Again with the movie (and again with the spoilers!) · 8:13pm Oct 12th, 2017
It appears that I (completely inadvertently) managed to convey the entirely wrong impression about the feature film with my last blog post, and in retrospect this is understandable; I detailed a handful of things I didn't like and then said, very quickly, that I liked it very much anyway without saying why due to time constraints on my part. "I liked (x) despite its flaws" is almost textbook damning with faint praise. So let me go into a few specifics of why I liked this movie:
-Capper. Expected Sassy Black Friend, instead got fscking Pony Lando Calrissian. He was fabulous. His apartment was fabulous. His song was fabulous. His final outfit was two-snaps-midair fabulous. If anyone can make Rarity's giant hats look good, it's Capper.
-Tempest. OMFG Tempest. Not waifu or anything, but she succeeded in Childhood Trauma Feels in the way Starlight Glimmer's presentation absolutely didn't. The animation style change worked wonderfully. Loved Emily Blunt's performance, loved the character design, loved that she wasn't magically "fixed" in the end and learned to love the damaged creature she was. Yeah, I just spoiler-blocked in a spoiler-protected post. It's spoilerception, beaytches.
-Sets. Canterlot was different than show-style, but gorgeous. The abandoned city atop Mt. Aris was gorgeous. The seapony enclave was two-snaps-midair gorgeous.
-Liev Schrieber. If there was anything this film needed, it was about four times as much this guy. This overlaps with my previous blog where I was complaining about his lack of nuance, which in my mind, went hand in hand with his lack of screen time, and I think fixing one problem would've fixed the other. I was delighted by the moments we got of him.
-Sia/Songbird of all people. I went in expecting a vaguely mush-mouthed obligatory pop singer presence but she ended up in just a few subtle moments becoming everything Shakira in Zootopia wasn't. Sorry, all love to you, Shakira.
-Pinkie Pie MOST of the time. Other than the moment where she became impulsive enough to verge on troublingly suicidal (and I'm not referring to the moment you think I am) I really dug her characterization, and the script gave her a lot to do.
-Spike was everything I wanted him to be and more.
-Tabitha St.G. was on-point as always.
-Fscking airship combat, finally! I love me some airship combat. Okay, so I'm biased on this one. Just because I'm biased doesn't mean it doesn't go on my like-list.
So, there we go,
So... what scene am I thinking of, and what scene are you thinking of, with Pinkie Pie?
What moment are you referring to?
And yeah, I've been digging Sia's song and the fact that it's about Tempest (Who again gets more characterization in her prequel comic and apparently also her chapter book.) I've been digging the music in general. I wish most the songs (other than the festival of friendship and open your eyes ones) were about 30 seconds longer each. Actually in general the movies could have stood to use about 10 more minutes and several hundred more background characters and details. They pulled off a lot though on what I imagine was a fairly small budget.
4695884, 4695886
I suspect you're thinking of the cannon shot or the screaming descent from the water wheel. I'm thinking of her pursuit of the fleeing Skystar.
I can't believe I needed you to point out to me that Capper was Lando. As soon as you read it it feels really obvious.
Agree on Liev Schrieber, I thought the Storm King was a fantastic affable villain. Part of this is based on his fantastic comics appearance, but anyone who wants their evil plans to be "on brand" is someone I want to see more of.
And Spike was fantastic for that final scene, where for the first time in 7 years the fire-breathing dragon was properly deployed against enemies.
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Also when Twilight was captured. They were trying to hold Spike hostage (and it kind of worked) but then he set his captor on fire and freed himself, in the background.
I was impressed that Pinkie's outbursts avoided the screechiness that plagues her appearances after season 1. It's a subtle thing, but I bet they spent a lot of time making sure to get it just right.
You gotta respect everyone's opinions about this movie. There's a lot to love, and a lot that was left on the table. It just depends on your priorities.
4695904 I remember that, and thought it was cool for like ten minutes until they topped it with Capper and Spike going at it like Ripley in Aliens and driving off half the Storm King's army. Pretty sure one of those minions burned right up too.
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I try to see all viewpoints as best I can, and certainly don't begrudge anyone feeling either good or bad about this. Just didn't want people to have the wrong idea about what I myself felt.
This was definitely a pleasant surprise. That scene where we cut back to her in a cage, and she and Twilight make... well, not eye contact...
All amazingly great points, yeah, the great things about the movie far outweigh the issues it has. The visuals were so stunning, the music was amazing, the characters vibrant, the guests nailed it. (Well minus Grubber, but not much to do with that character). Even if the story has a lot of logical holes about why ponies couldn't fight back, or where all the rest of... the entire world was while Stormy was fucking with the being that controls the sun itself and on whose well being the entire world depends. It's like a Micheal Bay movie, don't over think it, just enjoy. Just rather then over the top action and military porn, it's an amazing overdose of warmth, humor, and friendship.
4695886 Yeah, aside from the issue of nerfing everypony not named 'Tempest Shadow" into being more or less useless, that's really the single biggest thing with the story, it really needed another 10-15 minutes of run time to really spend time building up the connections the ponies made on their journey better.
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Count me in as well for finding surprising levels of enjoyment of Sia in this. TBH I'd never heard of her before the MLP movie but I was impressed with what we got. I was expecting a bargain-basement check-the-box celeb appearance, and what we got was more on-par with RaRa's episode.
rumors that I now have a build-a-bear of Songbird on my desk staring at me right now are absolutely a lie
Tempest might not be prime-cut waifu material, but Capper's cornered the market on husbandos. Any dude that can rock a coat and one of Rarity's giant hats is 10-10 in Patch's book.
Isn't this a much better conversation?
Kudos.
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I like them both, for different reasons.
I found Pinkie's characterization equal parts amazing and troubling. This was not fun for her. This was so not fun that as the movie went on, her continued survival seemed to factor less and less in her decisions until she was blasting herself out of a cannon with the apparent reasoning of "This will either save the day or kill me, and either way this will be over." Even so, she was incredible in this one.
And while I've never seen anyone liken Capper to Lando, it seems staggeringly obvious in hindsight.
It's not that I disliked the movie -- I expected more from it. If the show hadn't spoiled me, I probably would've thought a lot more of the movie. That said, there are plenty of good things about this movie, and it would be worth a second viewing on DVD.
Of course she's not my waifu.
She's Twilight's.
4695925
Bangs contact. A battle for the ages. Princes Twilight challenged for her position by a pop star!
I mean, she was the only one other than Twilight to get decent characterization and stuff to do, so...
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No, I was thinking of what you were. It was kinda... spooky actually.
Should have had Twilight talking about how "friendship will see us through" "friendship means hope is alive" etc. on the first half of the journey, constantly having her idealism buffeted by counter-examples, taking her to the breaking point where she does the thing.
It felt like it was cut for time. I bet Fluttershy would have had more to do on their way through the forest at the start.
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Yes!
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Sorry, I was just not anticipating being hyped. I was unprepared.
Well, you've sold me on the movie now.
I'm glad you liked it. ^.^ And whoever else did too. I...did not. I won't bother getting into specifics. I'll just say: it was like having an awkward dinner with my best friends at a snazzy restaurant. They're my friends, I enjoy them, Joe made a great joke here, Kate had some interesting things to say there, as always. And the restaurant was flashy and pretty to look at, and I'll always go out with my friends and will always love them. But I never wanna repeat that dinner, it wasn't fun for any of us, and I know we can have a better time, because we have many times before. Thank goodness I didn't bring anyone new along.
I know that wasn't everyone's experience, and I envy them. :)
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100% with you on that.