Remeber my first review?

 

 

 

*Warning: few "spoilers" ahead"

 

Okay... Okay... *sighs*

 

I'll be honest. I didnt love it. And I have to activate my inner brony to say that I don't hate it either. I'm just caught in the middle. Or below. If it was the 66th episode, i'd give it a place in my personal bottom 33.

 

I'm sorry.

 

I can't call it outstanding, or really good, or something like that. I really can't. I'm disappointed. I was cheerful after the second trailer sank into my mind. I tought "Well, this might not be great, but atleast a bumpy yet joyful ride. Good, but not great". And now my expectations have been belied.

 

I'll start from the most objective point of view that's possible for me.

 

And that is the critic.

 

From technical point of view it was somewhere in the upper middle. Animations not bad, writing good enough to make it feel fluently, but yet a bit too rushed. Songs were average. Texts okay, but the music was quite generic. But then I have to stick to my personal rating system. And I will use it here as well as when I come to my brony-point-of-view.

 

Idea:

A Highschool setting. One could easily say that this is necessarily bad because most movies with that premise are mediocre to bad. But that's the wrong idea. It can grant the movie the possibility of showing non-cliche conflicts.

Interdimensional travel. Well, can argue about that, but what do you expect if Hasbro wants Highschool combined with the sucess of Friendship is Magic. I have to commiserate with the writers here. Bad, forced idea-crossing.

But the real problem is: I have to look at the movie seperated from the show here. And then I can only say that it is just a Highschool movie, cut down to be watchable for a bigger audience. Inconsistent. But expected. Thanks, marketing.

 

3/7

 

Plot:

 

The idea that Twilight Sparkle has to fit in the setting first and that the focus on the setting itself - I mean waht everyone might fear: the cliches - is actually the best part. But then comes the bad. The plotline follows the classic setting; but in an slightly altered way. Not too cliche but a bit "meh". And with fantasy/magic, of course. The good jokes outweight some of the inconsistences. And the fact that the generic "Mr-Good-Looking" can easily be ignored here, make something right. They help to compensate the slightly rushed and underexplaned plotline.

 

4/7

 

Style:

Average pop songs combined with a partial High-School-Musical setting, a demon-transformation and a lesson that fits poorly into the run time of the movie in the way it is presented. Taking a well elaborated series and putting it into something half-tweenesque. I would call it a mistake. And I'm running out of words here.

 

2/7

 

Total critic (NON-brony) score: 9/21 (7 is the minimum to be considered as "acceptable". Everything above 17 is the outstanding stuff.)

 

So, now to my brony-point-of-view.

 

Idea:

Highschool? Humans? Alternate Reality? Really? Okay, let's just skip that. It's awful.

Crown stolen, Twilight as a princess not that ungrounded (yet?) and a former student that is the bad guy? I like it.

 

6/7

 

Plot:

 

Rushed. But yet comprehensible. Someway. Bringing friendship to alternate reality selves and then get the crown back so everything can be just as ever now with alicorn Twilight. Good. Half baked "FlashLight"? Even though most likely not in season four... just, just no. Not Fitting to the concept of the show. Some plotholes and forced plotline. Willing suspension of disbelief suffers.

 

4/7

 

Style:

 

You took the bun, Hasbro, or whoever is responsible. Making the setting yet too cliche in the end by not actvely acting against the cliches, turning Spike into a dog and forced, simplified side blows against modern society by forcing the characters we know and love into it; Really? I thought we could overcome the stereotypes. Not do something that gives ammuniton to the haters. And don't try to compensate that with shout-outs. I'm a brony, not a fanatic.

 

1/7

 

Total brony score: 11 (Yeah, but 1/7 in style)

 

I don't want you to get me wrong here. My system is not perfect, it's just the way I feel like I have to rate something like a movie.

I really wanted to watch the movie in the end. I hoped that my fears would be allayed. They weren't. Sorry. I can't. I simply can't rate this movie better.

 

The simple fact that it is set in something that we all can better judge because it is not totally artificial makes it impossible for me to say "This is a part of Friendship is Magic".

The fact that FiM is set in a fictional world, has fictional beings in it, makes it - in combination with human conflicts and subjects - so outstanding to me. I can sink in and ignore my differences with the ideas transmitted in the show because my willing suspension of disbelief and my ideals allow me to say "This is not your culture. It is not even your species, Yes, it is created by humans and therefore has humanity and human ideas in it, but I can ignore that because it tells me something that I like in a way that I like."

 

But Highschool in general is not artificial and not fictional enough. I can't watch it with the same eyes as FiM. I can't. And now I will simply try to forget about the movie. I might watch it again, but not because I really liked it.

 

I hope this doesn't predict how season four will be. I know, McCarthy is a good writer and she svaed the movie from being in my "crap-of-the-crap-list". But even good execution can't compensate bad content. At least not for me.

 

You might say that I'm wrong, but this is my point of view and I will not rant about Equestria Girls in the future. I will simply try to ignore it. Just fo you to understand me.

 

Thank you for your attention.

 

P.S. Whoever wonders, how I, a german, sitting in Germany was able to watch it... Well, that's up to your imagination.

 

 

 

And guess what? I rewatched the movie.

And now I have only one thing to say.

 

I feel ashamed.

 

Yes. I supressed my initial

while writing this review. Maybe there is truth in it, but right now I'm very confused. I wouldn't say I love the movie. Or do I? I don't know. I just came to the conclusion that I can rather like and accept it than to dislike and ignore it. I still see some, or many things, that bug me in it. But I focused on those. And not on the actual good things. Or, to be precisely, my basic "liking" of ponies was supressed in that moments.

 

I am sorry that I really wasted space on the internet by posting that. But I will not edit it, so it can either be deleted or just stay there as an example of what rather uncontrolled emotions and a focus on negatives can cause. This shall not be an excuse. I think I'm just quite more emotional than I like to admit to myself. And I don't ask for forgivness, in case I offended you in any way.

 

So now, review "totally" revised.

 

The best thing is that it actually does feel like kind of an episode of the show. Not the best one, yes; but the goods outweight the bads. Voice-acting, characterization and humor. These are the best things about the movie. Period.

 

It still doesn't feel fitting to see the characters in Highschool. But it works in some way and when Twilight returns to Equestria, it feels like coming home. A weird but entertaining, yet sometimes rushed and forced adventure. Some of the sideblows on modern society weren't really necessary, because they were only half-baked. The songs are very pop-like, but that is maybe just me who doesn't like generic pop and expected something closer to the songs in the show.

 

And the cliches were there because they were shown but not really done away with. And especially the parts with Flash Sentry could have been much better and the movie could have needed twenty minutes more screentime.

 

But still...

 

I can't deny the fanservice in it. All the references to previous stuff in the show works. I don't know if that means that they hadn't more ideas than "Recycle the whole thing, add a few spices and mix it with Highschool". Right now it just tastes like a stew cooked out of last weeks stuff. But the best stuff. I know that nostalgia doesn't replace quality. Hay, someone who doesn't even know the show and watches it will most likely call it nothing better than being of the quality of a Direct-to-DVD Disney movie. But that doesn't need to interest us here.

 

It isn't flawless. Nothing is. Not me, not us, not the writers. But the staff from DHX made the best out of the... marketing-scheme. Let's face it. We are all biased about the franchise, because we like it. Some keep optimistic, no matter what - and that really impresses me in a good way - and others will never find anything permanent negative in anything that the staff does. And that's okay. It's just human.

 

I for myself should just stop writing things under the influence of anger. Lesson learned. Thank you again, FiM.

 

Right now, I can only summarize the movie as the shout-out/reference/good-but-not-really-outstanding piece of entertainment that it is for me right now. And that is enough for being an improvement to my previous opinion. And enough to be watched by every brony out there. Just an advice from someone who needed to rewatch it to clear his open but sometimes very cloudy mind.

 

Idea 5/7

Plot 5/7

Style 5/7

 

Total score: 15/21

 

 

Okay, okay...

 

Brony Bonus: +2

 

Total score: 17/21

 

(Well played again, mind. And I feel so much better right now)

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