'How To Train Your Dragon' review: Live-action remake has a flight of fantasy adventure

Universal Pictures

Wait, I'm pretty sure we learned about training dragons once before. Have we all lost our minds? Well, Hollywood certainly has, as evidenced by the arrival of 2025's How To Train Your Dragon, a live-action remake of the 2010 film and another adaptation of Cressida Cowell's novel of the same name. Dean DeBlois returns to write and direct, only this time all by himself, while most of the cast gets a makeover.

Hiccup (Mason Thames) is a teen boy living with his disapproving dad Stoick (Gerard Butler, reprising his role) in a Viking village called Berk where humans hunt and capture dragons that frequent the place. Hiccup, of course, finds himself in the middle of this strife when he helps and befriends a rare dragon whom he later names Toothless. As a result, Hiccup becomes a respected dragon fighter trainee, much to surprise of his crush and fellow fighter Astrid (Nico Parker) as well as their teacher Gobber (Nick Frost) and other rival trainees Snotlout (Gabriel Howell), Fishlegs (Julian Dennison), Ruffnut (Bronwyn James) and Tuffnut (Harry Trevaldwyn).

Very rarely is there a movie that is so difficult to sink your teeth into that you don't even want to talk about it openly, but this is definitely one of those instances. First of all, the only reason for its existence is money and fear of creative swings, which is a deadly combo, but you're also supposed to approach every new interpretation of a story—like Shakespeare's classics, for example—on its own terms. In that sense, the story is still the (Vi)king here. It's an exciting, humorous and engaging fantasy adventure with strong character arcs as it digs into expectations regarding masculinity, empathy and morality, featuring even disabilities with real maturity towards the end which is good for younger viewers especially. Sure, this is yet again nothing new for anyone familiar with the story, but the resonance of it all doesn't get lost in the sauce made out of greed and capitalism.

DeBlois' script sadly doesn't fix the incomprehensible message about environmentalism, which was also the original film's major flaw, underlining the absence of a fresh take that haunts this new adaptation from beginning to end. A flaw like that isn't enough to shoot down the project because you do pretty much get a shot-for-shot remake and there aren't any obvious weak links other than the lack of a new perspective. Pacing is a slight hiccup along the way because this two-hour version adds 25 minutes even though nothing of value is necessarily added, exemplified perhaps best by the physical comedy that, whilst fun, isn't as slick as you'd want, showing why animation is easily the best medium for some of it.

The cast (assembled by casting director Lucy Bevan) is solid enough acting-wise, though Thames is put in an unfair situation vocally since his work is much less affecting than his counterpart, whilst Parker is dealing with some iffy costumes (by Lindsay Pugh) as well as makeup and hair design*, and both of them look like they were scrolling their TikTok feeds between setups, which isn't very fitting for medieval Viking people. They make for a cute fantasy romance pairing, but the blossoming romance itself feels rather rushed. Surprisingly, Butler is the only one in the ensemble that isn't just trying to imitate their character from the 2010 film, but is giving Stoick a bit more flair when he's just flesh and blood. Butler not only nails the comedic tone and looks right in this milieu, but he also gives the more heartfelt moments enough room to breathe with his performance.

Technically, this remake is also slightly inferior because it's oftentimes a mixed bag. Composer John Powell's score is once again emotive and expansive, beautiful strings and lovely woodwinds emphasising the sense of adventure, but it's almost a carbon copy. Dominic Watkins' production design and Daniel Birt's set decoration feature cool props and details, but the sets in general feel artificial rather than a world truly lived in. Bill Pope's cinematography follows the comedy and flying scenes finely, but the depressingly grey palettes get tiresome after a while. The VFX* and SFX* integrate Toothless and other dragons into the human world really well, but the flying scenes are missing a little bit of the magic that proper animation can bring when you don't have to include human actors and their digital doubles.

Every aspect of the film seems to have some sort of counterweight pulling it down, making sure that the translation into live-action wasn't a smart decision and the inferiority is crystal clear. So, yes, it all works on some level because the story, music and character arcs are still excellent—I just can't give you one good reason why you should watch it instead of the animated version. One needs to hope that when the creatively bankrupt sequels and shot-for-shot remakes of other movies come out, we have better, original movies to discuss. This was draining enough.

Smileys: Story, Gerard Butler

Frowneys: Originality

Two hours? Some movies dragon and on.

3.5/5

[*Editor's note: Apologies for the image quality and possible inaccurate or insufficient credits. Universal Pictures didn't provide high-quality stills or proper information about the film before the publication of this review.]

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