Anne McCaffrey would be proud...

Tara and I went to see 'How to Train Your Dragon' last night as a date movie (She does love some cute critters...) and it was pretty good. Not so cute to turn most adults off but still pretty appropriate for the kiddies. I will say DreamWorks is getting better and better about their animation of people. The skin tones were nigh spot on (even if they still have kept the goofy faces...), the big dragon looked good enough to be used in Clash of the Titans (also not a too terrible movie...) and water effects are still incredible. The voice acting was decent, using Gerard Butler as the stock 'I'm the gruff talking leader' of the vikings and well as using Jay Baruchel (that skinny guy who plays awkward well...) as our hero. If you want a light movie to see, this wouldn't be bad to choose...


I must make a note of a feature I wasn't completely sold on: the 3-D experience. Normally, Tara gets a bit ill if she sees a 3D picture, but this was all that was available for us to see. So, she sucked it up and went for it and didn't get sick at all. But (and I think Tara agrees with me..), the 3D actually detracted from the total movie watching experience. Now, I know some people SUPER support the 3D movement these days, but there wasn't enough going on in 'Dragon' (i.e. crap coming at you...) to really warrant providing it in 3D. The glasses tend to wash out some of the colors, making it appear to be projected on parchment paper. I checked the colors to see if I was right a few times during the movie and Tara agreed that we should have seen it in 2D...

My other beef with 'Dragon': the ending. I won't spoil it completely, but I do get tired of the 'subjugated people can't stop the tyrant, but with a LITTLE extra effort (as well as a pseudo-life lesson...), they can destroy adversity'. 'Dragon' isn't alone in this; I've seen this in several movies over the last several years. Beowulf did this (despite that I couldn't reach it with a weapon, I can reach it without if I force myself...) and it was ridiculous. FF: Rise of the Silver Surfer did this (now that I've seen true sacrifice[?], I will stop my master...) and I was super pissed. Granted, my anger stemmed from my geek side (Galactus wouldn't be dumb enough to give the Surfer that much power, nor do I believe that after countless planets being destroyed, seeing Sue Storm's sacrifice would turn himself around [see?]...). Either way, it brings us to my point: from a story's standpoint, given countless implied opportunities to topple adversity but never have without token motivation, the way the characters win/destroy the big baddies/etc. seems ludicrous to me. At the very least, give me an existing rebel faction where getting sufficiently motivated fits. Otherwise, rewrite that sucker...

Despite that extremely long rant on the ending, I do recommend 'Dragon' for a fun movie to see in 2D, especially if you want to see something you don't have to get too involved in. This isn't bad; not every movie needs to be a noggin' scratcher. We need these simple fun movies to balance out the others. See it or definitely see it on dvd asap. You won't be sorry...