I have previously reviewed How to train your dragon on this blog. The third part to be specific. And in that I said I wasn't particularly fond of it because it felt less like a sequel and more like an add on or spinoff. Well, since then I have come to appreciate the fact that at least HTTYD never became a knockoff of itself the way Ice Age did and lost its initial identity in the process. The sea beast however, does that for HTTYD.
The Sea Beast features most notably the voice of Karl Urban, someone I recognize from the TV show The Boys, which is just fantastic in its own way. Regardless, one can barely tell who Karl Urban plays in this movie as his voice is as generic as possible. He rocks an Australian accent in the Boys and I honestly don't know if that is his real accent but that was what I was expecting. Either way, weak voice acting aside, all of the characters seem to lack polish in their personalities. There is nuance here and there in the plot, but overall they aren't even predictable, just disappointing. Take for example, Sarah Sharpe played by Marianne Jean-Baptiste who is introduced by the little girl and I have no idea why she is hyped up during the story. She does have her moment but it doesn't feel earned at all, feels sudden instead. There is the captain too, who is steadfast and blind in his decision making but is open to reason in the beginning of the movie but has no meaningful arc whatsoever. Of course I am comparing these 2 side characters with Hiccup's dad and girlfriend and that is unfair but those were some lovable characters man. In contrast, midway through The Sea Beast, I tried remembering the protagonist's name and for the life of me I swear I thought it was Tom Holland rather than Jacob Holland. What this movie lacked is a proper character design overall I feel. Even if the dialogues were top notch the expressions and the actions of the characters contribute to nothing other than the plot and that seems like a missed opportunity. Consider even the kaiju style monsters in this movie and none of them hold a candlestick in comparison to the dragons in HTTYD. They're all just lifeless organisms like a grumpy cat
Looking at the bigger picture too, the editing seems way off. There is a villain in this story, who does nothing. And there are characters who seem important but don't have screen time. And instead there's long stretches of interactions between characters, all of which are very weak and show double triple sides of a character making them less likeable and just looking confused.
I will mention one thing that I liked though, the cinematography of it, plus the animations. Creativity felt low but that's me comparing it again so that's ok. But damn, there are 3 or 4 scenes where I gasped only cause the direction actually seems to be on point in those moments. The shocking unexpected parts were my favourite because they worked well as a spectacle and as a plot point.
The Sea Beast overall is underwhelming. It starts off strong but long character interactions make the movie seem stretched out for no reason. And the 'journey' seems like a forced plot point rather than a genuine growth in a relationship. I would rate it a solid 3, maybe 4 out of 10, because I do not see myself watching this movie again the way I watch HTTYD shorts on youtube today.
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