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How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)
How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)
2019 | Animation
Visually stunning and exhilarating, great to be back in the world of Berk (0 more)
Kinda not as epic feeling in scope, in comparison to the previous 2 films, something felt missing just a bit. (0 more)
Flying On Fumes: Bittersweet End to Dragons - 7/10
How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is the final installment in the trilogy of films based on the books by Cressidia Cowell. It was written and directed by Dean Deblois, produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal. With a returning cast starring Jay Burachel, America Ferrera, Cate Blanchett, and Craig Ferguson.


One year after (How To Train Your Dragon 2) Hiccup (Jay Burachel) and friends defended Berk from the threat of Drago Bludvist; the group is still rescuing dragons and relocating them back to their village. Now however the villagers are dealing with a problem of overcrowding and overpopulation of dragons. Hiccup begins the process of finding a new home for everyone to relocate to, the fabled "Hidden World" of the dragons. The conflict of the film enters when the Vikings whose dragons Hiccup has been freeing, seek the help of Grimmel the Grisly (F. Murray Abraham), a dragon hunter responsible for the eradication and near extermination of all Night Furies. And also Toothless being enamoured with the discovery of a female White Fury dragon.


This movie was really good and while watching I had fun seeing the whole group dynamic and how everyone interacted with each other. It felt awesome seeing them again and how they all grew up a little over the last year. When comparing this movie to the others in the series, it felt like it fell short especially for being the last movie in the trilogy. I guess it was hard to surpass how great the last film was. While visually stunning and exhilarating at times it failed to be as great as it could have and felt like something was missing in this conclusion to an epic series. The atmosphere of the movie felt like it never quite matched the tone that they were trying to set with the seriousness of the plot. It's like only the main character felt the weight of the world on his shoulders but it is a kids movie after all. Like I said certainly enjoyable, I give it a 7/10.
  
Perfectly Preventable Deaths
Perfectly Preventable Deaths
Deirdre Sullivan | 2020 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The protagonist in this novel was Madeline, and the book is told from her perspective. Madeline is a very complex character, she is very introverted, lesbian, and socially awkward. Her twin sister, on the other hand, is the opposite. Catlin is the popular girl, she is extroverted, fearless and doesn’t care what others think. Madeline is very dependable on her twin sister, and her inability to function without her made me sad and kind of disappointed. I absolutely despised Catlin, she is arrogant and was very rude and disrespectful not only to her parents but to her sister as well. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Madeline as well, she allowed to be treated like she was a lowlife, and was scared to stand up for herself. I did enjoy Madeline’s discovery of whom she is really attracted to, and her effort to make friends and integrate into society.

The mood of this novel was very well set up. The whole book seeped with darkness, mystery and gloominess, and I think that created the perfect mood for the events described. The narrative was quite slow, and I was hoping for more mystery, twists and turns. I needed more suspense as well, it kind of just plodded along, sharing Madeline’s quite repetitive thoughts. There was quite a bit of magic involved, but I think the full potential of that magic was not utilized.

The writing style was very impressive, I found it incredibly poetic, very lyrical, and melodious. It was pleasant and easy to read, and the chapters were quite short. I really liked the names of each chapter, I learned a lot about the medicinal value of certain plants, that I will be using that in the future. The ending of this novel supposed to be promising, and it was quite intriguing, but again, it just made very little sense, and I would have loved a deeper digging into the history of the whole village, it’s residents and all the murders and other events that happened before.

I think this book had an amazing potential into becoming something absolutely sinister and amazing, instead, it concentrated more on the sisterly love, finding yourself and trying to be independent (and failing). Yes, it discussed teenage confusion and wish to fit in, but I was expecting more.