Film Talk: How To Train Your Dragon remake looking to soar to dizzy heights

​Well, OK, most of the inhabitants of the Island of Berk, where dragons and vikings are sworn enemies, intent on wiping the other species out. Indeed, with a paralysing fear of heights, I might even be forced to leave it out myself. But the cast of the new live action remake of How To Train Your Dragon do make it look rather spectacular, even if not all their stunts are as acrobatic as you might imagine.

“Mason learnt to fall over, a lot,” says Nico Parker, 20, of her co-star Mason Thames, who plays hero Hiccup, with a laugh. “A lot,” agrees Texas-born Thames, 17.

“Learning how to take a fall, and then once I’d learnt how to fall properly, to unlearn it all and make it sloppy, was cool,” he adds, shooting back at Parker, who plays viking Astrid, a student of dragon fighting and Hiccup’s love interest: “She got to do the cool stuff, she killed it.”

“Cartwheels! So many flips, I dropped from 60ft,” admits Parker, the daughter of Crash and Westworld actress Thandie Newton. “I fell over all the time – not on purpose – it was really fun.”

Based on Cressida Cowell’s gripping children’s books, the How To Train Your Dragon series charts the adventures of Toothless, a Night Fury dragon, and Hiccup – to give him his full title, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, son of Stoick the Vast – who is on a mission to achieve his dream of becoming a true Viking and following in his chieftain father’s footsteps.

“He’s always been different and because of that, he’s been cast out by his village, his tribe and his father, and of all people, he really just wants to make his dad proud and for Astrid not to look at him like a weird creature,” says Thames, best known for appearing opposite Ethan Hawke in horror, The Black Phone.

But does the hotly-anticipated remake stand up next to the beloved original? Let’s take a look...

​HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (UK PG/ROI PG, 125 mins) ****

Released: June 10 (UK & Ireland)

Returning to the scene of the crime seldom works well for filmmakers.

Michael Haneke’s remake of sadistic home invasion thriller Funny Games felt redundant 10 years after the original and English language versions of Spoorloos as The Vanishing and Jo-On: The Grudge as The Grudge lost chills and thrills in translation.

Dean DeBlois, Oscar-nominated co-director and co-writer of the 2010 animated fantasy How To Train Your Dragon, flies solo behind the camera for a live-action reworking that captures all the charm of the original but ultimately begs the question: why remake a film that was almost perfect and confidently passes the test of time?

Two scenes from the original have been excised: Hiccup sneaking Toothless into the blacksmith’s stall at night to alter his saddle design, and a plot-relevant encounter with Terrible Terrors on the beach that reveals dragons aren’t fireproof on the inside (vital for the grand finale).

Otherwise, this rollicking adventure is largely a shot-for-shot remake of the 2010 picture, expanded with 25 minutes of special effects-laden bombast and character development focused on Astrid, the other dragon-fighting recruits and female denizens of Berk including village elder Gothi.

Returning composer John Powell expands and enriches his orchestrations including the drum-thumping majesty of Test Drive, which underscores Hiccup’s first flight with Toothless.

Every emotional beat from 2010 still hits in 2025 but any lumps in the throat feel smaller and the first incarnation of Toothless had a twinkle in his emerald eyes that burns less bright, somehow, with the benefit of state-of-the-art digital trickery.

Viking chieftain Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler, reprising his role) presides over the village of Berk, where residents battle pernicious dragons that snatch livestock and set houses ablaze.

Stoick’s weakling son Hiccup (Mason Thames) is relegated to sharpening swords under the aegis of blacksmith Gobber the Belch (Nick Frost), who lost his left hand and right leg fighting one of the beasts.

During a night-time skirmish, Hiccup shoots down a Night Fury using his homemade catapult device.

The boy discovers the crash-landed beast tangled in his bola. Ignoring his training, Hiccup releases the stricken creature and christens the inquisitive dragon Toothless.

Using his engineering skills, Hiccup fashions a mechanical tail fin so Toothless can fly again.

Friendship blossoms between boy and beast as Hiccup completes his dragon training alongside Astrid (Nico Parker), twins Ruffnut (Bronwyn James) and Tuffnut (Harry Trevaldwyn), Fishlegs (Julian Dennison) and Snotlout (Gabriel Howell), who yearns to win the approval of his father (Peter Serafinowicz).

How To Train Your Dragon soars on nostalgia, anchored by a winning performance from Thames as the first Viking in generations who affirms he would not kill his tribe’s sworn enemy.

He catalyses appealing screen chemistry with Parker’s feisty and full-blooded rival turn conspirator in aerial heroism.

Dialogue is occasionally recycled word-for-word, like when Stoick discovers his only child has befriended a dragon and rages: “You’ve thrown your lot in with them… You’re not my son!”

DeBlois’s visually stunning return to Berk delivers everything you expect, but little more.

TORNADO (UK 15/ROI 15A, 91 mins) ***

Released: June 13 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)

A storm rages in 1790s Britain in a genre-bending, multicultural period romp written and directed by John Maclean, which binds a revenge western to a sword-wielding samurai action thriller against a backdrop of stunning Scottish locations including Arniston House, Newhall Estate and North Esk Reservoir.

Japanese fashion model and songwriter Koki confidently inhabits the title role of a wilfully rebellious teenager, who is determined to wriggle free from her overly protective father.

“I’m not little anymore,” she insists. “Well, you’ll always be little to me,” he tenderly responds, silently hoping his daughter with cling onto her childhood innocence a little longer.

Tornado regrets a decision to pursue her own destiny in Maclean’s relentlessly downbeat picture, which treats windswept landscapes as a supporting character to betrayal and bloodshed.

Cinematographer Robbie Ryan, who worked with Maclean on the 2015 film Slow West, allows us to feel every squelch of sodden ground and icy blast of wind across these unforgiving highlands. Another returning collaborator, composer Jed Kurzel, strikes ominous chords that trot between east and west.

Joanne Whalley materialises in an increasingly vicious second act with one logical outcome, but for extended periods, the eponymous heroine is the only female character on screen, buttressed by men of dishonour who fatally underestimate her tender years and slight stature.

Sixteen-year-old Tornado (Koki) travels around the country in a caravan with her samurai father Fujin (Takehiro Hira), performing bloodthirsty puppet shows to impoverished communities for a few coins in a hat.

After one windswept performance, Tornado steals two bags of gold from an opportunistic rapscallion (Nathan Malone), who has, in turn, pilfered the booty from small-time criminal Little Sugar (Jack Lowden) and his distracted underlings.

Little Sugar’s venomous, Fagin-esque father Sugarman (Tim Roth) controls the gang and he dispatches henchmen Archer (Jamie Michie), Kitten (Rory McCann), Lazy Legs (Douglass Russell) and Squid Lips (Jack Morris) to retrieve the gold from Tornado using lethal force, if necessary.

Armed with a samurai sword and her wits, the plucky teenager evades capture by seeking sanctuary in the country house of a pompous Laird (Alex Macqueen).

Meanwhile, Little Sugar senses an opportunity to double-cross his father and line his pockets, presuming he can apprehend the teenage fugitive before other gang members and prevent her from exposing his betrayal.

Tornado promises violent displacement and the second act of Maclean’s picture delivers on that front with blades and snarling brutality.

Roth and Lowden compete for audible boos as Koki embraces her protagonist’s petulance in the eye of a storm that she summoned.

Production design and costumes share an earthy colour palette to reflect law and disorder in a grimy, untamed wilderness where only the brave and audacious survive.

LOLLIPOP (UK 15/ROI 15A, 100 mins) ***

Released: June 13 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)

Newcomer Posy Sterling delivers a powerhouse central performance as a young mother in dire straits in a gritty drama written and directed by Daisy-May Hudson.

Molly (Sterling) serves four months in prison and is released, mistakenly believing she can collect her two children Ava (Tegan-Mia Stanley Rhoads) and Leo (Luke Howitt) from foster care and return to her old life.

Unfortunately, bureaucracy dictates Molly can’t get her children back without a roof over her head and she cannot secure housing because Ava and Leo aren’t currently living with her.

Handcuffed to the red tape, Molly reconnects with childhood friend Amina (Idil Ahmed), another single mother raising a child on her terms.

The two women take matters into their own hands and make bold choices with potentially dire repercussions for Molly’s custody of her kids.