Thoughts on Notorious (1946) and How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019) (Double Review)

I have not been motivated to do things lately. But I saw these two movies recently, and I feel like I should talk about them anyway.

I saw Notorious first, two weeks ago, so I shall talk about that.

I thought it was pretty good.

I thought the plot was pretty engaging and the acting was very well done. Ingrid Bergman was in this, and she played a very different character from the one she played in Spellbound, but she was still very good, and I thus have to admire her versatility.

The conflict was well thought out, and it kept me interested and on the edge of my seat. The main villain in particular was a well thought out character, not one note or anything, and I liked his motivations and I thought the somewhat ambiguous ending was a good idea.

The shots, lighting, and settings were well done as usual. It was all very deliberate. I liked how real it felt, while at the same time it felt appropriately stylized. It gave this film a kind of voice, I guess you could say. I think I would have to give this at least one more watch to fully appreciate it, but as it stands, I'm giving it an eight out of ten.

The weekend after that I went out to see How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.

And I thought it was pretty good.

I'm more attached to the HTTYD series, mainly because I saw them all in theaters and they kind of connected with me in a way. I like the first two. I liked this one too but not quite as much.

My main problem lies with the villain. It feels like he was just an afterthought. He didn't get many personality traits, and they halfheartedly try to explain his motivations, but it ended up satisfying nothing really. I really just didn't care.

I also thought the plot was really basic, but that may be more a me thing. Plus, this is a film for children and I am not a child. So I can forgive it.

Now, what I liked about it can largely be applied to the other HTTYD films. The animation was good, the voice acting was good, the action was good, the music was good. It was also pretty emotional, especially at the end. I'll admit that I didn't really see the ending coming, but it really fit, considering this was the last movie in the series. It was nice and I liked it, and I've heard other people say the same or better.

However, I liked it a bit less than the others. It's like the Return of the Jedi in terms of HTTYD, which is not a wholly bad thing (I still quite like ROTJ). Still, it's not the best. I recommend seeing it but I'll give it a six out of ten.