‘How to Train Your Dragon (2025)’ REVIEW: Not worth the ride
‘How to Train Your Dragon (2025)’ REVIEW: Not worth the ride
Hiccup (Mason Thames) petting Hiccup in How to Train Your Dragon (2025) | Still courtesy of Universal Pictures
Look, if you are a fan of the original How to Train Your Dragon, then there’s a fat chance you’ll enjoy this remake.
The plot plays out exactly as it did before. Set on the Viking isle of Berk, Hiccup, the teenage son of the village chieftain, is the village outcast deemed too timid to be trained as a dragon slayer. This is seen as a problem as dragons frequently ravage the village, diminishing their livestock and burning down their homes. Determined to prove himself among his people, he shoots down a Night Fury, but he couldn’t bring himself to kill it. Instead, he forges an unlikely bond with the captured dragon, naming him Toothless.
Director Dean DeBois returns to handle this life-like (but not really) translation of his beloved animated trilogy for new audiences, as well as appeasing the fans of the original who would fly into a rage once they see any large deviation. Because all in all, this version is almost a direct copy of everything that we’ve already seen before. Even a simple joke or an adlibbed snark from the original is rehashed. It’s a film so shamelessly similar that it will give Gus van Sant’s Psycho a run for its money. There are minute differences, sure, but they are not only few and far between, but also hardly significant.
Hiccup (Mason Thames) and Astrid (Nico Parker) in How to Train Your Dragon (2025) | Still courtesy of Universal Pictures
Hollywood always has a remake problem, always trying to capitalize on doing the same thing for the cash rather than making something new, investing on pre-existing IP with hundreds of millions instead of funding projects of up-and-coming filmmakers. This live-action remake has a budget of $150 million, and taking words from Cord Jefferson’s Oscar speech here, studios can probably cover at least six mid-budget original features for that money alone.
I never like mentioning any matter about money when discussing films, but when it comes to reviewing remakes, it is inevitable. Because How to Train Your Dragon (2025) is made solely for the money, and nothing more.
Stoick (Gerard Butler) in How to Train Your Dragon (2025) | Still courtesy of Universal Pictures
I struggle to write this review, because there’s nothing interesting and new to write home about. This is just another millionth attempt of a big movie studio attempting to revive a dead horse just to profit from it again. There is no genuine or sincere artistic expression to be found here. This is simply just business, and I just hope everyone who worked their butts off for this film is paid well.
If you want me to talk about the characters, then I’d say they seem exactly the same in terms of characterizations, but now they’re being played by people in cosplay. The bare minimum deviations in character arcs include: Astrid being a young Viking who comes from nothing and despises Hiccup for nepotism, and Snotlout having a subplot with his neglectful father. Does any of it matter? Surely not.
But are the actors good? Are they doing the exact same things as their animated counterparts? Well, they’re as good as anyone expects from a professional mascot in a theme park—doing their best to play the characters as faithfully as they can, or else some fanboy would throw a hissy fit.
If you are curious about whether or not the dragons are still cool, then I’d say anything that is cool about them is much cooler in the original version, simply because both animated human characters and magical creatures blend significantly well in that 3D environment. In the remake, every aerial sequence matches shot for shot from the original, move after move, but it all feels weightless in contrast to the original, because I can’t buy into these actors actually being in the same plane of existence with these CG dragons.
Granted, this is not the fault of the remake’s CGI artists hired for creating these effects, and I don’t think it’s DeBois’ fault either. Dreamworks will do the entire remake with or without his involvement anyway. It’s just the simple fact that live-action remakes will never look as good or as expressive as they originally did in the animated ones. That simple fact is hugely ignored because this practice appears to be a working trend that usually generates profit.
No one dares to see anything new; everyone just feels comfortable recognizing the familiar and calls it a day. And that’s the sad reality.
