Present Perfect vs. Rainbow Rocks · 5:55pm Sep 28th, 2014
I was gonna do a fic rec today, but I'm kind of waiting for something to post on EQD, so it's as good an excuse as any to review the damn movie. Spoilers and full analysis will be below the page break, but for now, I want to give a tl;dr in the form of the three major questions plaguing my mind going into Rainbow Rocks.
1) Is Rainbow Rocks better than its predecessor?
Resoundingly yes.
I started thinking it might be after seeing a couple of the previews, not just the shorts where everyone gets their instrument, but specifically the clip of the Dazzlings singing their first song. Whether through having more time to work on it, less corporate oversight, or just the experience of making a movie already under their wings, the team has one-upped themselves and, with one or two exceptions, Rainbow Rocks is way better than Equestria Girls.
2) Great. So does that mean it's a good movie?
Ehh, I'm gonna go with no. It's got merit, it's worth watching, and I found it entertaining, but one major issue is keeping me from saying it's out-and-out a good movie. Basically, if you hated the first one, this likely won't change your mind. If you were on the fence about EQG, check out the sequel. (It's worth noting, I really like movies about people forming bands and playing in them. Y'know, Josie and the Pussycats, that kind of thing. So it was more or less a given that I'd at least enjoy this somewhat.)
3) Is Sonata Dusk your waifu?
You're goddamn right she is.
Spoilers from here on out! If you want to watch the movie yourself, you can find it here until it gets taken down. (And let me just say, waiting an entire day and dodging review journals was worth it, because this uploader wisely waited for a late showing, with few people. It's a camrip, but there is zero audience noise. Make sure you watch past the credits.)
Rainbow Rocks. Where to begin? I guess the right place would actually be the preview shorts.
With the exception of the first, which featured Vinyl Scratch walking around and to which my reaction was why are they making another movie?, the five shorts show the hu-mane cast getting their instruments, and fuzzing out every time they play them. To be honest, I hated this the first time I saw it, in Rainbow Dash's short, but given that it happens in all of them, I can now discount it and say that hers was just about the best. I mean, it's a wicked guitar duel between Rainbow Dash and Trixie: what is not to like? I also really liked Applejack's, in which she attempts to reclaim her bass, which has been sold to a pawn shop operated by the Flim-Flam Brothers. I mean, that was just a really cool idea, and we got lots of human Apple Family. (Side note: why is Big Macintosh not red? He's literally the only one whose skin tone isn't even close to their pony colors.)
The rest were... various shades of uninteresting. Pinkie's was dumb, Fluttershy's was boring, and Rarity's was completely ridiculous, although it did at least feature the Diamond Dogs. Let's move on.
So, the movie opens in Humania this time, and it turns out that second spoiler clip of the Dazzlings is the entirety of the first scene. We get to find out what they're doing, if not necessarily who they are, and that Equestria likes banishing their problems to the human world. (Side note: Star Swirl the Bearded banished them, not the princesses. According to comic canon, he's the one who made the magic mirrors in the first place, both the one that goes to Canterlot High and the one from the comics that goes to the negaverse. It's probably the first time the show has ever come close to referencing something in comic canon, and it was fantastic.)
Then we get the first way RR doesn't hold up to EQG: the opening song. I mean, it's not bad, but come on, dancepop remix of the show theme is way better. Oh, and I should mention I hadn't listened to the soundtrack before watching the movie, though I did at least know about Trixie's song. Also, "Shake Your Tail" is pretty inferior to "Helping Twilight Win the Crown", though that one took me a while to really appreciate, so they're probably both equally good.
I suppose I should just say what I didn't like: Twilight. Everything having to do with her was just bad. I'm starting to develop headcanon that going through the mirror turns her into an idiot, but seriously, the only conflict this time was "Twilight's unsure of herself" and it serves as the stinky airplane glue holding together the macaroni of all the awesome scenes I actually liked. They dragged her part out, she was more or less shoehorned into the plot (granted, I like the book), and Spike was actually no help this time, since his entire character was "remind everyone how great Twilight is and make her feel worse".
Of course, the upside is, Sunset Shimmer was awesome. She's got that whole "you turned into a demon and tried to take over the school" thing hanging over her, which makes for some pretty compelling internal conflict. By the end of the movie, she's pretty much Replacement Twilight, which I hope means Twilight won't be in the third movie that you know they are going to make.
I guess I'll just talk about characters now, because that's where all the best stuff came in. Fluttershy was great. Rarity was a little too Rarity. Applejack was kind of bitchy (although it was great watching her bicker with Rarity, of course). Pinkie was toned way down from the first movie and her running gag is a lot better, especially since it's at Trixie's expense. And Rainbow Rocks? More like "Rainbow Is a Huge Jerk". She was perfect.
But of course, the main six aren't the important characters. No. After the first round of spoiler pics leaked, all the goodwill I had built up toward the movie started to fade because, and I quote myself, "it's just going to be a long string of fandom shoutouts". Well, yes, it kind of was. Except that was in no way a bad thing.
Snips and Snails. I'm pretty sure McCarthy was referring to them when she said the movie contained her and Daniel Ingram's "best worst song". It was fantastic. Even better cringe humor than Spike at the Equestrian Games.
Trixie. I was glad she got lots of showtime, even if her song sucked. Using her as a pawn in the villains' plot was fantastic. Her final line is hilarious.
Lyra and Bon-Bon. I'm gonna sit over and be smug at the ScratchTavia shippers for pretty much the rest of my life now. These two were singing a duet, on the same piano, cheek to fucking cheek and Octavia and Vinyl didn't even appear in the same scene. My ship's canon, bitches. :V
Octavia, it should be noted, did get a line of dialogue, as reported by Horse News. It was quick, I wasn't prepared for it, I don't know how she sounded. Vinyl meanwhile was actually used well, and I'm sad because I'm fairly certain her car toy does not do that.
Bulk Biceps was awesome. (He's obviously Fluttershy's boyfriend.) Derpy was amazing. (Her image in the credits is the first serious shout-out to the fandom over her since Last Roundup. Just think about that. On that note, I want high-res downloads of all those images, they were fantastic and I could use the Sunset Shimmer one on my laptop.) I was disappointed that we don't get to find out how she did in the battle; I have to assume either she beat the CMCs or the other way 'round.
Flash Sentry. There was a lot less of him in this one. Yes, Twilight getting all mushy about him was eye-rolling. (Inconvenient Trixie is canon!) His role this time around was better, and he maybe even showed a little character (his first scene is great), but he still mostly just serves as Twilight's roadblock. (Someone write a fic where he's some kind of construct meant to impede Twilight's progress, only the villain didn't realize he'd take his task so literally.)
The Dazzlings. Oh yeah. Possibly the best villains in MLP history, if only by virtue of having a plan that actually works. I mean, I only just got finished watching the thing and I'm sure someone else will have the gumption to go back and search out all the plot holes, but seriously. They enraptured Celestia and Luna. They stirred shit so it would feed them. They got the mane cast to start arguing. Their plan worked like a charm, they were adept at manipulating others, and all it came down to was "there were more good guys". (Well, and they did the "stand in stunned awe while getting lasered to death" thing, but every G4 villain has done that, so who cares by now.) Bravo.
Oh, and let's not forget that everyone's favorite M/M ship from the first movie is still sailing strong. I can't remember what those guys' names are, but yeah, they got at least two scenes together.
What else? Oh, the music. Really bangin'. I already mentioned the two that weren't as good as the first movie's, but the rest was sweet. Everything the Dazzlings do is amazing, and "Awesome as I Wanna Be" was fantastic.
My memory is getting hazy, so I guess I'm done. Oh, except I'm not. Because if you'll cast your memory back, I recently wrote a story wherein I posited what the movie would be like based on the promo material, which I stopped watching after a bit to save myself from having seen the whole movie before I saw it. So what all did I get right?
1) Taco fucking Tuesday. I cannot believe that. Of all the things I could have called, how is THIS one of them?
2) Angsty Sunset Shimmer. Which pretty much made the whole movie that much better.
3) Pinkie storing food in her hair.
4) Sunset Shimmer confronts the Dazzlings in a dark hallway.
5) Sunset plays guitar.
And I mean there's stuff like "they play in a band just to be safe to beat the Dazzlings" that was obviously going to happen. I was disappointed that Trixie did not choke to death on her guitar, though. :(
Uhh, what else could I talk about? There's the lackluster second act, which doesn't surprise me but is still boring as hell. Oh, the Sirens' actual designs are cool as hell and the final battle is EPIC (way better than the first movie). Let's not forget that we get to see just a smidge of Ponyville Castle in the single Equestria scene, and that was fun. And yeah, the setup for the sequel is fucking awesome.
Equestria Girls was a huge pile of fail with about four little things I enjoyed. Rainbow Rocks is a decent pile of more or less win with a couple big things done wrong. I have high hopes for EQG3.
I'm pretty sure that should be trademarked :P
Nice review. I'll wait until the youtube video. That way, I don't risk anything when I watch it.
About an hour long, would you say?
Ya know what? I am actually going to do this. This fic will be out by tomorrow. This is going to happen.
Also really great review. One of the few things I disagree on is Trixie's song, but that's really because I find the full soundtrack version much better, plus I'm a really big Trixie fanboy.
I loved Horse Women 2. So good. Also... them hip movements. Unf.
PP, Imma fight you for Sonata. She is my waifu, goddammit.
Also, big Mac is not read because it would have clashed with his flannel shirt... and secretly the artists knew they didn't want to use coat color for skin color, but they had to because of PC bullshit, I think.
Heh, I kind of had the opposite reaction regarding Flash in this one, I thought he was far better in the first movie since we actually saw him do, well, anything. So much for my hopes that they would give him a few more character traits other than "loves horse women". Ehh.
Aside from that little bit of bitchiness, I pretty solidly loved the entire rest of the movie.
They really need to get the soundtracks up on the Google Play store, I am tired of not owning them.
Derp band is best band. Search your feelings. You know it to be true.
In any case, with Twilight, I'm blaming her adolescent anthropoid endocrine system. The mind is a plaything of the body, and jumping into the deep end of puberty is probably kind of disorienting, even for somepony secure in her place in the world.
Also, given EG native Twilight, "it would be confusing" if the pony one were to show up next time. Not that that's likely to stop them, but still, there's hope.
Completely writing Twilight out of the story would've been both relatively simple (her only real purpose was giving exposition that probably could've been given to Sunset anyway) and would've made the movie so much better.
As a Twilight fan, it's depressing, but it's the truth.
Extra thoughts because I have too many to put down at once:
-There were a bunch of weird shots where a scene would end with the Dazzlings being all menacing and smiling at the camera and holding the pose for about three seconds too long. It seriously happened at least three times.
-How could I have forgotten all the SunLight ship fuel?
-How long until we get a clopfic where Sunset writes Twilight a message and Twilight uses the book to get off? :V
-Basically it all comes down to: After watching EQG, I felt like I needed to take a long shower and brush my teeth. After watching RR, I've been having nothing but happy thoughts all afternoon.
2490537
Yes and also there is a link to the Youtube video in this journal if you just look closely unless you mean something HQ. :B
2490546
I am too, but I dunno. It's not good enough to be good nor bad enough to be funny. Snips and Snails take the prize on that second one.
Also, I will read that story the moment I see it.
2490625
I think she's everyone's waifu at this point, the new Coco Pommel or Maud Pie. (Not that I ever waifu'd either of those two.)
And they coulda put him in brown flannel or something. :B Oh well.
2490645
Yeah, pretty much. I literally didn't care about anything Twilight was doing. She was trying really hard to star in Sunset Shimmer's movie, and I kind of hate her for it. :V
ehh.. i think ill wait untill the dvd comes out sop i can actually watch it instead of a video of a video. now comes the long hard struggle of dodging spoilers
It was pretty solid. I thought the Dazzlings were great. Sunset Shimmer was excellent.
I agree with the hope that pony Twilight is not in EQG 3. It definitely seems like she's no longer needed in the world now that Sunset Shimmer is all set up with the others.
My guess is political correctness. Redskins and all.
I didn't notice any of that stuff. I was too busy having fun. :P
Spoilers below if you haven't seen the movie.
I agree that the worst thing about it was Twilight. She was 100% superfluous. So she knew that the Dazzlings were evil sea ponies, which by itself was awesome, but other than that she could just as easily have been left out of the movie. The only good thing she did was look cute writing with her mouth and how he kept her hands folded pony style all the time, but even the spell thing failed, they end up singing Fluttershy's song.
They could just have let the movie be all about Sunset Shimmer and have her go "Oh no! It's evil sea pones!" at the end and Twilight's whole contribution to the story would have been fulfilled.
Other than that it was indeed better than the first one in almost every way. I just still want them all to be ponies.
You know it.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2014/9/7/716962__safe_solo_blushing_equestria+girls_rainbow+rocks_scared_sonata+dusk_sonatabetes_artist-colon-nekojackun.jpeg
Flash Sentry spit some pretty harsh game in this one.
I saw it in the theater a couple hours ago and damned if it didn't feel like it was longer than the first one. About halfway through I was wondering how they were going to have enough time to wrap things up.
It seemed like they remastered the Battle of the Bands song to take out the high harmonies before the end. It really threw me, and for a moment I thought the theater had blown a speaker.
Sunset saving the day <3
Fucking selfies.
2490881
Didn't stop the creators of Doug from using every color under the damn sun, it seemed.
2490773
Plus, there'll be human Twilight, so it's not like they'll have to leave Tara Strong out in the cold.
2490985
All she really had to do was write the info in the book back to Sunset and then let her take care of it. Which could've been an even better arc for Sunset, because, y'know, trying to convince everyone that "they're evil seaponies" while everyone's going "yeah, but where's Twilight when we need her lol remember when Sunset Shimmer was a gross demon?" And then you get pretty much the rest of the movie sans Twilight: she ruins the Rainbooms' show, tries to get them to stop arguing, all while coming up with the counterspell (cuz, y'know, she even reminds us that she was Celestia's student and all) and eventually has to remind the mane five that they're friends and stuff. BOOM FRIENDSHOT
2491529
Yeah, that would have been even better, if Twilight had taken the role of her otherworldly friendship coach, sending Sunset friendship lessons taken out of the old reports and stuff, alas, I guess main character has to be main character.
By the way I just can't get over the fact that the first seaponies we see are evil. How awesome is that? So awesome.
2491611
Well, they're hardly the first. I mean, just look at the comics, they were friendly! Oh, and there was that horrible little kids' book too I guess. :V
You know, I love that book though. Once she explained it, my thought was, "It's her version of Spike!"
Congrats, dogbody, you can be replaced by magic books. :V
2491529
Exactly!
It's almost as if they were planning for this!
2491312 looser time frame.
2492226
Fair point.
2491529
Yep. I pretty much knew that someone would point out a plot hole that would bring down my opinion of the movie we got. Twilight didn't need to come over at all, and Sunset should have been the undeniable focus.
Still don't regret paying for a ticket.
2494431
I don't think I would have regretted it, myself. :B If there's a third movie, I'll likely go see it legit.
2494468
I'm so glad that they put the stinger in. I had questions and they were answered. The idea of this Twilight being an unwitting antagonist is intriguing, though I'm sure it wouldn't last the entire movie, and I'm not entirely sure this series will go that far after all. The other Sunset Shimmer is still up in the air, and I have no idea where she could be except six feet under.
2494513
Other Sunset is totes ded, that's been my headcanon since EQG. :V And one thing I wish I had mentioned, because it seems everyone missed it, is that they're not doing another movie: they're doing a series. And human Twilight as either distant conspiracy theorist or close-range infiltrator could definitely work across a season.
2494661
Other Sunset is a mid thirties evil corporation CEO somewhere. She's supposed to be like 10 years older than the mane six or something.
2496348
She really should be, given how much time passed between Sunset and Twiligh being Celestia's students.
2496356
Yeah, but in the comics their Babs Seed is somehow older than Applejack. I'm not taking anything for granted at this point.
2500348
This is a salient point.