Rainbow Rocks Coverage

So, my thoughts as a whole, spoiler-free for those who want it - "Rainbow Rocks? Yes, she does". There's all you need to know if that's all you want from this, the movie is decent, I liked it, woo-hoo. Now for more in-depth but spoiler-free discussion.

First, the movie is misnamed, and I can only presume it is called "Rainbow Rocks" for the alliterative appeal, because this is not Rainbow's movie. This is Sunset Shimmer's movie. Heck, if the writers could have not brought Twilight into all this and made Sunset the protagonist, it probably would have been a stronger movie if they had. As it stands she's still the deuteragonist, Twilight is there to complete the Mane Six set, beyond that this is Sunset's story.

And you know what, it's a good story. Much like Season 2 to 1, Rainbow Rocks takes the potential of the first film and ripens it. We ditch the high school teen drama nonsense and Twilight adjusting to the human world, and for it the film is much improved compared to the first. The characters are deeper and more developed, the story stronger, the villains more threatening, the visual effects stunning, and the music, need I even say it, awesome.

This also makes me more hopeful going into Equestria Academy. I was nervous before, wondering "what sort of plotlines can the EqG universe do that the Equestria world can't?" and the only answer I could think of was "crummy stock high school cliches". However, this film gives us some development that makes me hope no, there is more they can do with this. There is now room in the EqG universe for more stories to be told, stories that may be worth telling. I reserve judgment on Equestria Academy until it comes out, of course, but know that with what this film does for the world, it may actually work.

So, without spoilers, Rainbow Rocks is great. It still has some problems, particularly plot holes and plot contrivances, mostly in the obvious problem of how to get Twilight back to the other world after establishing the portal isn't gonna open again for years. But if you can overlook that on the principle there's no movie without them, you'll live. If you didn't care for the first Equestria Girls, give this one a shot, it's better. If you loved the first you'll love the second. If you hate Sunset Shimmer, first, get the hay off my blogpost, second, you may warm up to her due to this film, or may hate it because it focuses on her. we'll see.

As of the posting of this blog the YouTube video for the film is still up, so run over and watch if you want to see the movie and can't wait for good quality. It's a cam rip but a very good one, no audience and a clear shot of the film that's in-focus. I won't post here to help hide the sequel but will message the link to any who want one.

Anyway, enough spoiler-free stuff.

SUPER-DUPER-TWENTY-PERCENT-COOLER-SPOILERIFFIC PLOT RECAP

The first problem I had is that the teasers Hasbro kept putting out really spoiled too much of the movie. I mean, way too much. You can basically skip the first 15 minutes of the film because that's all the teasers, they took the first 15 minutes, cut them up as standalone scenes, and put them. The next 10 minutes is some stuff we haven't seen, but stuff we know from trailers - the Humane Five contact Twilight via Sunset's old journal to Celestia and Twilight springs to the rescue.

This is, as I said, where the major plot holes and contrivances spring up. Twilight is moving into her castle and Celestia is sending her books from her own library to fill up Twilight's new one. So that's how the book ends up with her, okay. A little of a nice coincidence it just happens to be in the stack the delivery pony is wheeling in just as Sunset writes and the book glows as it receives the message, but okay. Twilight deduces from the message the girls are Sirens, evil beings that use song to drive ponies into hateful frenzies and feed on their negative emotions to grow stronger. Star Swirl banished the Sirens to another world, which it turns out, oops, is the same one the mirror goes to.

Twilight wants to help out but the mirror is closed, but Pinkie gives her the idea to use the magic of the journal to augment the mirror's power and open the portal now. This... makes sense. I'll buy it, Twilight is a magitek prodigy after all. Then within literal minutes, Twilight has rigged up a machine to siphon power from the book to the mirror, and hey wait, when did the mirror move to Twilight's castle? We never got a line to explain it, could have given us one, or say this is a different mirror and Twilight is opening her own portal. The group wants to come with her this time, but Twilight doesn't want things in the other world to get confusing to outsiders with two copies of her friends around, so she heads in alone with Spike. I'll get back to this at the end of the review.

Twilight catches up with the gang, we get some of the jokes you'd expect - Twilight going girly over the idea of seeing Flash Sentry again (oh, we'll get back to him too, trust me), Sunset going awkward over the idea that Twilight really is the better pupil, and Rarity going Rarity over Twilight having a castle to live in now. Also, there's a really painful running joke of the group bringing up the events of the first film with regard to Sunset Shimmer's villain run, only to realize she's standing right next to them and apologize. Seriously, girls, what the hay? Imagine Luna Eclisped if Twilight and her friends kept saying "we celebrate Nightmare Night to keep the terrifying tyrant Nightmare Moon from eating us... uh, no offense Princess". Yeah, it's kinda like that.

The girls go to the gym where everyone is arguing and Twilight sees Flash. Don't worry, his time will come for attention. The Dazzlings enter and the Humane Six join hands and Twilight calls out "There isn't going to be a battle! Here we go girls. Friendship is magic!" After a good five seconds of NOTHING HAPPENING, the Dazzlings shrug and just stare. Rainbow says what we're all thinking, "weren't there lasers and rainbows last time?" The Dazzlings don't seem to know what's going on but Adagio harnesses it, telling the watching students that this rival band is obviously cocky about winning, saying "there isn't going to be a battle". This makes everyone even angrier at the Rainbooms, intensifying the hate the Sirens are cultivating.

As the Mane Six are watching the chaos, the Dazzlings realize they're immune to their spell and thus they must be the cause of the magic they felt before. While Twilight ponders why the Rainbow Friendship Cannon didn't activate, Sunset suggests that since they drew power from the crown she was using last time, maybe it's the same this time, they need to power up using music like the Dazzlings do. Twilight remembers the anthro-transformations they told her about and deduces that's precisely the answer. The time has come to perform a musical counter-spell! Twilight begins to head inside to sleep in the library like last time, but Pinkie is having none of it. SLUMBER PARTY!

As the group hangs out (with cameos from the Mane-iac as a video game and a stuffed animal Gummy), Twilight is trying to write the spell but can't come up with anything and isn't telling them because they're confident she has the answer. That night she wakes up to work on the spell alone but is still stuck. Sunset comes downstairs and says it must be nice for others to rely on you for help with their problems, instead of waiting on you to cause one. There's an obvious bonding moment, and maybe it's my ship goggles but when the two of them speak in turn and then say the same thing at once, it reminded me of Aladdin and Jasmine. Just saying. And then of course the Maud cameo and the Sunset Screamer meme. Sunset leaves assuring Twilight this is nothing, and Twilight calls out to her but doesn't say anything.

Next day, turns out even with the magic of friendship as a motivator, Twilight is a lousy songwriter. And a lousy singer, which makes no sense for obvious reasons, but bottom line is her song sucks. Also an amusing bit where the anthro-form ears start to appear, then audibly pop and vanish. Also a brilliant Big Mac cameo. The group begins to argue and the run off to audition for the battle of the bands, and Twilight realizes they need to stay in the competition so they can ensure when they actually get the spell right, the entire school can hear and be freed. At the competition the Dazzlings muse the Rainbooms will give them the strongest power boost of all - if they can get them to break up and let their negativity out. Twilight warns the Rainbooms they need to do good enough to win, but not so good as to turn into their anthro-forms so the Dazzlings don't know what they're up to, prompting Rainbow to remark "so about 20% less cool".

During the performance sabotage from rival bands and the individual members trying to show off causes things to go bad, resulting in Fluttershy hiding behind the drums and Rarity dancing around stage before her costume sleeves rip (it makes sense in context). They begin to argue again but Sunset talks them down. As they walk through the school Twilight bumps into Flash and gets a cold shoulder, Flash accusing her of trying to take the win from him and snapping "You don't even know what you're doing". Oh, we'll get to you, Flash, I've been keeping track of some things. The group leaves but Sunset stays behind to confront the Dazzlings, but they reveal they know all about what she was up to in the first film and play on her insecurities about the school hating her and her being an outside to the Humane Six. A montage plays over the Dazzlings singing; the bands compete and move up the ranks with plenty of cameos, including Octavia, Bulk Biceps, and Derpy, and the Rainbooms continue to fall apart as Sunset watches on and Twilight can't come up with a proper song.

In the semi-final round the Rainbooms face Trixie to go on to face the Dazzlings themselves. As she leaves the stage Trixie mocks them relying on a "ringer" like Twilight to win, and Rainbow decides to do a solo to prove she's good enough on her own. Cue, of course, "Awesome As I Wanna Be", but with a much different tone then expected - Rainbow is showboating and bragging and getting up in their faces, obviously annoying them. Then comes the solo and the spotlights all focus on her as she starts to pony up. Sunset panics and tackles her to stop her, resulting in the rest of the group variably being stopped and the song screeching to a halt. As the lights come on and everyone stares at Sunset, someone calls out "Now there's the bad girl we love to hate!" Guess which blue-haired waste of animation this is. Ooooh, his time is drawing near, I promise. A light shines here as we hear Octavia speak, enjoy! The school boos and jeers and the Rainbooms walk off stage with Sunset, yelling at her and then each other, Trixie coming in to help too.

Trixie mocks that it's pretty obvious which band is moving on, but the Dazzlings circle Luna and Celestia and do their siren thing again. The Rainbooms are moving on, to the surprise of everyone including the group themselves. They leave the gym to the boos of the school and Trixie's glaring, and the Dazzlings approach her and start feeding her ideas of revenge. Trixie confronts the Rainbooms on the stage for the finals and dumps them through a convenient trap door, locking them below stage save for Spike. That night with the Rainbooms missing (what, does no one go below stage for equipment or anything?) Trixie's band performs against the Dazzlings. Twilight admits she couldn't come up with a counter spell and the group begins to argue again, smoke rising from them.

The Dazzlings take the stage and feed on the Rainbooms from above, growing stronger. Sunset realizes what's going on and talks the group down, telling them she was staying out of it as they fell apart but now she can't keep her mouth shut with the small problems growing bigger. Twilight admits she didn't recognize this problem when she should have been the one to, but Sunset consoles not everyone has all the answers. Spike arrives to the rescue with DJ Pon, who thanks to her headphones is immune to the music of the Dazzlings. The group puts aside their differences and start listening to each other to come together again, with DJ Pon providing a sound system for a literal battle against the Dazzlings.

The Dazzlings power up and undergo their own transformation sequence, a nicely shadowed version of the anthro-form sequence where their hair grows longer and they get bat-like wings. The Rainbooms play back and turn into their anthro-forms, and the crowd begins to turn. The Dazzlings summon spectral versions of their Siren forms from their amulets and it's a literal battle of the bands as the specters attack the Rainbooms with their voices, the Rainbooms' music manifesting as magical waves to fend them off. This is a really cool sequence, strongly reminiscent of the fight with Tirek. Not nearly as epic but still cool to watch and a worthy battle sequence for the film. The Rainbooms are overpowered and fall, the microphone falling from Twilight's hand and flinging back to land at Sunset's feet.

Sunset Shimmer fans, set your faces to squee.

Twilight calls out to her and Sunset steps forward, flinging off her jacket, and she begins to sing. She pulls Twilight to her feet and they fall into a duet as the rest of the Rainbooms stand and join in. A shockwave of rainbow light blasts the specter Sirens back and begins to de-power the Dazzlings. As the song continues, Sunset glows and rises into the air, transforming into her own anthro-form. The rest of the group rises around her and a Rainbow Power-colored beam of light rises from them, a streak of red joining it in the center.

As I said before, and if you haven't noticed by now - this is Sunset Shimmer's movie. She owns it and she can have it because she earns it, this movie is about her regaining her confidence after the last film, standing up in front of the school fearlessly, and not letting herself be a silent outsider when she has as much to contribute as the rest of the group. The Cafeteria Song encouraged students to stand up, be themselves, and be proud, and that message has come full circle with Sunset embracing it and rising above the scorn to help her friends defeat the Dazzlings. It's an awesome character arc and I love it, I always liked her from the first film, but after this she's up there with Discord as the most developed and three-dimensional antagonist the series has given us. Bravo, Sunset Shimmer, bravo.

With the Rainbow Power active, a spectral alicorn forms from the clouds and blasts the spectral Sirens, destroying them and causing the amulets of the Dazzlings to shatter. The song ends and the Dazzlings stand and try to sing, but their voices are scratchy and off-key now, and they run off-stage to the boos of the students. Sunset and Twilight surmise that with their amulets broken, their power is gone. Flash runs up and hugs Twilight and it looks like they're about to kiss, but thankfully Trixie intervenes to give her trademark smokebomb exit.

Now it's Flash Sentry's turn for analysis. The showrunners seem aware we hated him from the first film and they harnessed that. Flash Sentry in this film is a total dick. Yes, it's because he's under the spell of the Dazzlings, but the fact remains, he is a dick, talking trash to our two leading ladies and overall being unpleasant to watch. I am thankful they didn't focus on the romance element this time around, part of me worried they would have Adagio seduce him and Twilight angsts over it, but no, we get a few nods that she has a crush on him but nothing else, and thank goodness. In the first film Flash Sentry was pointless, in this film he has a point - to give us someone to hate since the Dazzlings are awesome villains and are too cool to actively dislike.

With the competition over, Rainbow muses they'll need someone to take Twilight's place in the band when she goes back to Equestria and invites Sunset aboard. There's also a short amusing bit here where Sunset grabs a guitar lying around, jams on it for a second, and poses awkwardly while the others look on stunned. "I also play guitar". "We'll see" says Rainbow. And then group hug, all seven of them. The next day they gather around the portal to Equestria, Twilight saying that now she can come through the portal whenever she needs to and she's sure she'll see them again. The film ends with Sunset writing a friendship report to Twilight via the magical journal, even prefacing it with "Dear Princess Twilight" and saying she hopes she can continue to write to her as she learns friendship in her own ways. Once again my ship goggles zero in on "missing you already, hope you'll be back soon". Seriously, this film does more for the Sunlight ship than both films combined did for Flashlight.

The credits roll as Sunset jams with the Rainbooms and ZOMG WHAT IS THIS?.... I'm not telling. ;) There's an after-credits scene I'm sure is intended to be picked up on for Equestria Academy, but I'm not gonna spoil it.

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So, there's the plot recap, judge the film for yourself. As I said above, the film makes me hopeful for Equestria Academy. Sunset is a very different person from Twilight who has her own obstacles and shortcomings to deal with, and having her be the protagonist of a spin-off series as she learns her own lessons can definitely work. The Humane Five still need more to differentiate them from their Equestrian counterparts, they're still stuck in the mold of "just like the Equestria version, but human", but EqA can change that. The portal remaining open to Equestria and the establishment of magic remaining in the human world allow plenty of story chances, like maybe Trixie actually begins to develop magical powers, or someone from Equestria comes through to visit, or someone impersonates their counterpart. There are definitely stories to be told now, so I'm gonna give Equestria Academy a fair chance when it comes out.

Aside from Sunset Shimmer, this film is great development for Twilight. She has fully stepped out of Celestia's shadow now and has become the mentor figure herself, demonstrated perfectly by Sunset writing her a friendship report at the end, something I hope Equestria Academy keeps around. Twilight is feeling the pressures of leadership and fears she may not have the solution all the time, but comes to terms with it and remembers her friends will be there to help her along the way. I tilted my head at the total absence of Princess Celestia at first, but as I thought about it, it works thematically. Twilight doesn't need her wise mentor anymore to help her with problems, she can cope with them on her own, she's growing up and becoming her own person. Again, this is demonstrated well by having Twilight narrate the origin story of the Sirens when for most previous antagonists it's Celestia telling her.

Something else I didn't get at first but think is good now, at the end of the film I was wondering if they would have Sunset return to Equestria. It would give plenty of story chances and continue to evolve Twilight into the mentor role. But on further thought, it isn't needed. Twilight can continue to grow in that manner to her friends in Equestria, and there's more storylines to be told with Sunset staying in the human world than going home. I rationalize this as due to the coming of Equestria Academy, if I didn't know it was being done I'd say yes, Sunset should have gone home. But since it is happening, her staying in the human world is okay. I do hope however she is the protagonist of Equestria Academy, or at least is a regular character and part of the Humane Six, because she really has proven here she's a character worthy of being explored more.

So, once more, final verdict - Rainbow Rocks improved on the first film in every aspect and stands on its own as a solid MLP film. Check it out and judge for yourself.

Comments

[Yappyjack]

Thank you sooooooooooo much!!!!
LOVE SPOILERS!!!!!!

I'm a spoiled brat! yay me