I just saw Rainbow Rocks, so have a review. (Spoilers ahead!) · 7:15pm Oct 20th, 2014
I'll try to make this post relatively spoiler-free, but I won't promise anything. If you are curious about the movie and don't want spoilers, here's a summary of my thoughts: If you saw the first Equestria Girls and enjoyed it, this one is better.
I have to say, first of all, that I was actually a little surprised by the first Equestria Girls movie. It had a few things I actually really liked: Twilight trying to sleep while unable to get comfortable with her wings, is one example. Twilight adjusting to be human (with all the awkwardness that came with that) was another. Yeah, mostly the stuff revolving around Twilight is what I enjoyed. I apologize for nothing! 
My surprise was mostly because I expected the movie to be total, 100% awfulness, and... it wasn't. It wasn't great by any means, but it was... okay. And as long as I mentally separated out the idea that it was part of the Equestria canon, I was able to enjoy the movie for what it was. In my mind, I categorized the first movie as an ascended fanfiction of sorts, making it sort of its own canon.
When I watched Rainbow Rocks, I kept up that same mentality, pretending that Equestria Girls was its own, unrelated-to-MLP:FIM canon. Which is why I probably enjoyed this movie a lot more than the first one. Because, honestly, it was better than the first one by a solid mile.
The writing was tighter. The jokes were better. The animation was... Well, okay, the "humans" in this movie are still sorta creepy-looking and move kind of strangely at times, but everything else was really well done. And the music? It was pretty good, honestly.
There were a few cringe-worthy parts of the movie, but for the most part they were intentionally cringe-worthy. Your mileage may vary on cringe humor. I have a low tolerance for it, but some people love it. Fortunately, that wasn't the bulk of the movie.
Let's talk antagonists for a minute.
This is where the first movie really lacked substance, in my opinion. Sunset Shimmer as an antagonist had a pretty lame "evil plan", when you get right down to it. Her motivations for doing what she was doing were murky at best. Was it revenge? A quest for power? Just plain ego? I honestly can't recall, that's how "meh" her motivations were. Basically, her job was to be a snotty mean girl to the rest of the cast in order to generate conflict. And that... was unfortunate, in a series that has such great villains.
The antagonists in Rainbow Rocks, on the other hand, have very clear and reasonable motivations. They have a plan that makes sense, at least in-universe. And they were well done in the short time they had to develop them. My main complaint with them is that they played up Sonata's stupidity a little much, but that's forgivable in the grand scheme of things.
So. Good songs (your mileage may vary, but I enjoyed them a lot) and good antagonists. That's half of a decent movie right there! Couple that with a much more dramatic story, with what feels like real stakes on the line, and a few life lessons learned, and this definitely comes out better than the first movie. And the end? I won't deny it, I got shivers. It was pretty cool! Much better than the "We're friends so here's a rainbow and we win by default" ending of the first movie. There are similarities, sure... This is still MLP, after all. But the end was much more satisfying than the first movie.
And the shout-outs... So many shout-outs to the fans... 
So, as a movie in its own right, Rainbow Rocks was... actually pretty good, in my opinion. I still don't accept it as full canon, though 
Thanks for reading!
~Hoopy
I thought the move was pretty fantastic, honestly. Sunset Shimmer confirmed best human.
I'm pretty much in total agreement with everything you said here, with the exception of that part where they played up Sonata's stupidity too much. Since this is where we were introduced to her, we can only assume that she really is as stupid as they're making her out to be, not that it's a bad thing, because that's what makes her stand out amongst the trio.
Instead, my only real peeve with the movie was that pony Pinkie was flat out annoying, unlike the show where she's just random and bubbly. And it's weird, because human Pinkie was well-rounded while still being in-character, but whatever, the movie was still better than the first one by leaps and bounds.
2545614
I know they worked hard on it, so I'm glad to hear that!
This is a team that is given the most unworkable stuff to try and make stories out of, and they consistently exceed my expectations. For example, Canterlot Wedding. I was blown away by what I at first thought was going to be a glorified toy commercial specifically for new Princess Cadance dolls.
There was plenty to enjoy in the first movie, I'll admit. It just didn't engage me as much as I was hoping it would.
Every song by the Dazzlings got stuck in my head. Part of this is my fault for buying the soundtrack, but... yeah. They got all the best songs.
2545638
Yeah, I know from personal experience that writing Pinkie Pie is tricky. It's really easy to cross that line between exuberance and insanity.
2545644
Absolutely. Let's Have a Battle (of the Bands) and Under Our Spell (if I'm remembering the titles correctly) were the best songs in the movie... until they got to Welcome to the Show.
2545614 This
The ending I agree and disagree at the same time. My main thing is that, for a lot of the movie, they seemed to be doing great at cliche, but then right near the end, it was just non-stop, totally unapologetic clicheness. It caught me off guard, as everything up until then had been better... IDK, managed? And then to have everything that happened or was said so bluntly was just... jarring.
Like, it felt like over the course of the movie, it was *Kid's movie, actual movie, actual movie, actual movie, ac-NOPE IT'S A KID'S MOVIE MOFO!*
It was just so jarring, it felt like the writer staff just dropped the ball, or something. Mainly the part RIIIIIGHT at the end where they needed you-know-who to do you-know-what.
2545655
Oh, yeah. I totally agree. That was telegraphed so far in advance that I almost would have been disappointed if they didn't do that, though
2545671 Yeah, I know, but it was BECAUSE it was so obvious that I thought for sure they wouldn't just make what was said as blunt as it was/how it was said. Especially being last second, too. I kinda figured it was going to happen when Spike and you-know-who showed up that they were going to implement that then, but NOPE. It just... IDK. It bugs me when you foreshadow something THAT MUCH/HARD, and then just... IDK. I was expecting better wording, or a little less drama, or SOMETHING, you know? It just felt a little off, considering how the rest of the movie had gone up til that point. It was feeling like a 'regular' movie up until that happened, when it was like "LOL NOPE THIS IS A KID MOVIE SCRUB. GET FOOLED!"
That Maud Pie. That's all.
Not accepting the movies as full canon is a bit of a losing game in my opinion. Given Flash's appearances in season four, it's pretty clear that however much we care about the movies remaining fully separate from the show, the show staff doesn't. They work on both properties, after all, and I seriously doubt they have a big giant bullet point in the series bible saying that this is an important issue.
I bet as time goes by we will see more leakage into the show, especially with today's announcement of another movie.
2545706
True. And I was thinking about this a little bit when watching the movie. Twilight has interacted with and seems to have a crush on human-Flash (and what I think of that is probably better left unsaid), but barely knows pony-Flash. Weird complications are sure to arise from that.
Now I am reminded that I DVRed Rainbow Rocks, well I know what I am doing for the next hour and half.
When I saw EqG1 I wasn't expecting great cinema, nor was I expecting it worse thing ever made. Yeah it wasn't the best thing in the world but I enjoyed it. And I found one my favorite characters with Sunset Shimmer.
2545732 If you came out of EQG liking Sunset, I think you're going to enjoy Rainbow Rocks.
2545747
8 minutes in and so far I am liking her even more
They just *pegged* the song Awesome as I Wana Be
The expressions on the rest of the M6 were perfect.
Dangerously close to Scott Pilgrim.
Pardon me, my hand is slipping.
i.imgur.com/duPJoCJ.png
The way I see it, the first Equestria Girls was alot like the pilot episodes for FiM in the sense that they were taking there first steps into new territory for the franchise so I kind of expected there to be some bumps in the road.
I mean look back at the very beginning of FiM and compare it to more recent episodes today and see just how far the staff has come since then. It's not like FiM didn't have it's cringeworthy moments.
I expected EG1 to be meh for this reason, but if EG2 turned out to be the same or worse then I would go apeshit since there would be no excuse for the staff to do so poorly.
You build upon your succeses and learn from your failures.
I really enjoyed rainbow rocks as well, much more than the first. I agree with you alot on this review, and I have to admit, those cringe moments, they hurt. But the music, oh the music. The dazzilings songs were great, and I also liked Trixies Tricks Up My Sleeves.
But I'd say the highlight of he movie for me was right after credits when.... just so much yes to that.
One thing I really like about EQG is how you get all these shows where the human cast is special because they can draw on the power of mystical otherworldly beings, but this is pretty much the only time I've seen where the 'mystical otherworldy beings' are from their own show that we are already intimately familiar with.
I don't understand why anyone would wish to keep the 2 continuities separate. From the first minutes of EqG1, it's apparent that they are connected. Do you feel that the HiE (or vice versa) theme is the exclusive domain of fanfic authors only?
I feel that both worlds are richer for having an interconnected continuity. Sunset Shimmer is the most complex character to come out of MLP in a long long time, and I've been saying that since before EqG even came out. She is much richer for having that history with Celestia, and acting as a foil for pony Twilight. If we see her as just a human bully, then she loses all depth.
At first glance, you'd think Equestria doesn't benefit much from acknowledging the existence of "Earth". But EqG gives us the fact that Celestia has had previous students, and that she has other regrets aside from Luna, and seapony windigoes!!! And further exploration of Magic (not FiM, but magic magic). And official HiE/PiE story possibilities, which like it or not has always been a part of MLP.
2547034
Well, when the first movie came out, it was to insulate myself from what I was sure was going to be an awful movie that would leave a bad taste in my mouth after I watched it. It turned out to be not so bad. And I do like Sunset Shimmer as a character, I just didn't get her motivations in the first movie.
After enjoying Rainbow Rocks so much, though, I believe I might accept it as true canon, instead of "alternate reality" canon.
That said, there are still a few issues I have with the EQG setting. For example: nearly every pony we know of has an alternate reality character who is a student in this same high school, including ponies like Photo Finish that I always considered to be much older than the main cast. That takes a little mental work-around for me to accept it.
Still, they're adding lore to the canon, which I can never turn away from, so there is that! You're right about Celestia having other students... though, it does make me wonder how old Sunset Shimmer is, if Twilight never met her. Maybe the portal has some weird effect on time?
And, as for lore, the sirens were awesome—both in character design and execution—and I really enjoyed that. And they were actually evil, or at least predatory towards the innocent, which counts as close enough to the same thing in my book. That's not something MLP does very often!
So, to sum up, I'm slowly beginning to defrost regarding the EQG part of the franchise. It just took me a while to warm up to it.
2547661
(1) SS's characterization in EqG2 actually still doesn't explain her motivations in EqG1. It just replaces it. That's 1 of the reasons why I feel she has done a too-fast heel-face turn. It's one of the only gripes I can level against EqG2, though it doesn't detract at all from my enjoyment of it. Also, in terms of meta decisions I understand why DHX Studio elected to skip all of SS's EqG1 angst.
(2) All of FiM being teenagers in one high school does cut down on what you can do with the Earth side of things if you ever thought about incorporating EqG-verse, true. As for SS's age, I really hope DHX Studio does the sensible thing and use what the fans have already come up with: Time passes faster in Equestria compared to Earth, so for Equestrians it feels like SS had left decades ago. It's also why pony Dash says the portal won't open again for a really long time, even though for Earth we know it opens every 2.5 years.
DHX Studio obviously pays a lot of attention to fanon, so I hope they use that bit of lore. It would mess a bit with your fanfic... but your portals are different!
This movie was bad and Hasbro should feel bad.
2547034
Liessssssssssss
*Hisses at*
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