Rainbow Rocks · 5:21am Nov 24th, 2014
So I finally saw Rainbow Rocks, and I thought I'd review it. Hey, it was either this or I'd put up my analysis of Breaking Bad, which I also finished watching just last month (short version: loved the show, loved most of the characters, but thought the final villains were weak and the real final conflict should have been Jesse vs. Walter.) And you all probably don't want to sit through 5000+ words of Breaking Badness. So have a picture instead:
Anywho, Rainbow Rocks:
Overall, I liked it. The plot was good, and while there was a superficial similarity to the first movie--evil Equestrians use magic to try to take over the world--there was enough variance that it felt fresh. Twilight's later arrival, Sunset's presence on the side of our heroes, and even little things like the authority figures no longer being reliable, helped to change the plot up and make it different, and I would argue better, than before. And while the ending was a foregone conclusion--the bad guys were never going to win, and they were bad enough that they obviously weren't going to pull a Sunset and reform--it was an entertaining journey to get there.
The characters were... mostly good. Rainbow Dash was a little bit more of a jerk than I would have expected, and I would have preferred her conflict with Fluttershy be more of a mutual problem, with Dash wanting to hog the spotlight and Flutters being so timid that she never contested the issue. Granted, they kind of did that, but it was only Dash who was called out, whereas I think it would have been better if they acknowledged they had both led to the issue--Dash by hogging the spotlight and Flutters by failing to communicate that she was genuinely unhappy about the situation. I think that would have felt less like "four good friends, and also this jerk Rainbow Dash" and more like "five good, albeit imperfect, friends."
Probably my favorite aspect of the show was Sunset Shimmer. I liked both that her actions weren't forgotten--seriously, I love when shows avoid Reset Buttons--and that there was a path open to her for forgiveness. I think that was an important message, and one that doesn't often happen in episodic series in which events are either erased at the end, or the villains flee or die without ever having to deal with those they wronged again (see: Gilda, FlimFlam, etc.) And while I don't usually talk about the voice acting, I think that Sunset's was done particularly well, with the voice conveying a lot of emotion. It was clear in every word that Sunset really wanted to be friends with the others, wanted to participate, help out, watch out for them, but also felt like she didn't really deserve it because... well, there was that time she went totally evil, so who is she to criticize the great ponies who stopped her rampage? And that development gave some gravitas to the scene where she finally joined the band.
And then there's Twilight. I like how this showed that, despite being a Princess and still having some serious skills (like with building the portal using the book's spell), she can still be out of her depth, and she still has flaws. Granted, she had AJ's usual flaw of not wanting to let ponies down by asking for help, but it makes sense; everyone's counting on her and she doesn't want to screw it up. And I really liked how the ending wasn't just Twilight saving the day, but Twilight extending a hand in friendship to Sunset, who led the counterattack. It emphasized that friendship, as opposed to a royal title and scholarly knowledge, is magic. That was very well done.
The villains were fine. Adagio Dazzle was suitably evil, of course, and she had a smug aura around her that helped her character work. She wasn't the most complex villain, but hey, it's 67 minutes, so that's forgivable. I felt that Sonata's idiocy was a little overplayed, to the point where I wondered if they were setting up some sort of redemption arc or switching to the side of good, but that's not a serious flaw, just a minor nitpick. Aria was... well, a total cypher, to the point where I had to look up her name in the credits because no one ever mentioned it, and I do think that's a shame. With three people, I think there was room to give each of them some kind of personality. Especially since, hey, they're in a band, which naturally has several roles (lead vocals, drums, guitar, etc.) Giving them different instruments and letting them jam could have been a good way to allow them all, especially Aria, to differentiate themselves from each other in some way besides hair style. (In the same way that the different instruments our heroes used let us see Flutters timidly tapping her tambourine, Pinkie getting all wacky, etc.)
That all said, there were a few things I didn't like. One was the nature of some of the cameos, and I'm not just talking about Octavia's voice being sub-par. Some of it really seemed superfluous and pandering. Probably the nadir was Maud's cameo; it went on for way too long and contributed nothing whatsoever to the plot. Having Maud in a background scene during the sleepover, where we see her do something Maud-like? That'd be great. Not a random clip of her dumping crackers on a rock, in which nothing relevant is happening.
Similarly, Flash's few scenes were totally superfluous. Why is he here, again? Is anyone really buying Flash toys? Why do we need this character?
More seriously, I didn't like the way that Vinyl was used at all. Look, I'm a huge fan of Vinyl, to the point where she's the Element of Magic in my Cadanceverse. I think she's a great character and it would be wonderful if she had a chance to shine. But this wasn't her story, and while her unlocking the door for the captured Rainbooms was fine, as was--to a certain extent--her providing the tech for the Rainbooms during the final battle, her actually joining their band fell completely flat for me. The whole point of the story was that the band needed to be together as friends to be effective. But there was no evidence that Vinyl was good friends with any of them, and the fact that they needed her in the finale just made it look like their friendship wasn't actually sufficient, since they needed a ringer to help them win. It also made them look like total jerks to Sunset, since they accepted Vinyl--who said literally not one word to them through the whole movie--before accepting the person who had been by their side as a supportive friend the whole time. Vinyl should not have been in the final performance, and her being there really undercut a lot of the actual messages.
(If the writers really wanted someone to run the drum tracks, why not use Pinkie? We saw that at least one of her drums broke when they fell under the stage, since her head went through it, and she'd love to get to play with a bunch of boom boxes. Sure, in a realistic sense she might not know how, but in a realistic sense Twilight and Sunset wouldn't be instant experts at singing either. Realism's out the window, especially when Pinkie's involved).
That said, my biggest beef with the movie wasn't Vinyl, or the other cameos that I don't think worked. It was...
The music.
Setting aside that a couple of the songs were just bad (Trixie with her one single verse which was repeated half a dozen times, the opening credits which were textbook soulless pop), even the better music was very same-y. Everyone played standard pop/rock, except for the incompetent musicians like Snips/Snails, which gave the songs a very bland feel. Yes, the final battle was epic (albeit derivative of the Ken/Kyle Katayanagi battle from the Scott Pilgrim movie), but that was almost entirely due to the visuals. The music was just a slightly heavier version of the same pop we'd been hearing all throughout the movie.
And they could have done so much more. This is a movie about a battle of the bands competition, for crying out loud. We could have heard excellent music in a wide range of styles. Remember, the primary audience for this stuff is kids, and--as someone who believes that music education is important, not just in terms of teaching instruments, but in teaching the appreciation of music itself--I feel this could have been a great opportunity to show kids how good various types of music can be. Not just the same bland pop that they probably hear everyday. This could have really helped to broaden some horizons.
Seriously. What if AJ had gotten thirty seconds or a minute to do a really good Country/Western song? What if Pinkie had a chance to cut loose with a souped-up circus tune? Fluttershy with something graceful, light, and dainty, Rarity with something regal, rich, and deep, and Rainbow Dash with real rock? Show kids who might never have heard, say, a real Western song (because Western music isn't popular in some households) that it can be pretty awesome, as can the other types of music. That would have added variety, made the whole thing more enjoyable, and delivered a better representation of what music is.
Plus, it would help tie the ending battle together. In the initial performances of the full band, have them lean towards Rainbow Dash's side of things, since she was dominating at that point. Then, in the final battle show off the six styles before melding them into one single song that represents them all. Then the contrast isn't just in that RD apologized before the match, but rather, that contrast could be clearly heard by the listeners. That works better on every level.
I think that the other musicians cameos could have been used along these lines too. We got to hear two of the 'stupid' performances, Snips/Snails and Team Ditzy. But rather than show off actual highlights of rap or 'modern music' respectively, it was just jokes. This is frustrating to me, because both those genres are often used as punchlines, and while there's a lot of crappy rap and modern music out there (just like every other genre in existence) there's some really good stuff too. If the show had used those opportunities to play some good music, I think it would have both been more enjoyable (because, really, the joke of 'Snips and Snails are idiots' went on for way too long) and would have added more depth to the show.
(Or, as another idea--cut S&S entirely and have the Crusaders do the opening number instead. Give them something metal themed, to work with their costumes, and then have them sing something cool. That could be really neat, and would be better than hearing really crappy rap.)
Similarly, the montage where the other bands are defeated? I would much rather have actually heard what they played. Let's hear Bulk Biceps playing an awesome violin solo, or Octavia on her cello. Let's hear Flash's group, preferably doing something different than everyone else. Let's hear Lyra and Bonbon playing piano four hands. (Terminology note: two people on one piano is called piano four hands. Two people, each on their own piano, is called a piano duo. 'Piano duet' is ambiguous and refers to either case.) Let's hear more of Trixie than one single verse. In fact, since Trixie has a Russian accent with the rolled r's, let's give her a Russian-style song and do something awesome along those lines. Let's have a real rap performance, and a real electronic performance instead of Pinkie just goofing with a theremin, and a real jazz performance, and so on, even if for only fifteen or thirty seconds per band. Let's get some variety, is what I'm saying.
Another benefit to showing us the actual performances, or at least a few of them, is that we would be able to hear the bands and we could hear why each one was winning or losing. There could even be a scene early on where we can hear a clearly superior band losing to the Dazzlers, indicating how they're continuing to cheat. As much as I disliked the Rainbow Dash short (because both she and Trixie played really obnoxious shredding), they were at least playing different things, and it was audible which ones beat the other. Being able to hear the loser bands would allow that to happen in the actual movie as well.
Maybe I'm overreacting, but I just feel... this could have been a great opportunity to introduce so many types of music to kids. MLP is wildly popular. Little kids will watch it no matter what music's in the background. They could have had their ears opened to so much music, of all kinds of genres. Instead, we got the same bland pop through the whole thing. And yes, I know that's because of marketing, because pop is safe and bland and nobody hates it, whereas some people think Country/Western is Patriarchal and Racist, and some people think Metal is Satanic and Rebellious. But still, I feel this aspect of the show could have been so much more than it was.
So, in conclusion: liked the movie. The plot was good, most of the characters were good, and SS and TS were great. But there were a few plot glitches, mostly involving Vinyl, and the music could have been much improved.
A good movie, but not without its flaws.
It's probably reaching, but I think the idea behind Vinyl being "included" at the end was logistics: with the Dazzlings controlling the main stage, the Rainbooms had nowhere to go. Vinyl's Wubmobile provided a second outlet from which they could actually battle the Dazzlings. Vinyl served as a Chekhov's gun. Her earbuds and Wubmobile were seen by anyone who watched the shorts or bought the merchandise, and they actually served a purpose in the movie.
As for Maud... she finally broke the ice between Twilight and Sunset. She opened the floodgate that started them relating instead of just coexisting. Plus it started the Sunset Screamer meme, and how could we live without photoshopped images of Sunset being scared by a dalek?
2613347 : I don't think Vinyl was really needed for that, though. I mean, if they're using magic anyways, I don't think the lack of a sound system is going to inhibit them. I'd hate to think that the Magic of Friendship is powerless if they don't stop by Radio Shack first to get a good set of speakers.
That said, I don't have an objection with Vinyl providing the tech. My problem is with her actually participating in the final concert. If she showed up to provide the Wubmobile and then Pinkie took over the drum tracks, I'd have no problem with it. But with her actually performing with them, an equal member to all the rest and apparently taking priority over Sunset Shimmer... I feel that really undercuts the idea that the band needs to be close friends, when a total stranger (as far as we can see) gets in and someone who is at least trying to be a friend has to wait.
As for Maud... I just feel like her scene went on for too long. I think that Twi and Sunset could have got to talking other ways without the Maud joke that, at least for me, fell kind of flat. (Maud liked rocks in the main show, but I don't recall her being weird/dumb enough to think they ate people food.)
Huh. I didn't even consider that Vinyl was part of the band. I watched that scene and my brain just figured she was handling the sound levels and other technical stuff. Didn't even occur to me to think she was anything more than just background for that scene. She showed up, provided the tech, and I stopped paying attention to her.
As for Maud, during the picnic she did put down her sandwich and push Boulder over to it as if offering the rock some food.
I'm with 2613684 about Vinyl, she never seemed to be part of the band to me. I agree that the music was bland, but it didn't bother me much. Then again you're the guy who created a whole verse based on music (kind of) so it's not surprising that you'd focus on that aspect.