Talguy's Take- Friendship Games · 3:18am Sep 27th, 2015
Alrighty! Friendship Games aired in the US today, and will no doubt be arriving here on the internet some time soon.
My 'review' of it is after the break! There ARE spoilers.
Alright, so if you're here expecting an exact, frame-by-frame recollection of the movie, sorry. I don't have the time or the cognitive clarity to do that.
What I do have is my relatively fresh impression of the movie! So let's get this going!
I am a spoiler hound. I'm disclosing this now, because at the end of the day, I wasn't totally blind. I'd seen every trailer and clip that was released before the movie aired, as well as listening to each track on the soundtrack several times. Needless to say, I was super hyped.
Characters:
Right away, I felt really sympathetic to SciTwi. I've been where she's been. I know what it's like- to be shunned and isolated like that. It made me instantly connect with her on an emotional level. I doubt I'm the only one. Cadence, of course, is really nice. She really is the one genuinely good person at CPA that we saw. Cinch, on the other hand, is an evil conniving witch. All she's missing is a crooked nose, a funny hat, and a broomstick. The HuMane 5 are still as you'd expect, and Sunset is still amazing. Sugarcoat has the most ironic name ever, Indigo Zap is a more irritating Rainbow Dash, and Sour Sweet might want to see a shrink. Am I forgetting someone? I could have sworn Flash Sentry was in this movie... huh. Oh! Right! He's just completely irrelevant and ignorable, as usual.
Music:
While the soundtrack wasn't as central to the plot as RR's soundtrack was, I have no complaints. (Read: I've relistened to it several times.)
Special mention to Unleash the Magic, which despite having heard it a couple dozen times, managed to surprise me! I'd rate the overall quality above the Original, but below Rainbow Rocks. ...though admittedly not by that much.
Story:
I like the idea behind Midnight Sparkle, and the events leading up to and coming down from it. I like how Twilight was unwittingly the worst problem that Sunset and the Girls had to deal with- though one thing irked me.
I know Twilight isn't the strongest person on the planet, but not once did she think to stop the necklace from sucking the nice girls who help her dry? Oh, and what kind of clap does that thing have? Surely our genius bookworm would think to put a lock on the "anomaly containment unit"... Right?
Other than that and Cinch being the Worst Thing, I had a lot of fun watching the movie. My favorite bits were Rarity's bit in the dressing room, and RD laying the smack-down on that monster vine. Oh, and Sunset. HOLY MOTHER OF NO WORDS. The circle completing is just perfect! Bringing Twilight into their friend group? That's the best possible thing.
Overall:
Better than the original by a lot, but not quite at the level of Rainbow Rocks, in my opinion... Though this one did have an abundance of Good Dash Writing. This pleases me greatly! It's also the first thing Josh Haber has written that I've outright liked. Props to him.
She didn't know how. The whole movie kept making a big deal that she didn't "understand" the magic, or why the necklace/compact/whatever was sucking them dry. It takes feats of strength for her to close the thing when it's messing with magic--but if you notice, when Sunset finally gets a hold of it, she handles it effortlessly.
But yah no I agree. This movie was freaking great (smidges below Rainbow Rocks in my book!) and Dash was fantastic in it. This is the Dash I keep trying to write. RR Dash can go take a hike.
3429775
My thoughts exactly!
...though you'd think after seeing it drain Fluttershy and Applejack, she'd at least know to hold on to it and try to stop it from opening when a Rainbow Dash with wings walks up to her.
But yeah, FG Rainbow was loads better. I'm just happy I don't have to be mad at my favorite pony/human/whatever anymore.