Rainbow Rocks

So I finally saw Rainbow Rocks today, and for anyone who doesn't know (i.e. everyone) I despised the first Equestria Girls movie. I loathed every second of it, and I often say that if it was the first mlp related thing I had ever seen, I never would have given the actual series a chance. Similarly I watched all the shorts put out in preparation for the sequel and found them to be equally appalling, worse even, and I was totally prepared for Rainbow Rocks to be the worst thing ever to wear the title of My Little Pony...

So imagine my surprise and internal conflict when Rainbow Rocks turns out to be... quite good. Better than the first? Vastly. I'm going to have to break this down as to why exactly, because this is confusing even for me.

Firstly, the music: The cornerstone of the whole movie I suppose. Equestria Girls was an all time low for MLP songs in my mind, Rainbow Rocks however actually does it quite well. Still not the standard I would expect of the show, more pop than anything, but far more enjoyable to listen to and it all serves the story relatively well, particularly the later villain songs.

Humour: Rainbow Rocks has some, which is more than can be said for its predecessor. There are still some very painfully forced jokes that were ever-present in the animated shorts, but enough good stuff to make me forget about them.

Plot: Rainbow Rocks really succeeds where the first failed in terms of pacing, everything lasts as long as it needs to and just feels right. No more conflicts being introduced and solved seconds later like with Snips and Snails trashing the sports hall in the first movie. Additionally the plot holds up relatively well, bar a few hiccups, everything happens for good reasons and like the pacing, just feels right.

If it sounds like I'm struggling with explaining why I like this, it's because I am. I'm better at being negatively critical than positive, just look at my blog posts. One thing I can explain however, and perhaps one of the biggest reasons why I liked this movie more than I expected was...

Sunset Shimmer: Why? Because she is now a character, as opposed to a cardboard cut-out villain whose only purpose is to drive the plot. She ends up being more of a main character than the rest of the mane 6, which isn't saying much, because although they're better in this movie than the first one, Equestria Girls has never done their characters any justice. But no, Sunset Shimmer really ended up being the highlight of the movie, I'd almost say she'd make a welcome member to the regular show.

Alright I feel dirty now, the movie wasn't perfect, fuck no, far from it. Equestria Girls has always had too much fan pandering for my liking, and Rainbow Rocks was no different, worse even with the Octavia and Vinyl bits. I have a couple other major gripes with it, but fan serving makes up the butt of my annoyance, especially when one character in particular made her presence known. I won't say who, but when she showed up I had to pause the movie and face palm for a few minutes and silently scream before I had the strength to continue.

The Villains: When it was first explained who the villains were, they actually sounded quite cool, show worthy even. That would have been much better in fact, if they had used them in the actual series it could have been really good, instead any and all potential they may have had was wasted in this movie. We got three really edgy OCs who are annoying as all hell and whose only purpose ended up being driving the plot... again.

The ending: considering how strong the plot was throughout the whole movie, the ending just kind of fizzled out, it was more like the end of an episode than a movie, in more ways than one. Spoiled even more by them insisting on forcing that Flash Sentry romance subplot which is still as fucking stupid as it was in the first one. Sunset Shimmer may have grown a personality between the movies, but Flash Sentry still makes Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII look charismatic by comparison with how fucking boring he is. Weirdly enough it wasn't the only shipping going on, Lyra and Bon Bon were both in the movie, and their one major scene was... awkward to watch.

Looking back over all of this I realise how stupid it must all sound, my only excuse is that I'm so torn over this. Should you watch it? Hell yes! I would suggest if you haven't seen the first movie, just skip it and go straight onto Rainbow Rocks. It may not be perfect, but it tries a lot harder than the first one and ends up being very enjoyable. It feels like they're trying to make up for how terrible Equestria Girls was, and they've taken a big step in the right direction, even if some warts still remain. If I had to make one final analogy, I'd say Rainbow Rocks is like looking past a few blemishes and finding something rather attractive underneath, not drop dead gorgeous but it puts the effort in and comes out looking quite pretty, the first Equestria Girls on the other hand was like trying to look past the warts in a sea of warts, all growing a top a massive sentient wart emblazoned with the Hasbro logo hoovering up your money.