How to Train Your Dragon Remake’s Rotten Tomatoes Score Is Lowest in Franchise

The reviews for the live-action How to Train Your Dragon are coming in, and they currently accumulate to the lowest Rotten Tomatoes rating of all cinematic entries in the franchise. The movie is a remake of the 2010 animated feature, How to Train Your Dragon, which has two big-screen sequels and was loosely based on Cressida Cowell’s 2003 book of the same name.

How to Train Your Dragon reviews call it a pointless remake

Although the critical consensus on the How to Train Your Dragon remake is largely positive, many professional reviewers are questioning why it was made in the first place.

ComingSoon’s Jonathan Sim called the new movie “a pointless shot-for-shot remake” and gave it a five out of 10 rating, deeming it “mediocre.” Sim noted that while he “didn’t have a bad time watching” the remake, it was “faithful to a fault” to the original animated feature. He added, “It gets to a point where if you’ve seen the original film, you’re not getting anything new out of this. DeBlois (Dean DeBlois, director of the remake and co-director of the original) has nothing left to offer.”

Radheyan Simonpillai of The Guardian rated the movie two out of five, stating, “DreamWorks tries to find success with the Disney live-action remake template but falls short.” He added, “The script, the gags, and the action remain mostly intact. But this time around, real actors and sets become deadweight to a story that soared in larger-than-life animated form.”

The New York Post’s Johnny Oleksinski gave a positive review to the movie, noting that it worked best when Mason Thames’ Hiccup “is soaring through the air” with Toothless, with John Powell’s “inspiring score” playing in the background.

Maggie Lovitt of Collider also had positive things to say about the remake. Lovitt compared it to other live-action remakes of recent years and observed that How to Train Your Dragon was “a breath of fresh air” because the makers knew why the original was so beloved.

G. Allen Johnson of the San Francisco Chronicle noted the remake excelled because it made Hiccup a “deeper and more mature” character and because the monsters in the movie were “extra frightening.”

How to Train Your Dragon’s Rotten Tomatoes score loses to animated trilogy

At the time of this article’s composition, the How to Train Your Dragon remake has an 80% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes after 80 reviews. This number will likely change as the movie releases on June 13, 2025, and more reviews come in. In comparison, How to Train Your Dragon (2010) has a 99% approval rating. Meanwhile, the approval ratings for How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019) are 92% and 90%, respectively.

Originally reported by Tamal Kundu on SuperHeroHype.

Source: Comingsoon.net