to the genre then I definitely recommend her. The reputation is definitely not deserved, it's just a case of the genre not being for everyone. The same way that Sci-fi isn't for everybody or erotica isn't. It would be like judging all erotica based off of Fifty Shades of Grey - I'm sure they are not all that poorly written with such terrible characters and awful plot. A lot of the reputation of New Adult comes from people who haven't even read any books of the genre. 

I'm currently celebrating July with a giveaway! I am giving 6 winners the chance to win a book of their choice, worth up to £10, from Book Depository. For all the details you can go to the original post.

I am also taking part in Book Badger's Summer Surge Read-a-thon. I even did an interview for it and have done a giveaway as well. You can win one of my favourite summer reads, to find out what they are then go over to the original interview post. Be sure to sign up for the read-a-thon while you are at it, it's going to be a ton of fun!

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Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas: 4.5/5 Review
Top Ten Tuesday: Characters I Want On A Deserted Island With Me