I'm Returning: Reasoning's and Review of Friendship Games · 10:22pm Oct 12th, 2015
Well... I wonder if any of you saw this coming. Please let me know how you feel about this.
But I suppose I've got some explaining to do myself first.
So, I took a long break from MLP after the first episode of the second half of season 5 which I hated; Carousel Boutique. Now I had been doing a lot of non MLP stuff in the mini hiatus which I had been deeply occupied in. I felt because of the declining quality I felt I was wasting my time donating so much attention to it. So I quit the fandom. I was planning to do a new blog but as you know that didn't get off the ground.
So I started taking interest again when Azrael told me about an episode where the CMC got their cutie marks, and I really wanted to see it. I was INCREDIBLY disappointed but that's for another day.
So Azrael was surprised that my reaction was different to Jarvy's so he grew curious on what my reaction to Friendship Games would be. As I was utterly bored that day with nothing better to do, I watched it. I planned to just tell him what I though, but after I saw it my thoughts on it were too many in number for a simple message on Skype or Facebook. So I thought I would make a blog post.
Just to let you know though.... just because I may be doing a few reviews here and there now, it does not mean I am rejoining the fandom. I am not going to be watching the show weekly, only big episodes, two parters, and movies, and those are all I will be reviewing.
I'm going to tell you my thoughts on Friendship Games.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Now, before I analyze this movie in great deal, I will to say that Friendship Games is a drastically superior movie to the other two films. I'm going to be honest, for the first half or so I was heavily entertained and invested. Handing the writers helm to Josh Haber was a a really good move, as he has written an "on the whole" solid script which is much, much, better than what McCarthy did with the other movies.
However, that does not make it a perfect movie. Especially when we get to the final act when the movie goes from pretty damn good to just okay overall.
So... what did I like about the movie?
Really, I love the character of human Twilight and the whole atmosphere of Crystal Prep. I knew Twilight was going to be the villain in this movie but I was pleasantly surprised when she started out as a likable character, so I thought there was going to be some kind of turn there which I would actually care about. Unfortunately Twilight is never really the villain nor ever really turns evil but I'll get to that later.
The atmosphere of Crystal Prep is really cool, and Abacus Cinch is actually a fairly compelling and well put together villain. She actually uses Twilight's study program as a way to get her on her side, and because human Twilight is well established as a character and we know her eagerness for the study program makes Finches ' s supposed deal all the more cleverly done and well written.
Twilight is great for the first two acts. She is an innocent, curious, soul, and I actually was really excited to see her turn to the dark side and for her to betray the humane 6, again... that never happens but the fact that I was let down by the end proves it was doing something right for most of it. It was doing actually most things right for two thirds of the movie... well, aside from it being Equestria Girls.
Also, most of it makes sense, and the world feels more believable. We finally get to see CHS as a proper school, where their actually studying, and despite it not being able to right the wrongs of the other two movies, it certainly makes it feel a lot more realistic, but yet.... somehow nicely stylized and larger than life. It has just the right amount of logic and realism so that world still feels somewhat relatable but still interesting.
Yes... the humane 5 are still flanderized, perhaps even more in this one than the other ones if that's possible. Sunset is the only one of the humane 6 who acts like a real person as opposed to just a cliche cardboard cut out. But.... I feel like it isn't too bad because most of the focus is on the human Twilight character and Sunset Shimmer, and I've already stated my fondness for human Twilight. And to be honest I didn't mind Sunset in this one too much either, maybe because it's been a while since her comical character change in EQG1 and she no longer says "I've changed," 24/7. Yes sure it's in there, but luckily it's not that much.
Now for the bad.
So, I've told you that I hated the final act, and here's why.
Twilight is treated like she turned into a demon by her own accord, like how Sunset strongly pressures her to stop. But literally the scene earlier it was shown that it was out of her control. This is fucking disappointing that it was just a stupid possession because they put all this time and effort into Twilight's character that I thought she was going to consciously choose knowledge over the humane 5 and betray them, the movie was set up for that to happen, and after the final battle it's treated like that is what happened.
But turning into the demon was completely out of her control. She was pressurized by Cinch to use her magical device against CHS, and she literally had no choice in the matter, but she didn't know it was going to turn her into a demon which makes her completely evil. Yet it's treated like she made that choice on her own which should have been how it went. I was so disappointed with this stupid she-demon possession because it is not in line with how the movie was going. She should have made the choice to follow Cinch so she could get into the school and betray the humane 5 consciously and then afterwards realize she was wrong.
This is the films biggest missed opportunity, it was so close to being good, as they developed a very interesting character. But Josh Haber got lazy and instead of creating a carefully put together turn to evil and legitimate back to good for Twilight Sparkle, he decided on stupid mind control which doesn't really do anything for the story. They say that it does, but in reality she could not help it.
I think it should have been longer, and then they would have been time for a tragic turn and betrayal which I was excited for and what it felt like they were going for. But it's crammed inside an hour, and therefore, the third act feels so unbelievably rushed and such a waste that it effects my overall opinion of the movie and rightly so.
So, what do I think of this movie?
Whilst it's certainly trying and has a lot of effort put into it, including the songs which I thought were awesome and a million times better than season 5's shitty song roster, The final act is so disappointing that I can't say it's good. It's better than the other two films but that doesn't make it good, and it's a shame because it could have been good if it had had longer to play out and the final act was fixed up, but as it stands; it's just okay.
But.... I did really enjoy it, so I'm going to give it a B-.
B-
Nice to know your thoughts on this movie. I wonder if with the 4° movie they will manage to improve it further or fail at doing so...
3465500 I am actually hoping that they don't make a fourth movie. The third one, for me, closed up the EQG saga pretty nicely. I can find no reason to genuinely continue it.
Other than money, of course... Oops.
Glad to hear from you again, I was sad at how your blog was suddenly deleted.
3465555 And that was the whole reason why Equestria Girls was made.
An Equestria Girls movie that turned out ok? Who would've thunk it?
Maybe it helped that it separated the real Twilight Sparkle from the movie and had it focus solely on the characters in that world. Guess if you're going to make something good, you need to separate from all the bad that came before it.