My Review: How to Train Your Dragon 2 (7/10)

"Something is coming. Something you've never faced before."

I was a huge fan of the first film written and directed by Dean DeBlois thanks to its memorable characters and beautiful visuals. How to Train Your Dragon continues to be my favorite DreamWorks animated film, so I was highly anticipating this sequel. Although I really enjoyed this film, I felt a bit disappointed because I felt it wasn't up to par with the first one. I enjoyed the visuals and the characters once again, but I felt there was just too much action and too little character development. The film is very fast paced and I didn't find myself as absorbed by the story and the characters as I felt the first time. There are plenty of funny moments and kids will be satisfied with all the action scenes, but adults may get tired of the action overload at times. This is still a good film and perhaps one of the best animated films of the year as it does manage to keep the audience emotionally engaged and it has several funny scenes. The best thing about How to Train Your Dragon 2 is without a doubt the beautiful visuals which once again amazed me. It was a fun ride, but I would rather watch the first film over the sequel.

The film takes place five years after the original as we follow our hero, Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) living peacefully amongst his people and dragons. He spends most of his time exploring new lands with his dragon, Toothless. His father, Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler) continues to be the chieftain of Berk, but he plans on leaving Hiccup as his successor. Hiccup however, doesn't feel like he was meant to lead the people and would much rather prefer to continue exploring unknown lands. During one of his explorations, Hiccup and his friend Astrid (America Ferrera) run into some men who are trying to capture dragons. They both escape, but Hiccup decides to return and try to convince these men not to capture dragons but reasoning with them is pointless. A mysterious dragon rider named Valka (Cate Blanchett) shows up and takes Hiccup to a hidden island. He later discovers that Valka is his mother and that she has dedicated her life to saving dragons from Drago (Djimon Hounsou), a man dedicated to capturing and using them for his own personal gain. Together, and with the help of the rest of his friends from Berk they decide to stop Drago and his men before he starts another war and hurts more dragons. 

Sequels usually suffer from not being as fresh as the original, and that is what happened here as the interesting premise from the first film was missing. I was already familiar with this world of vikings and dragons and the new characters didn't really resonate with me. It didn't help that it felt so fast paced either, but there were some strong emotional moments that I wasn't expecting from an animated sequel like this. There is some heart to this story allowing it not to rely entirely on the beautiful visuals, but I guess my expectations were just a bit too high because I wasn't blown away by this sequel as most people were. I really wasn't too engaged with the action, but I did enjoy the comedy. 

My Review: End of Watch (9/10)

¨If you run away I will chase you. If you fight me I will fight back. If you shoot at me I will shoot back. By law I am unable to walk away. Behind my badge is a heart like yours. I bleed, I think, I love, and yes I can be killed.¨

Before End of Watch filmgoers probably knew David Ayer for having written the beautiful screenplay for Training Day (memorable for Denzel Washington`s performance), but now he will be remembered for his direction in this excellent cop thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña. I was completely hooked with this film from the very beginning with the opening scene up to the very last shot. David Ayer had directed some other thrillers in the past (Harsh Times and Street Kings), but none as gripping as this one. End of Watch pays homage to police officers around the world. Many people have complained that this is cop propaganda, but I believe it really is a tribute to the honest and hard working officers in the police department. Many films, including Ayer`s Training Day, have depicted police officers as corrupt, but End of Watch pays a special tribute to those officers who have put their lives on the line. These cops deserved a film like this, and in my opinion it is one of the best police thrillers I`ve seen in a long time. The screenplay was also written by David Ayer, and the movie was filmed in a documentary style as we had the main characters filming ¨home footage¨ while on duty. This may displease some viewers due to the camera movements and such, but I thought it worked well here and gave it a more realistic vibe. David Ayer knows his material and really came up with a believable script. He was helped by the excellent performance from the entire cast as well.

Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (Michael Peña) are partners working for the LAPD in the dangerous streets ruled by gangs and drug cartels. They are also best friends and spend all day talking about their families and such in between chases and gun shootings while they patrol the streets. Mike is married to Gabby (Natalie Martinez) who is expecting their first child, while Brian has begun dating a very intelligent girl named Janet (Anna Kendrick) with whom he`s falling for. As the two men discuss their daily lives and play jokes on other officers they also get the job done. They are so good at what they do that a dangerous drug cartel marks them for death after they confiscated some of their money and firearms. Brian and Mike continue with their lives as usual while saving children from a burning house and fighting criminals in the street without feeling like heroes. Frank Grillo plays the Sarge, and America Ferrera and David Harbour two other officers in the department.   

The chemistry between Michael Peña and Jake Gyllenhaal in this film is what really makes this film stand out from the rest. We´ve seen many similar films dealing with these issues, but none feel as real as this movie did. Thanks to the performance from the cast and the well written screenplay the movie feels authentic. Peña and Gyllenhaal could even receive nominations for their performance. That is how good they are here. Anna Kendrick is such a talented actress, I don’t think she gets the recognition she deserves. She is great here in her supporting role and is always a delight to watch on screen. The performance from each of the members of the gang was also incredible, this is as real and authentic as they`ve ever been depicted. The film combines great action scenes with a lot of laughs and dramatic moments; it is a very emotional ride and director David Ayer does a great job at managing this. I will be on the lookout for his next film because I was really impressed with his work here. Definitely one of the top ten films of the year: It is authentic and bloody.

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