Friendship Games Review *SPOILERS!!!* · 9:32am Sep 28th, 2015
FRIENDSHIP GAMES SPOILERS BELOW!!!
Well, just watched Friendship Games with Brady.
Overall, I consider it to be the weakest of the trilogy, plot-wise and music-wise, but there are certainly enough individual moments to make it worthwhile, and more or less is an enjoyable ride.
Plot-wise, the final confrontation had a twist that had my mouth open, but other than that, the 60 minutes beforehand seemed just a tad behind par for the course. Like Crystal Prep; what is the difference between a principal and a dean? I thought one was common in primary schools, and the other was in colleges and universities, this was the first time I'd ever heard of the two being in the same institution. Why is it this 'Cinch' instead of Sombra? That could have been a decent twist. The tease at the very end, like Rainbow Rocks, does a fantastic job of dangling the fourth installment in front of us, hopefully coming next year, even if it might have leaked tidbits of Season 5's finale.
My favorite moment of the movie was during the archery round with Twilight and AJ. The feeling of holding your whole team back is a nasty one, Twilight teared up nicely, and the way AJ helped out after getting her shot was so sweet, as was the hug she got when she only offered a high five. Also made me want to strangle her Shadowbolt partner.
Song-wise, I liked the opening, just as strong as Rainbow Rocks, and the marching band backing was a great touch, but that's a biased opinion from four years in marching band. But it seemed that there were less strong hits than its predecessor. I didn't really care for CHS Rally (where I think the marching band backing actually hurts it) or What More Is Out There. On the other hand, Unleash The Magic channels Disney more than any other song in the franchise, even more so than This Day Aria. But the performance as a whole is a tad weaker than Rainbow Rocks, and the day Daniel Ingram tops Welcome To The Show will be quite the eargasmic experience.
All in all, I very much enjoyed Sunset Shimmer's further prominence in the EQ series, and will definitely be picking this one up when it comes out on home media.
Final Score: 7.5 / 10
Pros:
+ Good comedic timing, Flash is severely downplayed, to great effect.
+ Strong final act
+ Great leading character in Sunset Shimmer
+ Fantastic climactic song (Unleash The Magic)
Cons:
- Unmemorable antagonists, Principal Cinch has no known Equestrian equivalent
- Weak antagonistic goal, until Twilight's device takes center stage.
- Musically less impressive than Rainbow Rocks
I hope that all this means that Sunset is 'actually' an alicorn now, instead of just temporarily buffed by magic. She understood a new magic (although it's the same magic Twilight did) and instead of the elements zapping her, she had their magic stored in Twilight's necklace. And Celestia didn't pave the way for Sunset to become an alicorn (unless you count her apprenticeship at the beginning). All in all, I feel like Sunset deserves to be an alicorn more than Twilight
3426833 Part of me still wants her to return to Equestria, either in Season 6 or the movie.
And yes, I absolutely loved how she "flashbanged" herself before her transformation.
3426835 The Mlp movie coming out in 2017 says that the Mane Six are all travelling to a new place meeting new friends. Wonder if it is the EQG world. Would make sense....
I'm putting my bet in now, even though I haven't seen the full movie. The crooked horn on Midnight Twilight, combined with the name Principal Cinch, leads me to believe that it's their world's Chrysalis.
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That would explain why Cadance doesn't like her. No actually that would explain a lot 
I was initially enamored with Cinch, but she quickly lost me with her motivations. She could have been a better villain. Or she could have been Sombra. Or Chrysalis.
Bring back Chrysalis, damnit!
I agree with a lot of what you said, disagree with others.
I found Sunset's role as 'new' Twi to be... lacking. She brought nothing to the group that Pony Twilight wouldn't have.
Now I'm biased as I'm not the biggest Sunset Shimmer fan. I personally found that by shoehorning her into the 'lead character' spot it did nothing more than take away from the other mane five.
I ask how different it would have been if Sunset was replaced by (pony) Twilight? They're trying to act like they're interchangeable, but they're not.
Human Twi's characterization was bs, they half-assed it. She wasn't bad, but she was stupid.
Let me clarify, I liked her up until the plants came out and started eating people. At that point her STILL wearing the pendent was flat out dumb, she knew it was endangering people and did nothing to protect herself or others. Say what you will about 'thirst for knowledge'. Friends or no friends, she's never, not once, come off as someone that would intentionally endanger others. Here she did because... the plot demanded it.
Mistakes are one thing. Knowing and willful? That's another.
Had they taken her full bad, had they showed she had no consideration for others, it would have worked. But, of course they can't do that. She was shown good, shown to be caring of others, with a kind heart.
Another option was to have her say no at the end, to refuse to open the pendent. (Last time it open one of her teammates almost died) and then for Cinch to open it instead.
That would've made sense.
As it stands, the ending was... well... humacorn sunset
. Enough said.
I liked the first two movies, didn't like this one... Her corruption by the magic made little sense, say what you will about absolute power, Sunset didn't become corrupt by her power (this movie). I did like the fact that even still she was stronger than Sunset, and only lost because she saw Spike and stopped fighting. So, plus there.
And tell me, what purpose did spike being able to talk serve? Because it was completely erroneous.
I think the story of Twi trapped in the timeloop would have been more interesting.
In the end the movie was a bad rehash of the first one with the character's roles flipped. But in that it failed as Twilight (human) wasn't bad and then became good. She was good, pressured into doing bad things, and then was good again. When she cried after being reformed, I didn't feel it, because she wasn't bad at any point in the movie.
I watched it once, I doubt I will again, the songs were weaker than the others, the plot was bad, and the villain, wasn't...
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Having not seen the movie yet, I can't fully comment. And a lot of it is just unsupported theory. But if I were trying to explain SciTwi's actions based on your explanation, I'd theorize that her pendant had similar properties to a number of other cursed magical artifacts that override a person's critical thinking skills, and forces them to do dumb stuff for the sake of moving the plot along. The Necronomicon, the One Ring, the Event Horizon, the Lament Configuration, etc. all of them have passive evils attached that override the weak willed, and force them to carry out actions to set plans into motion.
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Nope, just a device (technology only) she made to study magic. I call it a pendent because she wore it around her neck the entire time. (despite it proven to be dangerous mind you)
It tracks and steals magic
The latter of which it starts doing all by itself.
yeah... that's never explained either.
Something I like about this movie and about what the show has been doing recently is showing how the girls fare without Twilight's help. Sci Twi was a cause for the problem in the movie rather than a solution, and Sunset struggled with having to be the magic expert when her Twilight wasn't around. A lot of people complain that Twilight is overpowered and that she usually can solve most problems on her own with very little help from her friends. However, I think it's important to remember that not everything has to be done by the same person over and over again, and that sometimes new heroes need to take the lead.
Also, this comment:
FUCKING YES, OK? And this definitely ties in with how instead of Twilight being corrupted by the magic, Cinch could have taken it and done it herself. She could very well have been that world's Chrysalis. However, it would have made more sense for Sombra to be in the movie and to see HIM be corrupted by the magic. Sunset, having no previous experience with him like the rest of the EG mane six, would have struggled quite a bit to fix the problem.
Don't get me wrong, I loved the animation. Things have gotten significantly better in quality over the years. And, to be honest, I liked some of the songs, but I know deep down that RR had better ones overall. But, I actually really liked a lot of the visuals that went with the songs! It was really cool to watch them come to life and to watch the opposing sides in the song, "Acadeca". Also, Sunset singing is super awesome.
Still pissed about Sombra not being in the movie.
pre13.deviantart.net/4c19/th/pre/f/2013/265/d/9/equestria_girls__sombra_by_siansaar-d6ncgkm.jpg
"Unleash the Magic" was right up there with the Disney villain songs.
Honestly, I actually think this movie is the best of the 3.
Up until "Unleash the Magic", it was more or less tied with Rainbow Rocks. Then that one song came along and was so creepily awesome that it gave this movie the edge.
Heck, Unleash the Magic was creepier than anything the Sirens did.
Plus, I find Cinch to be a better villain than the Sirens ever were.