Brandon McClure

MOVIE REVIEWS

MOVIE REVIEW: How To Train Your Dragon (2025)

By Brandon T. McClure

Released in 2010, the original How to Train Your Dragon launched a new and more confident era for Dreamworks Animation. With a new theme park in tow, Universal Studios has now remade the classic adventure of Hiccup and Toothless, this time for a live-action audience. While it feels like Universal has adopted at the end of its life cycle, they are no doubt hoping to cash in on Disney’s trend that has plagued much of the 21st century. Directed by the original’s co-director, Dean Deblois, How To Train Your Dragon, sports the tagline “the legend becomes real” but falls short of the original's greatness. While there is fun to be had, the film can’t get away from the cynical nature of the very style it’s cashing in on.

Once again, audiences are introduced to Hiccup, the scrawniest Viking in Berk. His desire to prove himself leads to him taking down a Night Fury, the most dreaded dragon the Vikings of Berk have ever faced. At this point, you know the story. Hiccup couldn’t kill the Dragon and the two form an unlikely bond that allows Hiccup to learn more about Dragons and change his world for the better. All the while his stubborn father has to be dragged kicking and screaming away from his Ahab-like hatred for Dragons in order to finally see his son. If you’ve seen the animated version, then there’s nothing on a macro scale that’s entirely new. But there’s a lot of tiny changes that both add and subtract to the overall theme of the film.

Much criticism has been lobbied at Disney for making unnecessary changes to their animated films when remaking them into live-action. Truthfully, it’s a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. If you keep the film exactly as it is, then it feels unnecessary, but if you change little things, then it still feels unnecessary. At the same time, with little changes they to try and trick the audience into thinking they’re watching a different version. For example, it’s never explained in the original Beauty and the Beast how the village that Belle lives in could forget about a castle right next door to them. The live-action version explains it by saying it was part of the curse that befell the inhabitants of that castle. No one who watched the original film ever had that question in mind, however, and having it answered doesn’t change the movie for the worse. It just feels like an unnecessary detail that was added for the sake of it. How To Train Your Dragon is no different, but there is one change that does help this live-action film stand-out from its animated counterpart in a positive way. That is the character arc of Astrid. 

Hiccup (Mason Thames) and Astrid (Nico Parker) in How to Train Your Dragon

While the original film sees Astrid as the object of Hiccup’s affection, she doesn’t get much of a character arc in the film. She’s strong and dogmatic in her desire to be the best dragon hunter in Berk, but she serves the story as an extension of Hiccup and only comes into her own in the sequels. Here, director Dean Deblois attempts to give Astrid more motivation and character throughout the story. Since the cast of the new film is far more diverse than the original, Deblois feels the need to explain where all these Vikings came from, in a long monologue from Gerard Butler’s Stoic. In this film, the Vikings came from far and wide to settle in Berk with the hopes of defeating the dragons at the very source of where they came from. This iteration of Astrid, who is from one of these far off viking clans, feels like Hiccup has had everything handed to him as the son of the chief and resents him due to her family not being as privileged as the other Vikings on Berk. However, while it’s great to give Astrid more of a character, following it to its natural conclusion robs Hiccup of the climax of his.

In the original film, HIccup leads the other viking children into battle with The Red Death (the Queen on the island) while riding Stormfly with Astrid. He barks out orders to the other children as Stoic looks up in awe at his son as he finally sees Hiccup as the chief he will one day become. In the live-action version, Hiccups and Astrid's roles in the scene are reversed. While Hiccup and Astrid are still riding Stormfly into the battle, it’s Astrid who is leading the charge. A seemingly small change but does stop Hiccup's character arc in its tracks in favor of Astrids. In some ways it’s refreshing that Dean Deblois committed to following Astrids new character arc to its natural conclusion but it will be a change that will likely be debated in fandom circles for years to come.

Outside of that, much of the film plays out the same way as the original with very little cut out or changed. In fact, many of the actors feel like they’re trying to copy the performances of their animated counterparts and other times they feel like they’re deliberately trying to avoid copying them. This creates an identity crisis for the film in both design and performance. This has the unfortunate issue of making the film far less charming and even less funny than the original. Almost every single joke is left in the script, but the deliveries rob them of their charm. Hiccup is a far more depressing main character then he was in the original. To be fair though, if you took out Jay Baruchel’s charming performance, then the character probably reads just as sad. But there does seem to be a concerted effort to take out the inherent charm of the original Dreamworks classic in order to be taken more seriously as a film. Sadly, it has the opposite effect.

One of the biggest unfortunate side effects of the shift to live-action is that change in cinematographer. One of the reasons why the animated How To Train Your Dragon looks so striking and impressive all these years later is because Roger Deakins consulted on all three films. This was revolutionary for the time because it gave the film a far more cinematic look that truly changed the game. Now for the live-action film, Bill Pope steps into the cinematographer seat. Pope is an incredibly prolific cinematographer who has worked on films such as The Matrix, Chang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Baby Driver, but he’s not Roger Deakins. Without Deakins' eye, the film feels flat and lifeless as all the color has been stripped from Berk.

The cast is a mixed bag. Nico Parker and Gerard Butler are the strongest in the cast by miles. Parker is wonderful as Astrid and perfectly captures America Ferrera’s performance while merging the new aspects of the character introduced in this film. Butler, the only returning cast member from the animated film, is a veteran of this story so it should be no surprise at how well he’s able to bring Stoic from animation to live-action. He hits most of the same beats, this time without much of the humor, and still manages to capture what the animators were able to bring to his vocal performance. Mason Thames as Hiccup often feels miscast but still plays a decent enough Hiccup that proves he’ll likely be better in the sequel. The rest of the main cast is fine. They get similar moments to their animated counterparts, and Snotlout gets a new subplot that’s, frankly useless. Finally, Nick Frost is the weakest link in the cast. His Gobber, originally played by Craig Ferguson is a boring and pale imitation of Stoic’s loveable friend and sidekick.

Ruffnut (Bronwyn James), Tuffnut (Harry Trevaldwyn), Snotlout (Gabriel Howell), and Fishlegs (Julian Dennison) in How to Train Your Dragon

John Powell, who scored the original trilogy, returns to score the live-action film. The animated score can be argued as one of the best film soundtracks ever composed, and now that Powell has a bigger budget, he’s able to make an even grander version of the original. It frankly makes the entire film worth it. All the themes are present and in the exact same places but bigger and more grand this time around. Powell even sneaks in a track from How To Train Your Dragon 2 that eagle eared listeners will delight in. The only mark against it is that he makes a truly baffling change to the iconic “Test Drive” that will leave many fans scratching their heads. 

Speaking of scratching their heads, fans will likely forget about this scene until the very end, but a (once again baffling) change to the story happens after the test drive scene. See, in the original, Hiccup learns much about the true nature of dragons, such as their weaknesses through his relationship with Toothless. The final thing he learns is that dragons aren’t fireproof on the inside of their bodies, through a cute little encounter with a couple of Terrible Terrors. This scene leads to Hiccup being able to defeat the Red Death by igniting a fire inside her that forces her to crash and explode. This scene is removed from the film but the way that Hiccup defeats the Red Death is not changed. It may seem like a small change on paper but audiences will be left wondering how Hiccup knew that would work in this new version of the story. This highlights one of the issues with these live-action remakes. While a change could seem small in the moment, it has the potential to dramatically change the outcome of the film and if you don’t follow that change to a new conclusion, but rather force the story to reach the same conclusion, then you end up hurting the film rather than helping it.

A more apt analogy of this idea would be if you were remaking a murder mystery. The audience already knows the outcome of the story so you decide to change all the clues so they point to a different murderer. The only problem is that the reveal in the original is so good and fans will be expecting to see that moment play out again, so at the last moment you reveal the murder to be the same person it was in the original. Except this time, it doesn’t make any sense because you robbed the audience of all the set up that was necessary for everything to pay off and didn’t follow the new clues set up to their natural conclusion. This is a much grander example than a bunch of animated films being made into live-action, but it gets the point across. 

If you’re a longtime fan of the How To Train Your Dragon franchise, then you’ll delight in seeing the same scenes play out in live-action. As remakes go, it could have gone way worse. It’s honestly one of the better attempts at this trend and the financial success of the film means that Universal Studios will likely be looking at Dreamworks' library to see what else they can try and remake. But you’ll never be able to shake off the idea that it feels unnecessary. While director Dean Deblois clearly has immense love for the story he helped bring to life 15 years ago, even he can’t wipe away the stench of a cash grab. He referred to this film as a “second draft” and if it is, then it’s an unnecessary one. The original is a classic that will be remembered for decades, and this will simply be a footnote in its memory.

MOVIE REVIEWS, STAR TREK

An Unnecessary Evil - A Review of Star Trek: Section 31

By Brandon T. McClure

The 2025 Star Trek season has begun with the release of the first feature film since 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, Star Trek: Section 31, directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi and written by Craig Sweeny. Originally developed as a TV series by Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt, Star Trek: Section 31 was announced as a spin-off of Star Trek: Discovery back in 2019. The Michelle Yeoh centered show languished in development hell until Yeoh’s historic Best Actress Oscar win in 2023 for Everything, Everywhere, All At Once. Shortly after that Oscar win, the show was announced to be redeveloped into a movie. So after six years of development, was the wait worth it? The short answer is that this film probably should have stayed in development hell. 

Originally created for the later seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Section 31 has evolved into the “dark side of the Federation.” They were an organization that existed outside of the Federation and mostly operated without anyone in the Federation knowing. Luther Sloan, The representative for Section 31 in DS9, claimed that in order for Starfleet and the Federation to exist, there must be an organization that works in the shadows to protect the idealism that it stands for. The important thing to note about this is that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s final say on the matter is that Sloan is wrong. There is no place for Section 31 in the Federation, they’re beyond the need for it. To date, of all the shows, and Star Trek Into Darkness, that have used Section 31, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is the show that has utilized it the best. Alex Kurtzman has seemingly had an unhealthy fascination with the idea of Section 31 for years now. They were the villain of Star Trek Into Darkness, which he co-wrote, and the major villains of season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery, which he was the co-showrunner of. Now Kurtzman’s fascination with Section 31 comes to a point with a film that tries to claim that Section 31 is necessary and, more importantly, cool. This flies in the face of the ideals the franchise presents and creates nothing more than a dangerous message in a time when the ideals of Trek are more important than ever.

The cast of Star Trek: Section 31

In Star Trek: Section 31 Michelle Yeoh returns as Philippa Georgiou, the reformed Empire of the Terran Empire, who was originally from the Mirror Universe. Last seen in Star Trek: Discovery’s third season, she has come from the 32nd century via the Guardian of Forever and placed herself as the owner of a space station outside of Federation space, called the Baraam, in the early part of the 24th century. It’s here where Section 31 agent Alok Sahar (Omari Hardwick) approaches her with a desire to recruit her back into Section 31 with a plan to acquire a macguffin, later revealed to be a doomsday device from the Mirror Universe. What follows is a fairly generic action film that had the Star Trek name slapped on it for branding purposes. This is a film that seems to only exist to capitalize on the star power of its lead actress and has nothing meaningful to add to the decades long franchise.

Indeed, this is the worst thing to come out of the “Latinum Era” of Trek (Or “streaming era”). In fairness, it’s probably not as bad as Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, but that film still has a cast of beloved characters, something that this film lacks. The cast is filled with talented actors in search of chemistry. Star Trek thrives on the chemistry of its loveable misfits who come together to form a family. A crew that boldly goes where no one has gone before. But Star Trek: Section 31’s first failure is its cast of references masquerading as characters.

Of the cast, Sam Richardson’s Quasi comes out the strongest. While the script, from Craig Sweeny, is generic and rather boring, Richardson is able to bring his signature wit to the film and spices up the scenes he’s part of. Trek fan’s will note that he’s playing a Chameloid, a shapeshifting species first seen in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. He’s one of many recognizable alien species that are purely there because the producers want Trek fans to point at the screen and go “I get that reference.” Unfortunately, like every alien species in this movie, there doesn’t seem to be any reason why he’s here. As a Chameloid, he’s able to shapeshift into anyone he wants, but outside of a scene at the end, he doesn’t. It’s almost like they forgot he was a Chameloid until the very end. Making you wonder “what was the point?”

Michelle Yeoh as Philippa Georgiou

Contrary to many popular beliefs, prequels can actually serve important roles in stories. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds for example is able to flesh out characters like Captain Pike, Sam Kirk, or Christine Chappel. In featuring these characters on that show, audiences learn more about them which adds to their initial appearances. In Star Trek: Section 31 Kacey Rohl plays Lt. Rachel Garrett, the future Captain of the Enterprise-C, last seen in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Yesterday's Enterprise.” Including this character was very exciting since she was a well liked character who didn’t get a lot of screen time in her initial appearance. But viewers may be left scratching their heads with this inclusion. It’s unclear what, if anything, this story is meant to add to her future appearance. She has a fairly serviceable arc here as someone who starts as a stick in the mud Starfleet officer who learns to loosen up, but nothing in this film would change if you remove her from the story or make her an original character. Her inclusion makes you wonder if Sweeny was playing a “mad-libs” style game with character creation. 

Modern Star Trek has been known to bend cannon to fit the story they want to tell. There’s truly nothing wrong with that, because the story should always come before canon. But a small character in Star Trek: Section 31 breaks canon in a way that will have even the most forgiving Star Trek fans calling fowl. Virgil is a member of a race from the planet Cheron, last seen in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield.” Here, he’s playing the assistant to Georgiou and only gets a few minutes of screen time. The issue is, in the episode that premiered his race, it’s made clear that the entire race had been wiped out due to a racial war (it’s a pretty good, if not heavy handed episode). So how is he here, almost 100 years after the events of that episode? It’s not that another member of that species could survive, it’s that him being here actively undermines that episode and only serves to, once again, make the audience point at the TV in recognition. It’s a soulless attempt at an easter egg.

The final head scratching easter egg disguised as a character is the aforementioned Alok Sahar, played by Omari Hardwick. He delivers a good performance, as you would expect, but his back story raises more questions. It turns out he’s a human augment from the 20th century’s Eugenics Wars (or the 21st century, depending on what retcon they decide to go with). While he seemingly left Earth with Khan and the others, it’s unclear how he made it all the way to this moment, skipping, both the episode “Space Seed” and the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. He may not be a very interesting character, but it’s hard not to enjoy Hardwick’s performance, especially if you’re already a fan of his. It’s nothing new but it works. Head scratching back story notwithstanding

Kacey Rohl as Lt. Rachel Garrett

The rest of the characters don’t really need their own paragraph, there’s Humberly González as the Deltan female Melle, who doesn’t get much to do here. It’s worth noting that she does get to use her species’ ability before ultimately dying before the film really gets going. She has a memorable death scene, so that’s something. Then there’s Robert Kazinsky as Zeph, who delivers a fairly fun performance, and was clearly very excited to be in the film. Without any pre-existing Star Trek lore to fill out Zeph’s backstory, the script has nothing for him to do, so he ends up being the most underdeveloped character in the story (yes, even more so then the Delton who dies before Act One is over). Sadly with a combination of a short run time, too many characters, and an over complicated plot, there’s just not enough time for everyone to even get the simplest character development. Craig Sweeny relies on the audience's pre-existing knowledge to fill in the gaps, to no success.

As mentioned before, the main plot of the film revolves around Section 31 trying to get their hands on a doomsday weapon from the Mirror Universe. As such, the film flashes back to the Mirror Universe a few times. Beginning with the first scene of the film, the flashbacks show how Georgiou became emperor of the Terran Empire, created her doomsday device, and most importantly set up the villain of the film, San, played primarily by James Hiroyuki Liao. These flashbacks deliver some of the worst acting performances in the movie. From the first, where the future emperor Georgiou delivers a terribly performed monologue while her parents die in front of her, to the reveal that she still loved San even after becoming one of the most ruthless emperors in Terran history.

Sadly, to put it kindly, Michelle Yeoh is not delivering a compelling performance here. To be clear, she absolutely deserved her Oscar win for Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, and her performance here doesn’t change that. She’s also been better as this character. Kurtzman has stated that Yeoh was the driving force to get this movie made because of how much she loves playing the character. She’s clearly having a good time playing a reformed genocidal dictator who still likes to dance in the grey area. However, the schtick only goes so far when she’s the main character, apparently. What was fun to watch in doses on Star Trek: Discovery has sadly overstayed its welcome. On a somewhat related note, It doesn’t make sense how Section 31 knows she’s been redeemed, since her redemption happened almost 1000 years in the future.

While the best Star Trek films are character driven, this one is plot driven. You’ll find yourself asking why certain things are happening, only to realize that they are happening because the plot needs them to. The characters will also spell out the plot multiple times by way of extended scenes where they gather around in a circle and talk to each other. If you’re a fan of scenes where characters stand in a circle, sometimes around a table, and talk about the plot, then you’re in luck, because there are many. The film also quickly ditches the heist element for a “save the galaxy” plotline with a “one of the main characters has betrayed us” subplot so quickly, you’ll wonder what the point of even setting up a heist in the first place was. The character who betrayed the crew is so obvious to the audience that you’ll find yourself screaming it to the screen and wondering how any of these characters can be so stupid to not figure it out.

That brings us to the final character of the film, Fuzz, played by Sven Ruygrok (Spoilers ahead). He plays a new species called a Nanokin, a microscopic alien who is piloting a Vulcan robot suit. While still being underutilized, he’s genuinely the most interesting new idea in the film. However, Fuzz is so annoying and unlikable that the moment even a whiff that someone had betrayed the team, you’re immediately going to know it was him. It’s too bad too, because there’s a good idea in this character that deserves to be fleshed out at some point. This was just not the film that was going to do it.

The biggest issue with the film is that it doesn’t feel like Star Trek. It was certainly a deliberate choice to purge the film of Star Trek’s recognizable iconography, but it was a bad choice. Star Trek: Discovery received much criticism in the beginning for straying too far from the iconic imagery of the franchise, but it was still able to populate the show with imagery that was familiar. But in this film, there isn’t even so much as a combadge. There’s a tricorder sound effect, sure, but the tricorder’s just look like smartphones. The absence of a combage is also noteworthy because Star Trek: Discovery introduced a special Section 31 combage. This film shares more in common with a low budget Netflix sci-fi film, then Star Trek. It’s not even a generic action film with a Star Trek coat of paint, it’s just got the name attached to it so that Paramount can sell it to Star Trek fans with the hope that they’ll watch it. Fans deserve better. Hell, Michelle Yeoh deserves better.

Section 31 as portrayed in Star Trek: Discovery season two

Star Trek: Section 31 brings to light a problem with the current era of Star Trek. A deliberate choice was made early on to modernize everything so that they wouldn’t have to be restricted by the design aesthetic of the 60s. With few exceptions, this hasn’t been a big issue. For example, the Enterprise in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds still, mostly, looks like the Enterprise from Star Trek: The Original Series, and the crew still wear red, blue, gold uniforms. Even though the newer show is a prequel, fans can accept that it’s the same ship, the only real difference is the budget. With this film being set in the early 24th century, there’s an expectation that the universe should look a certain way. But if you weren’t a Trek fan that hyper fixated on dates (I’m calling myself out with that one), then you wouldn’t know that this takes place almost 100 years after Star Trek: Discovery’s second season. Aesthetically speaking, there’s nothing in the set design or even ship design that differentiates this movie from Star Trek: Discovery’s early seasons. The year Star Trek: Section 31 is set in seems to just be an excuse to use Rachel Garret and even then one has to wonder why that was important. Georgiou is from the 23rd century, so why didn’t she go back to her home century? We couldn’t get one monster maroon?

Not to fixate on the year so much, but it calls into question one of the biggest plot holes in the film. San, the villain of the film and former love interest of Georgiou in case you forgot, faked his death before the events of the first season of Star Trek: Discovery. Those events are in the 2250s, so how is San alive? The film chooses not to explain it, almost like the year it was set was an afterthought. Georgiou is alive because of time travel, so it’s possible that San somehow time traveled, but then his plan doesn’t make sense. He wants to take the Macguffin to the Mirror Universe in order to provoke the Terran Empire to invade the Prime Universe (if this movie is meant to appeal to new audiences, then swing and miss). The problem with the plan is that the Terran Empire doesn’t exist in the way it did in the 23rd century. So the plan wouldn’t work even if he succeeded. The characters don’t know that, but it certainly lowers the stakes for the audience. 

Unfortunately this film is also very poorly directed. Olatunde Osunsanmi directed 14 episodes of Star Trek: Discovery but sadly showcases some of his worst impulses here. The sets are big open circular spaces, since they’re utilizing the Volume, and the camera zooms in to peoples faces at random during exposition, obviously in a poor attempt to add some excitement to the scene. The action sequences are poorly shot and choreographed, to the point that during one climactic battle, two ships just magically swap places. There’s also a planet that just keeps spitting out fire from the ground that takes up most of the movie’s setting. Everything Osunsanmi does here is an effort to hide the very poorly written script by Craig Sweeney. It just also has the unfortunate side effect of making the direction equally as boring.

Michelle Yeoh and Omari Hardwick

Just a few years ago, the future of Star Trek looked bright. But with three shows having been cancelled in 2024 and 2025 starting with one of, if not the worst Star Trek movie, the future doesn’t look as bright. With Paramount’s future uncertain at the moment, Star Trek’s Latinum Age might be heading towards its natural conclusion. It’s truly unfortunate because there’s tons of potential in making standalone Star Trek streaming films, and with this film's poor performance, it might be the only one we ever get. A generic action film that accidentally became the very thing the outrage merchants online claimed Star Trek had become. It truly is just Star Trek in name only. Oh, and the music sucks.

Section 31 is just not a concept that works as a standalone story. They don’t work as a “necessary evil” and they don’t work as lovable misfits trying to make the Federation’s equivalent of the CIA look cool. When Sloan says that the Federation needs Section 31, he’s saying that as the bad guy who is wrong. But Kurtzman and the actors of this film think he was right. They believe that the Federation needs Section 31 to exist. Well, they’re wrong. The Federation doesn’t need them and Star Trek fans don’t either.


Star Trek: Section 31 is streaming now, exclusively on Paramount+