Obligatory "Friendship Games" Movie First Impressions · 9:57pm Sep 28th, 2015
I just watched the third Equestria Girls movie. Spoilers ahoy, avoid it if you haven't seen it. If you've seen it or don't care, here's what I think.
First off, I was one of those few who gave first movie a chance and ended up with an okay, if cliche, movie with some cute moments. I was pumped for Rainbow Rocks and it ended up becoming one of my favourite movies of all time. I love it, it's nearly perfect, I rewatch it every so often and the best moments get me every time, Sunset Shimmer cemented herself as best character in this franchise and Dazzlings were very effective villains, but not beyond redemption.
The third movie is... meh. I was getting my hopes too high and I ended up really, really dissapointed. Where do I begin?
First of all, I love the fact that this movie was 100% humans and no ponies. Princess Twilight can't run to human world every time there's a trouble, especially now that Sunset is basically her replacement (which, believe it or not, is not always a bad thing) and they need to deal with those problems themselves. And they gave a good explanation of why they couldn't contact her, so kudos for covering that potential plot hole.
Second, I mentioned how Sunset Shimmer is the greatest thing to happen to MLP ever and that I love Dazzlings. The villains of this movie were just lame. The Principal (who didn't appear in a single teaser, I believe) was so evil and scheming that I was hoping she would turn out to be some evil, shapeshifting monster. Hell, I expected her to be this worlds Chrysalis, or some other magical being from Equestria. Nope- just a real bitch. And I mean, dear lord!
"Let's use this unknown, extremely dangerous magic which you have no idea how to use to win a game" ...how exactly? And they made a song about it (not really a good one, at least not for MLP standards) and other students of Crystal Prep joined in on it, like... wth?
Third, by far the worst thing, are the so called "rivals". The teasers showed five girls with distinct, original designs that were supposed to be dark versions of mane6 and I knew that a single movie won't develop any of them properly, but COME ON, you could've done better than that! As much as I adore Dazzlings, I fully admit that Sonata and Aria had barely any personality traits beyond "genki and silly" and "dark and sarcastic" respectively, but they managed to stand out. Those five I can't even name from the top of my head. I remember Sugar Coat, whose entire personality was being brutally honest, and Sour Sweet, who started a sentence nice but ended it with rage. The other three? One was an energetic sports girl, the other two were... uh... Yeah, exactly, I don't remember a single thing about them, other than appearance. And while the principal bitch was irredemable, they somehow seen the light of the day and became good... five minutes after singing the "Use evil magicz" song. Ugh. It's like they cut 20 minutes of footage showcasing their actual personalities, like having layers, or better sides, or change of heart or stuff.
I am so, SO dissapointed with them. Out of all the characters that needs to get their tags on fimfiction, those five (six, if we count principal asshole) really don't need'em, and if they do get it, make it a group tag (yes, I'm still salty about Moondancer not having a tag).
There were good things in this movie, otherwise I would've been raging this entire time. The main characters were written well- Sunset was still getting over her new role, while others were just being themselves in a delightful 'why I love the show' way. They didn't get overboard with backgrounds this time around- other than some Crystal Prep having a new batch (like Trenderhoof, Suri or Fleur), but they displayed no personality other than 'snooty', so meh.
Cadance was ok, I don't quite get why they needed Shining Armor to make an appearance out of nowhere (and he wasn't a cop, which is once again dissapointing), Luna and Celestia had a few more lines than before and they acted much more mature than principal jerkwad.
And Flash Sentry continues to be a running gag of being rejected and doing nothing at all, despite being one of the contestants, so at least he won't be annoying anyone anytime soon.
What I did not expect, was the climax of Twilight She Demon vs Mahou Shoujo Sunset... like, what? I know what they were aiming for (dark mirror of what Sunset had in first movie, with similar ending but roles reversed) and they did an ok job at it, but it didn't have the punch that climax to Rainbow Rocks had. Oh well, could've been worse.
Overall, my rating of this movie is McDonalds out of ten. It's not filling, particularly tasty, memorable or as good as you expected it to be and kids will like it a lot more than adults, but it's not the worst thing around and still worth experiancing, if only because it's a small part of what you love and it's better to have an actual opinion than complain about movies you haven't watched because it has no ponies. At least it won't break any fanfics.
Still better than Pixels and Fan4stick. But so is iron maiden (the torture tool, not the band).
(if you need an actual rating, it's 5/10 - avarage, but not bad, on an ACTUAL scale, not "ign's 7/10- burn this trash")
Poor Shadowbolts, the movie was hyped (a bit) with them as the selling points and hardly anyone but Sour Sweet gets more than three lines. I don't think the purple-haired one even spoke. That, and there's not a whole lot of point to the rivalness if they barely even interact with their respective counterparts. I can't even tell you who was supposed to be who's rival without looking it up, other than maybe Sugarcoat ("You're really bad at this!") matching Applejack's honesty. Kinda.
Well, I can't say your the only one disappointed. When I saw the CP5, I was expecting some constantly-at-each-other's-throats kind of rivalry. In the end, Lemon Zest's wildness, Sour Sweet's apparent double personality, and Sugar Coat's brutal honesty were the only things that came close to negative Mane 6. Also, a lot of people were hyped and preparing for an appearance by Sombra or Chrysalis. But nope. Like you said, just a bitch trying to mess with forces she doesn't even understand... Cliché and dumb. As for the ending fight between Sunset and Midnight Sparkle, I must say I was expecting something longer and more drawn out. I did appreciate Midnight's design though. And the song "Unleash the Magic", I believe, was pretty decent.
In the end, I was actually expect Sci-Twi to become friends with the other five and Cinch to go nuts and wind up losing her job. Instead, we settled for Sci-Twi transferring to CHS and the schools declaring a tie. Not as great as Rainbow Rocks, whose ending and songs I watch and listen to over and over, but it could've been much, much worse. The feels at the end were what saved it to me. I'd give it 6.5/10.
3428122 Yes, Cinch was terribly written and everyone else at Crystal Prep was barely written at all, except for Twilight. It's clear orders came down from on high "at the end of this movie, Human Twilight must attend CHS, plus throw in another magic battle."
Honestly, they should have just thrown out the entire Equestrian games. Just have Twilight hanging around the school, studying magic and inadvertently absorbing the Equestrian magic like an accidental ghost buster. You don't need some ridiculous high school olympics to do it, the first scene has Twilight going over there anyway! The main tension of this movie is will Twilight steal the Rainboom's Magic/Destroy the world, no one cares who wins the Equestrian Games trophy.
3428122 The "Recolored Lightning Dust" was obviously a foil for Rainbow Dash. And they didn't have a single conversation. This is writing 101, yet they somehow missed it
3428143 "Could've been worse" doesn't cut it for me anymore, especially after Rainbow Rocks. The songs were decent, but after hearing "Battle of the Bands", "Under our Spell" and the whole climax parade, I expected something else.
And why they needed a need to transfer Twilight to CHS is beyond me. They already have Sunset Shimmer as a main character there, we don't need Twilight there. Especially since it's their third year and they'll be graduating in few months, so...
3428170 Friendship Games (event) would've been better if there was more 1on1 action with their rivals, with more stakes and less predictable action. Like how they do it in shounen anime in tournament arc, where anything can happen, but it will keep us at our seats all the way long and even if someone loses, they can do it in an awesome way.
While writing SMT I often struggled to find names for background characters, without accidentally stepping on fan favourites. Now I have 5 new characters to use. I mean, Sunset's origin story is coming, so...
3428196 Yeah. It was kind of a step backwards. And I agree. The transfer was unnecessary. However, I'm so glad I'm not the only one that noticed that Indigo was a recolored Lightning Dust. And that wasn't the only disappointment. A lot of people were expecting certain characters from the series to make their human debuts here, including Chrysalis and Sombra, as I mentioned earlier, but I also noticed a few people interested in seeing Starlight and even Gilda.
One thing I can say they did well is that cliffhanger at the end where Twilight says something about a time loop. Hello, possible foreshadowing of the season 5 finale.
3428196 Your idea would make a much better movie than mine, I should have said "in order to make the movie better while also keeping it within 90 minutes..." I don't think they could have fit all that juicy character interaction in between Twilight's magical mystery tour or whatever you want to call the A plot. The other downside is, I think this is the last we will ever see of Crystal Prep, so learning more about those students would be kind of a waste, compared to learning more about the background students at CHS, where future movies and the series will be based.
That said, your version would definitely have made me actually care about the outcomes of the games themselves, and make the implied promise in the title sequence of Rainbooms (a group of equal and opposite rivals) come true.
I hvae to agree this movie wasnt what i expected i mean i really wanted the shadow five to have more of a personality, if they do make a equestria girls tv show ( it was said to be the the works for almost 2 years now so i doubt it) i hope they get developed a bit more.
I may be in the minority here but i like cinch as a villain, i mean I'm salty about not getting to see human sombra, but she was a good villan, my favorite kind infact, cruel, selfish and with no redemable traits.
One thing I noticed was that season 5 seems to have the least supernatural villains and more of the realistic ones, like Starlight glimmer and cinch.