All things must ultimately come to an end. This movie ends the journey that began with a surprisingly wonderful "How to Train Your Dragon" (HTTYD) in 2010, that introduced us to the beloved duo of Hiccup and his trust Night Fury (Toothless), and the myriad denizens of Berk. It'd be pretty safe to say that that movie was a beautiful unique introduction to the world of dragons, and showed us that one weird kid with a knack for the uncanny could be the bridge between two totally different worlds. This was followed by HTTYD II in 2014, which expanded the mythos even further: we were introduced to the concept of Dragon hierarchy, we regained Hiccup's lost mother, but lost the brave Stoic in exchange, and thus Hiccup eventually ended up being crowned as chief. The second installment gave us tons in terms of world-building, traded in a human antagonist dragon-hunter (Drago Bludvist) for the monstrous "Red Death", but its predecessor was undoubtedly the better of the two movies.
HTTYD III delves deeper into Hiccup's chieftaincy: as usual, with his and the Berkians' penchant for embracing dragons, Berk is now filled to the brim with dragons. And since Dragon hunters are now a part of this story, all this has done is paint a big target on their backs; in this way, Grimmel the Grizzly is brought in as an antagonist to plot their end. Toothless is still the alpha, and tries to keep the dragons in check, but things change once a female Light Fury becomes the object of his affection.
In my opinion, the movie got off to quite a slow start. Something quite disappointing for me was how some scenes were rendered in the dead of night. There just wasn't that much contrast, and this made it hard to make out the details in some of the night scenes. There's also something misplaced about the comedy this time around. HTTYD has usually had many avenues from which to pull in some laughs: from Hiccup's deadpan musing about his quirks, the eccentricities of his age mates, Gobber's observations and the interactions with Toothless and other dragons. It just seemed like most attempts at comedy did not land. Granted, this is the end to the trilogy, and some weighty issues are expected (similar to the gravitas that Stoic's death posed in the previous installment), we're still in this for some fun. The weirdest thing they do is try to make Hiccup's mother (Valka) an object of intrigue for Snotlout and Eret. The most irritating thing they do is overplay the twins Tuffnut and Ruffnut's roles this time around. I can understand giving us small doses of irritating characters, but this was just excessive.
The law of diminishing returns seems to have set in rather deeply. However, the movie catches its stride in its 3rd act. Some of the decisions made by Hiccup are a bit suspect, but then again, this is merely a reflection of his eccentricity at work; the same eccentricity that saw him embrace dragons when most people merely saw them as a dangerous inconvenience. For so long he had come to rely on the oddity of loving dragons as his one true defining characteristic, but he's forced to come to terms with the fact that he is more than just the tamer of dragons. Similarly, there's a love story at play here: that of Toothless and the Light Fury. In retrospect, it shares the same odd beginning as Toothless' friendship with Hiccup, with Toothless now taking on the role of the hapless dolt.
Despite the initial slow pacing, the movie provides a great emotionally satisfying climax to the trilogy. Perhaps the movie will grow on me with yet another chance to view it, but I'm glad to have had the chance to be on this 3-movie ride. Please make sure to check the soundtrack (currently available on Youtube) for the delightful tune, "Once there were Dragons". It is the theme for the culmination of the movie, started off in beautiful Latin chanting accompanied by a soothing Harp. Bounding off into booming brass territory, the song encompasses a wide variety of emotion, eventually evolving into an all too familiar HTTYD tune. It brings all things full-circle.
I give this movie a B+, and hope to be as entranced by another movie as I have been by this collective trilogy as a whole.
God Bless
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