Equestria Girls: The Friendship Games Review · 3:19am Oct 14th, 2015
Well, ladies and gentlemen, it's finally here. The movie we've all been waiting for with bated breath. Our new lovable villains await our eager pens and keyboards and we impatiently wait for all the new fan content. Truthfully it's been out for almost three weeks for everyone, but for the desire to review the product and its deleted scenes, as well as wait until everyone had the chance to get the dvd and see it, I've waited until now to get my copy.
So, I typically wait to give my opinion on these reviews at the very end, but I think you guys deserve to know what you're about to get into: I think this movie is awful. If by some miracle you've managed to enjoy it and you'd like to have your opinion untainted by mine, it'll be best if you click away now because this is about to get extremely negative.
Now that we have that out of the way and the unwilling have been turned away, let's tear into this... thing, shall we?
Ah, the smell of fresh content and a new Equestria Girls movie. How will it stack up against our previous two entries? Let's find out! spoiler alert: not well.
We gather here today, for a single guitar string. Loose excuses to get the gang gathered up, anyone?
And right off the bat, our drama begins. Points for getting straight to it I suppose. Something strange is happening around the portal... this odd new girl wants to see what's going on. What does our mysterious new human Twilight have in mind?
A quick check later she gets on a bus at the same bus stop not even thirty seconds after getting off of one there. How convenient. I do have to admit I like the designs in this movie a little better compared to the previous entries. It's not all boots and skirts any more... mostly. I think the more realistic fashion approach is more enjoyable, but that's probably one of the only things this movie does right.
So not even a fourth of the way through and this movie starts to lose touch with reality. Twilight has her own personal room at Crystal Prep. Maybe it's a private school and they do things like this--if so, let me know in the comments--but I sincerely doubt it. This could have easily just been a work space in her own room at her house. Why would anyone think it'd be a good idea to try to convince the audience that a high school reserved an entire room for one student when there's such an easy alternative?
Anyway, it keeps getting worse as we see Twilight constructing this magical sensor that can not only detect magic, but apparently store it as well. She had what, like ten seconds in front of the portal at most? She has no idea how magic works and had a mere moment of exposure to it and we're supposed to believe she can readily make something like this? There might have been a way to justify this had any thought been put into this movie, but unfortunately here we are. Just buy it and move on. We've got more travesties to get through anyway.
We really only slip down further into the depths of bad writing as we go. Sunset tells the girls what she saw, and they proceed to explain to her that she might have been from Crystal Prep, their biggest rivals. They tell her how Crystal Prep always beats them in everything and how awful they've had it over the years because of it.
You see the problem here? No? Maybe this will help.
It's okay, Sunny. You've got good things to come.
If we're to believe these are Fall Formal photos--I'm pretty sure that it was confirmed in the first movie that they are--Sunset has been at Canterlot High for three years so far. Three years. How have they been Canterlot's biggest rivals if Sunset, the most popular girl in the school at one point, didn't know anything about them? Those are years of sporting events, pep rallies, school trophies, after-game announcements and yearbooks. How did the fact that Crystal Prep are their biggest rivals not come up to Sunset once? This entire scene was made for an info dump. That's it.
It gets even worse too. In the next scene Celestia states that these games only happen every four years. Seriously? A major school event that only happens once in the student's high school career. You better hope you're a senior by the time they roll around, otherwise you're never going to have what it takes to compete unless you're extremely gifted without those years of experience. This is most likely just to hand-wave away the fact that Sunset didn't know about this. Look, if you have to make events even more unbelievable to rectify your mistakes in the script instead of going back and changing things, you've gone wrong somewhere as a writer. Just making things up as you go along and trying to fix them in the next scene is not acceptable for a professional production. Not even fifteen minutes in and this movie is already irking me.
This school has a total student body of like, two dozen kids. For some reason I always figured it was a little bigger than that.
A little inspirational song and all the kids are now motivated to finally win against Crystal Prep. On a side note, I find this shot kind of hilarious. It's a wonderful metaphor for the rest of the movie. You see that girl next to Rainbow? Looks like she's going to be important, huh? Well the lines in the song are literally her only lines in the entire movie. Her entire life as a character in this world was contrived to make a segment slightly more symmetrical. We will never know her name and we'll never hear her speak again. Follow along with me and you'll see just how appropriate this allegory is.
God, I love her so much. If there's one positive we can take away from this movie, it's finally getting more of her. She deserves so much more than just an insignificant and mostly meaningless arc that we see here. In case you haven't figured it out yet, Sunset has been trying to find out why her friends are suddenly growing wings and pony ears while performing. She has no idea what's going on and it's really frustrating her to be so lost on something she should know so much about. She reaches out to Twilight for help on the matter, which admittedly is a big character progression considering the person she used to be. Unfortunately, Twilight's way too busy on this one.
I'm bored. Way too bored to bother checking on possible problems going on in my favorite alternate dimension
Super busy.
Suddenly not waifu material anymore.
I'm typically not the kind of person to complain about the EQG designs, but come on. Cadance looks really off-putting. Honestly all the princesses are really unappealing in general.
In every class my grade's the best, the highest score on every test...
Conceited much? Regardless, we find out later this isn't entirely true.
She has her little musical number about how she doesn't have any friends, doesn't fit in, and how she wants more out of life. Maybe if she spent a little less time bragging this might not be as much of a problem. Though we do see how awful her classmates are, so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt on this one.
And twenty minutes in, we meet our antagonist, Principal Who-gives-a-shit, the most uninteresting villain this series has ever had. Cinch is the epitome of a poorly written antagonist, and really only ever serves to just move the plot along. Running theme if you couldn't tell.
To make matters worse, in this scene she expresses the notion that it doesn't matter whether Crystal Prep wins or not, that all that really matters is their reputation. The problem here is that later on in the movie those motivations suddenly become meaningless as she does something completely contradictory to destroy both her and the school's reputation.
As the scene goes on this train of misery refuses to stop. She threatens Twilight into competing by telling her that she'll deny her application to her desired college. I'm no expert but that kind of sounds like an ethics violation. What happened to that "reputation above all" talk like fifteen seconds prior? Regardless of Cinch's actions, Dean Cadance is also standing right there. Does she not care about Twilight? Can she not report this? How does the Dean of the whole school not have some say in this major ethics violation against a student she should care very much about? Sounds like plot convenience, but hey, you know the drill: just buy it and move on.
So we finally meet the secondary "antagonists". I use that term very loosely, because all they really do is serve as generic opponents in the competitions and bully Twilight. They're more interesting than Cinch, I suppose, but not by very much. The extent of their characterization can be summed up in a few words. Here, let me show you:
Brutally honest, moody and passive aggressive, Lightning Dust recolor/athletic and ostentatious, likes music, and then one that has absolutely no personality at all.
Here are their names:
Indigo Zap, Sugar Coat, Sour Sweet, Lemon Zest. The last one is Sunny Flare but she had absolutely nothing in terms of characterization.
I'm sure you can instantly pair the majority of those names up. Does that really sound like good character design to you? I'm sure you saw Rainbow Rocks. You and I both know the caliber of villain they can set up within this limited time frame. We could have gotten five new, interesting villains with a lot of potential for new content, but instead we got these bland, one-dimensional characters who do nothing but the bare minimum to fill specific competitor roles and be mean.
So now Twilight has shown up, and everyone in the school is confusing her for pony Twilight, expectedly, but there's something about this that bothers me: she's in the Crystal Prep uniform. How does no one seem to pick up on this? Even if you give them as much leeway as possible and say that they changed uniforms this year, a lot of kids still saw them get off the bus. Lyra and Bon Bon were standing right there. You can't tell me no one could have put two and two together here. And if you don't want to give them the benefit of the doubt, there's no possible way none of these students recognize the Crystal Prep uniform. Biggest Rivals, remember? They could have at least put in a line acknowledging this.
Oh no! Sunny is losing hope now that Twilight hasn't answered her. The Friendship Games are growing more complicated by the second and she doesn't have any answers. Luckily she has her friends here to cheer her up so she can...
Oh who am I kidding. This plot isn't exciting at all. By this point in the movie you should have your audience hooked into some compelling conflict, but I just don't see anything here. Sunset wants to solve magic problems and the school is about to have a big competition. That's kind of it. They barely tie into each other yet and if it wasn't Equestria Girls and Sunset, I would have just abandoned this movie at this point. This is boring.
I love Sunset to death, I really, really do, but even she can't save this movie. Her inadequacy issues and the need for help are interesting little tidbits to add to her character and are understandable, but not very interesting. These things certainly can't hold the narrative up. The scene kind of implies she's doing this for further redemption and to solidify her new reputation among her peers, but... wasn't that what Rainbow Rocks was about? None of the students really seem to hate her any longer, and the stakes aren't nearly as high here. As much as I love her, this arc of hers, if you could call it that, is kind of flimsy and uninteresting. If I'm being honest, that arc is kind of all I'm here for.
Twilight's little device somehow sucks the magic out of the statue, closing the portal before Sunset can manage to get through it. A distressing moment for our hero, to be sure.
So here we start down a dark path. The idiot ball has rolled into the frame and our dear Twilight is going to be grasping this thing as tightly as possible for the rest of the movie. I doubt many of you are scientists, but just as a thought, what do you think you should do with something experimental that just acted strangely and completely out of your control? You should contain it right? Stop messing with it until you can figure out what happened and why. Maybe run a few more experiments to try to deduce the problem before it causes harm? Of course you would. You have no idea what you're dealing with yet, after all.
Twilight on the other hand doesn't seem to have this kind of common sense. She puts this thing right back around her neck and goes about her day. I find it really hard to believe that she'd be this careless about things like this.
So, as with some other parts in this movie, I get the feeling this was just done for the toy line. I like the new outfits, don't get me wrong, but they change into these just for the party and then immediately change into their old ones right after. They're also the only six to do so too.
So you can kind of see what they were going for here. The Shadowbolts were supposed to be character foils. A little obvious about it in this shot, but it kind of has to be to even get that notion across. This is the only scene in the entire movie where it's even shown. They're never really characterized more than this. The Shadowbolts are just so easily forgettable that I have to question why they bothered having both them and Cinch play an antagonistic role here.
This is... frustrating. Twilight gets to see just what effect this has on others. She stood right there as the device pulled this strange aura out of Pinkie. Who knows what that could have done. It could've just given her cancer or caused seizures or irradiated her or god knows what. To top it off it opens a portal underneath the bleachers right in front of her. Come on, Twilight, you can plainly see this is potentially dangerous. You've got to at least care for your own safety and isolate and contain that thing if not outright dismantling it before it can get worse. That'd be the logical solution here, but again, we've got a plot to drive so let's just buy it and move on.
And so the games finally begin. It's been an unbearable slog so far. Let's hope it gets better. I'd make a comment about how convenient it is that all of the main characters got into the games, but compared to the train wreck that's coming it's incredibly minor.
What high school student doesn't know how to spell immigration? No wonder they lose every time.
Poor Sunset. Can't win them all I suppose. Just a little nitpick on this one, but that problem really doesn't seem that hard for a senior in high school who should be taking at least precal. So, to give this movie some credit I actually found that problem later on and discovered it's not quite your standard precal homework. It's not impossible but I would say that's sufficiently difficult compared to their normal curriculum.
And everyone at CHS got eliminated but the girls. What a shocker.
At least look out for your dog, Twilight. Who knows what kind of hellscape he could have jumped into with those portals. There is really no excuses at all at this point. She even clearly saw and acknowledged the effects it had on Fluttershy. She's a smart girl, she should know how dangerous beams of strange light and tearing holes in space-time for portals can possibly be. I don't care how much you think her character differs from Princess Twilight, an intelligent and inquisitive Twilight we know should not be doing this. This is the kind of reckless and idiotic behavior that I'd expect from Snips and Snails at best.
To make matters even worse, Spike can talk now. Yeah, the portal magic granted him speech. There is a very specific reason for this and it is the most contrived and plot-convenient thing anyone could ever have though of to resolve something.
Am I the only one who thinks this is overkill?
NO. NO YOU ARE NOT.
I don't even know what to say. I honestly just can't even comprehend how someone thought this was a good idea. We just got done with a bunch of academic events, so now you'd think we'd move onto similar athletic ones, right? Maybe soccer, or some track events, or literally any kind of standard high school athletics. We know they already play these things, we just saw them in the yearbook earlier in the movie. But no, we have... I mean just look at that picture. On top of that we get the random amalgamation of:
AN OBSTACLE COURSE AND ARCHERY
ROLLERBLADING FOR SOME REASON
AND FUCKING MOTOCROSS
This is the point where we officially transition from bland and uninteresting to outright bad writing. I shouldn't even have to list everything that's wrong with this. These completely untrained high school girls are expected to do jumps and sharp turns on massive motorcycles. On top of that they have the track going directly behind the archery targets. How did no safety concerns come up in the construction of any of this? How did anyone think this was okay? What parent is going to willingly let their child participate in this death trap? You saw those pictures. This is extremely dangerous. Would you let your brother/sister/son/daughter do this? Someone is about to be criminally liable for wrongful death or gross negligence.
How did no one look over this script and say something? Could they seriously not hire an editor to at least give this a second look and maybe say something about how this is supposed to be set in a normal(ish) high school? If the little writing annoyances didn't take me out of the experience before, this has absolutely destroyed any suspension of disbelief I had left. This is almost the worst part of the movie. Almost...
So, Archery is apparently a required curriculum at Crystal Prep, yet Twilight needs Applejack to come over and show her how to do it? This is the part where I doubt her perfect grades.
If that wasn't enough, she's still wearing the device around her neck. This means Twilight had to go to a bag she had, take this device off her neck to change clothes, and then purposefully make the decision to put it back on. She has to know it's potentially dangerous. There's no way she's actually this stupid. I know it's just for plot convenience but they could have at least tried a little harder to justify this device's presence here.
And here we have it. At this point the writing is just so completely and utterly unbelievable I honestly find it hard to put into words how terrible this all is. This is an actual screenshot from the movie. There was, as Principal Who-gives-a-shit said, a trained attack plant on the track as this race went on.
Do you want to guess what happened? Maybe they all panicked and called for help. Maybe they stopped the race and got away from the imminent danger. Maybe they had some sort of preservation instinct at all, right? Nope. They actually tried to finish the race and the entire crowd did nothing but watch. Even after the race was over, Cinch referred to it like it was just some unfair advantage, not something that would warrant, you know, stopping the games since the kids were actually in danger of being viciously murdered by an actual magical monster from another world. CHS just cheated with magic and she wants to prove she can win anyway, because that's what's really important here. Are you kind of getting why this movie isn't believable at all yet?
Principal who-gives-a-shit expresses mild dissatisfaction as Cadance instructs the students they should head to the gym, as if a magical man-eater didn't just appear in front of them and almost kill four of their students. Just forget anything happened and let's move onto the next event, right? Nothing to worry about, no traumatic stress at near-death experiences, or injuries from crashing these motorcycles they weren't even supposed to be riding in the first place--just forget about it, we've got to finish this event!
Before now, all of the EQG movies have been somewhat planted in reality, with characters acting somewhat appropriately to situations set before them. That's what made me love them so much. These mostly normal people got put into this really strange and trying situation they had to get out of with the power of friendship, or in Sunset's case, the courage to stand up and prove she was ready to be the hero. This one has literally no regard for any of that.
The fact that this is a kid's movie isn't lost on me. I probably shouldn't be this frustrated with it, but this is bad writing; there's really no getting around that fact. This is not how people should act when faced with life-threatening danger, even if they've faced magic before. Lauren Faust revived this series and made it so wonderful because she didn't hide behind the crutch of "it's just a kid's show". She made something wonderful everyone could enjoy, and as much as I like the EQG movies, I can definitely understand why she thinks they're a mistake considering what this movie is.
Let's just push forward. I'm not sure how much more of this I can even take.
Props to Sunset for being the only sane one in this movie. She gets pissed at Twilight for recklessly endangering her friends with a murderous plant-monster and yells at her, and rightly so. Someone needs to tell her what an idiot she's being and how she's going to get someone killed. Unfortunately this realistic reaction just vanishes as soon as Twilight gets upset and her friends step in. All the sudden she's remorseful about hurting her feelings. Not like her friends almost died or anything. This change of heart after such a traumatic event is just... well, it's really not doing Sunset or this movie any favors.
Oh, and guess what, Twilight picks up the murderous plant-monster generator and just puts it back around her neck. Can't even be mad at this point. This movie has left me speechless.
For some reason we're still doing this. In any sane world CHS should just take the L and cancel the games. There are lives at stake. Some trophy is not worth it at this point. Unfortunately this doesn't cross a single person's mind as we move onto our next event.
And if you thought things couldn't get more lazy, the last event is finding a flag randomly placed within the school. The battle of mental and physical ability is no more, now we're just deciding things on who can get luckiest the fastest. I think the writer just gave up at this point.
What can I even say. She's been clutching the idiot ball so tightly for the entire movie of course she'd release this dangerous, life-threatening magic upon the school over a little peer pressure. On top of that, why are they even advocating for it in the first place? That monster tried to kill them too. They know exactly what kind of thing is about to happen--they literally just experienced it.The preservation instinct is absolutely not here at all with anyone. Someone just please go up and grab this thing from her before this movie gets even worse.
They probably could have made this ending make sense. I know before the movie came out I was really rooting for evil SciTwi, but what we got was this bland, meek, uninteresting character that needs to be as recklessly idiotic as possible just so we can move the plot along.
I warned you. You all knew this was coming. Just ask yourself if you'd be in that crowd chanting for Twilight to release the magic. Would you honestly want that after seeing what it could do? You're one hell of an adrenaline junkie if that answer wasn't no. Either that or you've got a death wish.
So as we move forward, Demon Twilight, or Midnight Sparkle, starts tearing rifts in the concrete straight to Equestria, threatening to bring the dangers of that world into hers. People are most likely going to die. Do you want to know what her motivation is? Do you really want to know? You probably don't but I'll tell you anyway.
She's curious about magic.
That is literally Midnight Sparkle's motivation right now. The words "there's more magic there, and I want to understand it all!" actually come out of her mouth as she's tearing holes in the fabric of reality. I absolutely cannot believe this is what they went with. There are so many more interesting things they could have done to lead up for something like this, but everything here is so unbelievably weak and forced I can't help but cringe. After all we've been through our misery just refuses to end. Everything else was bad, sure, but this is the absolute lowest point of this movie. There is so little effort put into justifying any of this. This is the absolute worst part of this movie, and thankfully we're almost all the way through.
If there's any good thing we can take from this movie, it's this speech that Sunset gives to Twilight about how she knows what she's going through and how she can show her a better way. This is a wonderful look into her character and gives us a great frame to view how far she's come in her journey.
Though, I think there needs to be some clarification on this scene. A lot of people point to this moment as a great stride forward for Sunset in her character arc and overall growth, but that's really not what's happening here. We're getting a look into her mindset, sure, but this isn't actually doing anything to resolve internal conflicts or give her growth within the context of this movie. All we're seeing is just a window into her mind. A good thing to be sure, but it doesn't actually serve to improve any facet of this movie.
Regardless, her attempts to persuade the new she-demon on the block fail. Guess what she has to do now? Seriously, just shoot a guess as to how much worse this gets.
That's right. Sunset transforms too. You remember when we solved problems with the magic of friendship? I don't know about you guys, but I don't come to watch My Little Pony for the cheesy magic battles.
God, there's not even a point to it either. Sunset went through that entire speech, transformed into Daydream Shimmer, and exchanged blows for the sake of her friends and guess what finally wins the day? Spike.
Remember when I told you Spike's ability to speak was contrived? Well, here you go. The only reason things go in Sunset's favor is because Twilight looks down when Spike says something and her evil persona drops for a moment. There really wasn't any point in this transformation or Sunset's speech because it was a sad face from her dog that yanked her out of it. Sunset helps her down and everything, sure, but in the grand scheme of things she accomplished nothing right when it mattered. You have no idea how frustrating this is for me. My favorite character gets her one chance to shine bright in this awful movie and it gets taken away by a dumb plot contrivance because that was easier.
And please, I can hear the argument already. "Spike was her only friend! This is the power of friendship right?'
Please spare me from these convoluted conflict resolutions. If you have to go out of your way to make a dog talk for the sole purpose of resolving the final conflict, you just made literally everything else all the other characters went through irrelevant. You forced this character to talk and have two lines for the sole purpose of forcing your way out of the climax. Sunset was right there. If they wanted to have a beautiful character juxtaposition with the first movie they could have done it with the actual power of their friendship. Why are we even still here? Just to suffer?
Even with what little we got of the juxtaposition of Sunset's situation in the first movie, I can't deny it's really hamfisted and awkward. I mean, does Sunset even get any real character growth out of any of this? She didn't really learn anything except that maybe she can do things on her own without Twilight. Sounds a lot like her moment in Rainbow Rocks. I don't mind reinforcing character traits but this unoriginal rehashing of a much better arc is just not interesting at all, especially when she goes through this transformation and gives this great speech and Spike ends up doing the legwork anyway.
Well at least we're finally at the end. Cinch storms off, her reputation ruined by her desire to win when she could've just demanded the event be over due to safety concerns. Twilight decides to transfer to CHS and the Shadowbolts continue to be bland, uninteresting, and woefully uncharacterized afterthoughts
Well, there you have it, guys. Celestia declares that we're all winners and everyone goes home not really learning anything of importance. Well, hopefully they learned not to encourage homicidal magical eruptions, but after what went down I don't have too much hope. Twilight gives a little talk about how much she wants to learn about friendship, Sunset says something about looking for answers on her own (something she's been trying to do for the first half of the movie and one of the shorts already), and everyone just goes home. That's it. Everyone is basically the same as when the movie started, except maybe a little worse for wear after almost dying.
Before I get into my final rant, I'll explain the deleted scenes for you:
What got deleted out of the movie was a side-arc for Sunset. She was supposed to want to go home throughout the movie, and expresses her frustration with her place in the world. She actually has a duet with Twilight during her song, where she expresses this. The alternate ending shows the Shadowbolts becoming friends with the girls at CHS, and Twilight leaving them to become the herald of friendship at Crystal Prep and show them the true magic of friendship. That probably would have been a little better, but not by much.
I guess I should give some closing thoughts.
It probably goes without saying that I feel this has been a big disappointment. The wasted potential here is really frustrating. The alternate ending gives us a look into a calmer, more friendship-oriented movie that would've fit the series better. There were just so many different plot holes and contrivances that I couldn't really get any enjoyment out of this movie. Every turn there was something different that was bugging me. My suspension of disbelief was shattered like ten minutes into the movie over a bunch of novice writing mistakes.
There is zero, real character development, there's no interesting plotline, the ending was just so weak and forced and there was no real pay off to anything. There were absolutely no really memorable moments that are actually positive from this film. This thing is so much worse than the other two movies, I'm not even sure how it managed to get past the drafting stage all the way to final animations. There are just so many glaring problems that even I could immediately see and realize a fix for.
I've watched this movie four times through. Four times. Each time trying to find something in there that I could enjoy. I let so much slide in the first two movies because at the end of the day they were still entertaining to watch. I still watch the first movie and Rainbow Rocks, because despite their flaws they're still entertaining movies at their core. I loved hearing Sunset's voice in the first movie and the songs from EQG1 are actually pretty enjoyable. That movie had a solid narrative structure, enjoyable character interactions, and a simple progression that made me want to see what happened, despite the glaring logistical issues. Rainbow Rocks was honestly just a good movie all in all. I may have had some problems with that movie, but I still love watching it. This one... This one... I could not find a single redeeming quality about this movie that would ever make me want to watch it again. I seriously can't think of a single thing that I'd want to come back to this for. The Shadowbolts just weren't there as characters, Sunset didn't get any satisfying build up or conclusion to anything she went through, and SciTwi was just a stand-in catalyst who was constantly clutching the idiot ball so tightly to the point of potential negligent homicide just to move the plot along. This movie is just so frustrating to watch I can't even call it bland.
I just want to reiterate the point that this is supposed to be a professionally produced product. With all these glaring, obvious writing issues, someone still got paid to create this, and at no point did anyone stop and think that maybe these things should be reviewed and changed. I don't know what happened in the creation of this, but I can see the end product. This feels like a halfhearted cash grab to milk a growing franchise. Rainbow Rocks was a genuinely good movie, and there was a lot fixed from the first movie. Great improvements were made to make EQG as a spinoff more respectable. This however, took all that progress and just threw it straight out the window. This feels like bad fanfiction. These mistakes should not have gotten through to the final product.
This is a frustrating time for me. I know this is really, grossly negative. I really want to enjoy this movie. I want to sit down and be able to watch it and have a good time despite it's flaws like the other two, but the flaws on this one are just too glaring to ignore. I can only hope this trend doesn't continue for the franchise, and that anyone who takes on another EQG project treats it with the respect it actually deserves.
I just read your rant, and still love the friendship games!
While I do agree with most of your points, especially the awful villains, I honestly still enjoyed it. Yes, everyone's reactions to the plant monster was ridiculous, as was the inclusion of motocross in a high school competition. Yes, Twilight's 'my dog can talk' freakout was over so fast it might as well have not happened.
However, while I agree Twilight should have realized how dangerous her pendant was, I don't think it was as bad as you said. The way she acted would have been way out of character for Princess Twilight, but this one never learned about friendship. While it doesn't justify her negligence, I don't think she saw it as so bad. Think, what did it really do to the girls when it absorbed their magic? It made them a little tired for a few minutes before they were back to normal. That doesn't seem so dangerous.
Also, the ending was the one part I can actually say I loved. This Twilight has shown that, while intelligent, she doesn't have a lot in the way of common sense (a common trait for geniuses like her). She used the magic because of a combination of her dream being held hostage and peer pressure, which is harder to resist for some people than others.
What I loved about the scene was Twilight's desperate plea for help. Yes, she was weak willed, yes she was ignorant to the consequences of her actions, but that isn't completely her fault. Not everyone can be strong willed. Then, when she gives in and does what she was told, she's abandoned, left to be corrupted by wild magic.
Finally, I love the way they concluded Sunset Shimmer's character arc. Having her be the one to do for Twilight what Princess Twilight did for her was amazing.
My personal opinion, it was good. Was it as good as Rainbow Rocks? Not at all. Was it as good as the first one? Yes and no. The over all story was better, but having such weak villains hurts it. I mean, seriously, Principle Sombra would have been so much better. At least Sugarcoat had some funny lines.
Wasted potential pisses me off like you wouldn't believe. I can't help but wonder if they replaced the people who made Rainbow Rocks or something. It makes no sense producing something so incredibly bleh after RR, just boggles the mind. There's a lesson to be learned with this flop and I pray to god that someone on the EQG staff figures that out.
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At the point where it summoned the plant monster, there is no excusing her behavior regarding the device. Hell, even at the point where it opened a portal, any rational human being, common sense or no, would not keep that thing around their neck. I firmly stand by my position that this negligence was hurtful to the credibility of the movie as a whole. There is no way that these were understandable actions. That is extremely dangerous and it makes absolutely no sense that Twilight would willingly allow this thing to interfere when she knows what it can do.
When you put this into the context that this power can kill people, there is no possible way you can argue that her use for it in the end was somehow justified and that Twilight would willingly do this. The way they treated the incident in general and the events thereafter completely destroy any credibility this movie once had with me.
Also, Sunset Shimmer really didn't get any arc conclusion she didn't already get in Rainbow Rocks. She already redeemed herself by being the one to finally defeat the sirens with the help of her friends, the duality of this scene to the first movie was honestly unnecessary to her character arc, and didn't actually accomplish anything satisfying in that regard. Like I said, there really was no character growth at all here.
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They changed the only writer from Meghan McCarthy to Josh Haber. Probably not the only thing, but there definitely is a distinct difference in the quality of writing from the first two movies to this one. I will never understand how anyone could ever think this movie was better than either of those. This one was the worst by far.
Human!Twi created a device that could detect and drain magic, and yet she didn't think to install a simple 'off' switch. Just brilliant. That magic detector was my biggest source of annoyance in this movie.
Holy, after thinking it over a few more times, I've decided to retract what I said to you previously. This movie is not better than the first one. It's worse, just as you describe. I still stand by my statement that the entire first movie collapses in on itself upon even cursory examination of Sunset's plan, but I'll readily grant that it's at least watchable if one chooses to ignore that.
At least it felt like stuff was happening in the first movie. In this one, it barely feels like anything happened at all (which is weird, considering there was a multidimensional threat).
3468898 Me too.
Somebody predicted that Twilight would be evil in this movie and I said if they did that it would be completely stupid and almost fan pandering to do it and then I heard about that scene in the movie and I was like "Yep, I made the right choice never following this series".
3468961 Easily the worst of the three to be sure. Though I suppose a good bit of my disappointment can be blamed on me expecting something more, but after Rainbow Rocks can you blame me?
Wow, I'm outta touch.
Didn't even know about this movie.
Now I kinda wanna see it, and the compare my opinion to your review.
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I was optimistic after RR as well. After all, it was such a massive and total improvement over the first movie. Shame they couldn't keep it up.
First I'd like to say I enjoyed watching Friendship Games. Next I'd like to say it was a terrible, poorly-timed, poorly-executed, non-story piece of crap.
I love Sunset Shimmer (ever since the first movie*) and I felt like she got shafted at every turn. In spite of a short showing her hands-on attempts to solve the magic questions, this movie makes it look like she just writes whiny letters to Princess Twilight begging for answers. I said the same thing about her getting the math question wrong (and I finally justified it to myself that when I get pumped on adrenaline I make stupid mistakes doing simple math) - she didn't have to get the problem wrong for Twilight to win.
And she doesn't even check her answer or anything, so I don't think she really even cared.In spite of being the first rider off the line, she falls behind quickly and is the only one to be dislodged from her bike. She reasonably blows a fuse a not-so-innocent Twilight for messing with dangerous things, but is forced to feel guilty for making her cry? Twi should cry! And what absolute crap that magic-Twilight was only defeated because Spike got her attention! Sunset knows what magic is and how it works on some level. (Also justified to myself that Sunset didn't want to hurt her.) I just felt every interaction between Sunset and Twilight in this had kind of a subtle Twilight > Sunset vibe.Oh, and I think if anyone might've learned something and grown as a character, Sunset got a teeny bit of 'I got this friendship thingy down, I can make my own friends now!' going for her
Who the hell arranges these events?? In the yearbook (or whatever) they show a year with 3 separate, simple sports. This time, it's a decathlon, then a relay, then a flag hunt? Even if it weren't for the magical intervention that stopped the games, a flag hunt would be the lamest follow-up for motocross. (I missed where you noted this point earlier, but I angered too much to delete this.)
Twilight seems to accept magic - a thing foreign to her world and not what she was expecting - a bit readily for a hardcore scientist. Then for freaking out and running away from a talking dog (I'll give it a pass since it's her dog whom she knows doesn't usually talk), she shifts to getting over it upon entering the school.
Twilight is too stupid for words... but what about the girls who know she sucks up magic like a ShamWow and keep walking over to her? Rainbow Dash - stahp, wateru doin. FFS she walks right up to Twilight while ponied up. Also, for the Everton thing, I got the impression it was a different high school, if Twilight was considering transferring there... and what difference is an independent study from whatever-the-hell she was doing by herself in that lab?
Shadowbolts... I want to like them - I do. But there's nothing to like or dislike. The writers just threw all the characters that were ever widely disliked into Crystal Prep uniforms and introduced 5 characters not associated with anything so they could have a blank slate. Having them as anti-element foils would've been brilliant, but they didn't get anything for screentime (back to those events - why bother having 12 students from each school if half of them get dropped after one event? I felt robbed because even in song there could've been visual representation of their individual personalities) to establish anything.
Actually, I hoped really hard to see the Shadowbolts each show the downside of an unfiltered element (eg: Sugarcoat is what you get when you're too honest) but not even that's the case since it almost parodies the element bearers themselves (eg: Indigo Zap is RD without friends).
I hate that Twilight changed over to CHS
other than the fact I'm sure it gave principal who-gives-a-shit a fucking conniption fit.What's the point of showing a redemption moment for the Shadowbolts if she's not going back with them? (It all feels contrived, since Twi says she's the one that doesn't belong, the other students all seem to get along well enough with each other. hell I could see no one cheering for her when she wins because they all hate her for being stuck up.) The ending would've been infinitely better if the 'evil' 5 girls were seen talking toor fuck, idc,waving goodbye to Twilight (personally I would've preferred their presence at the post-credit picnic scene).Strange timing, having FG air the same day as the 'Princess Twilight is bored out of her mind' episode, but considering how far back it got pushed, could it have been on purpose? I saw a lot of little similarities between the two and it may have hurt my feelings. (idk I was some kind of upset.)
* I think her 'take over Equestria' plan could've worked: She mind-controlled them, so their equine bodies could've been a moot point if she had that high of a degree of control. I mostly imagine the ponies not wanting to hurt innocent victims of a mind-altering spell. Plus she had the raw magical powers of Celestia and Luna. So maybe it's not perfect, but for an ambush that starts inside the castle, it's got a shot of catching the Princesses off-guard.
I'm glad you wrote this review, great points to consider ^__^
Thank goodness
Also, when I saw the deleted scenes, it almost broke my heart completely that they threw out that subplot! Especially since it had very little actual conflict with the current movie other than the ending pretty much.
Also also loved how Fluttershy was like "magical problems aren't the only important ones", and then the rest of the movie is magic and magic related problems. It SOUNDED like foreshadowing into how non-magic it'd be, but actually it was
Dio all alonga "what could possibly go wrong" moment where you're supposed to expect something to go wrong.I WAS originally going to rank them RR > FG > EQG1, but in light of this review making me think more, combined with my own notes on how I felt about the movie, I
mightam re-ranking them as such. RR > EQG1 > FGBecause you are right, in most of the movies, people react reasonably. Here they react so nonplussed, so ignorant of the gravity of the situation until it literally explodes in their faces.
Also where my Dazzlings at?
I'm actually relieved that someone shares my opinion on Friendship Games. It definitely wasn't as good as the last two... I don't know what happened. :/
All you said is correct. But I don't think it was that terrible. Sunset was great. One song was nice. The gang was lovable as always. And....yeah that's pretty much it. But that has to count for something.
Funny, when the trailer first came out, I was the only one to say, "Yeah, this looks bad." Vindication! And I knew right off the bat that Twilight would be the downfall of this movie. First of all, I'm mighty tired of her hogging the screen time. It's the third movie where she is listed as the main protagonist. But she was not the main protagonist in RR, and she is not even a protagonist here. It's just that Hasbro is so used to her heralding everything MLP that they just can't let Sunset take her place. And that is so painfully evident from all the deleted scenes, which were all Sunset scenes. But worse than that is just how bad this Twilight really is. She is more of a wuss than Flattershy. And she is friendless again. Why did we need that? We already saw her friendless in the first season of MLP. They went the same rout. But here, she is not likable, she is pathetic. All I can feel for her is pity. I really hoped they would make her a villain. It would have made so much sense, and it would be interesting. She could be a classical mad scientist, or just a selfish person out to prove that Equestria exists and gain fame.
As to the deleted subplot, I'm hoping they are saving it for the 4th one in order to fully develop.
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Honestly, even when not comparing it to Rainbow Rocks, I still couldn't enjoy this movie. So I can't really blame you.
This entire review actually opened my eyes regarding certain aspects of the movie that slipped right by me. Very interesting stuff.
Regarding your mention of how Princess Twilight had no reason to not show up, she explains in the stinger that she was caught in some sort of time-loop, which can only be assumed to be a reference to the season finale (she describes it as "honestly the strangest experience of [her] life"). This would put Friendship Games after season five in the chronology, meaning that Twilight's frustration in "Made in Manehatten" has no bearing on this film.
Also, I like the way most of the Princesses look in the EqG films, it feels... realistic for high school administrators. I say most because I feel like Luna should be skinnier and I don't much like her shirt.
...Is no one ever going to realize that high school level competition archery doesn't have moving targets?
Because high school level competition archery doesn't have moving targets. Ever. Regular competition archery doesn't even have moving targets. Skill shooting does. But that's skill shooting. And it's actually pretty dangerous if you've never done it before.
It's like telling someone that does a lot of shooting at indoor gun ranges to shoot a bird out of the sky. It's not gonna happen without a bit of guidance.
But yeah that motocross was bullshit. Mountain bike racing, yeah, that would make more sense. The speed skating and obstacle course archery thing kind of barely make sense. It's a challenge shot at the end of the hurdles and then an extremely exhausting sprint race... Followed by bullshit motocross with cool looking bikes. I really like those designs.
I enjoyed the movie. It was entertaining for me and I at least thought it was on par with the others. To each their own cup of tea, I say.
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Yet Applejack and Sour Sweet had no problems going after the moving targets, meaning they actually had some experience with it. Since Sour Sweet got her experience from the exact same place that Twilight did, and apparently Twilight had the highest grade in the class, I'm not really buying that she had to be shown this.
3470358 Touché. Maybe Sour Sweet does do skill shooting. I got nothing on A.J. Maybe she's just a badass. In RR, she did stop a punch from Rainbow Dash without even looking (In the Sugarcube Corner scene). Could be a thing. Could be not a thing. Also, Sour shot three arrows in a vertical pattern, which kind of leads me to believe she's into skill shooting. Kind a hard to miss a spread shot, too. Shoulda been a rule against that.
Why didn't they make Sombra the principle and the Shadow Bolts Lightning Dust (seriously? a re-color?), Suri Polomare, Coco Pommel, Cheese Sandwich, Twilight and someone for Applejack?
I like your breakdown of the movie. I honestly think the alternate ending and the Sunset Shimmer arc were very poor choices to cut out of this movie. The Duet is pretty cool too.
Oh well, write some cool fanfiction exploring Sunsets lost arc, I know I want to.
I'm not going to go into a long winded discussion about the EQG movie series, but I was surprised that you liked the first but not the third.
But then again, everyone has their opinions.
Personally, I think Rainbow Rocks was the best.
AND NO ONE CAN DISAGREE WITH ME!
You know, I love Friendship Games. It's one of my favorite movies. But I still enjoyed reading this, and that's impressive. The points here are logical and well organized.
I went into reading this knowing what a big Sunset fan you are, and thinking I'd disagree with you. I saw Friendship Games once and only once, and assumed it giving Sunset a bit more depth would be its one lasting achievement, and so guessed you'd like it.
But I completely agree with you, in everything you say. The pendant thing. I just couldn't get over it, and as a result have loathed Sci-Twi ever since. Which has to some extent poisoned the installments that followed, too. It's the joy on her face as Fluttershy is nice to her, and then she just lets it take Fluttershy's magic and does nothing to stop it from continuing to do that again and again.
And the Shadowbolts could have been good, if they'd had ten times as much time on screen. They're often done quite well in fan fiction, where people can expand on them massively. But they really should have learned from Rainbow Rocks, where Aria didn't get her name spoken aloud as one of three antagonists, and instead this movie had seven.
And, just as you say, the Sunset arc doesn't actually do anything that the end of Rainbow Rocks didn't already achieve. I found it jarring how the message behind the second film was that being too competitive can be damaging to friendships, and yet here the good guys were singing about how they'd win and talking about how it wouldn't matter unless Crystal Prep felt like they'd lost.
I'm really glad I read this review of yours. I'd thought it was just me who was this bothered by it.
So with the hindsight of what the later stuff is like, how would you have made Friendship Games a better movie?