Rate the Equestria Girls Movies

[Feather Scribbles 194]

On a scale of 1 to 10, what would you rate the following Equestria Girls movies?:

 

- My Little Pony: Equestria Girls (original)

- Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks

- Equestria Girls: Friendship Games

- Equestria Girls: Legend of Everfree

[Randimaxis 8,633]

EQG: A solid 8/10

RR: A decent 7/10

FSG: A tad heavy-handed.  6/10

LoE: Cute.  8/10

[Cahead2015 72]

1) rainbow rocks

2) legend of everfree

3) friendship games

4) original

[Dark Qiviut 22,173]

• EQG1: A well-written Spike doesn't save it from being a complete disaster. Nothing about this film makes any sense at all, from the setting to how Sunset broke up the RM5 (as if she knew they were bearers of magic, when she couldn't have) to Sunset being the series' worst villain. After the interrogation scene between VP Luna and Twilight (the worst scene in the series), DHX gave up writing a coherent plot. The final battle is lazy, and Sunset had her personality reset by a DEM. Until Infamy & Mistake-in-Writing, it was the show's worst written "episode."
  
  Score: 1/10
  Grade: F
   
• RR: The plot is much tighter with much better pacing. The climax and music are fantastic. The kitchen scene with TS and SS is the best in the spinoff. But there are still major problems here. The RM5 are more default here than in EQG1 (Dash and AJ being OOC). The comedy is terrible; much of it is centered on very abusive humor targeting Sunset. Sunset's journal is a major contrivance, because she wanted nothing to do with Celestia when she departed from the academy, and it popped up at just the right time to move the conflict. It handwaved continuity established from EQG1. When Twilight left, their magic departed, too, and it doesn't explain at all why the music was able to recharge their ability to "pony up." Secondly, the last film has strict magic, in which it only opens for three nights "every thirty moons," but the movie creates such an asspull that Twilight could open the portal anytime she can. This is also on top of very flat villains, how the HM7 could escape the stage if they actually decided to pull it the whole time, and Sunset's whole arc backed by a reset. Is it better than EQG1? Definitely. Is it good? Definitely not. 
  
  Score: 3/10
  Grade: D
   
• FG: What a train wreck. This whole paints CHS as entirely good and the underdog, and Crystal Prep the dominant and bad guys. Instead of subverting this cliche, the film amps this up by having everyone be a complete asshole to Twilight, including having SA convince her to participate for the good of the school, and Principal Cinch bribing her by holding her recommendation letter to Everton hostage. Cinch is a stereotypically image-obsessed boss attached as the evil principal. The Games is a complete ripoff of a Goblet of Fire (three events in one day to determine the winner), but what makes it worse is Event #2: Four teens have to take part in motocross, one of the world's most dangerous sports, without any preparation whatsoever. That's reckless and stupid! But during the event, Twilight's gadget went haywire, causing tentacles to be released from portals, but nobody was concerned about the fans' and participants' safeties, and only evacuated AFTER the race was over. Then the scene was all but forgotten with both sides more concerned about the validity of Canterlot's win. I didn't even talk about the BS in Twilight turning into the evil Midnight Sparkle or how the HM6's ponying abilities were never actually resolved. It sucks.
  
  Score: 2/10
  Grade: F
   
• LoE: Only watched the first few minutes, but was too bored to care. Haven't returned, and I don't care to finish it.

Edited October 21, 2017 by Dark Qiviut

[Ganondorf8 11,118]

I prefer to use percentages when it comes to me scoring things--it's a penchant of mine--so I'll do so here.

• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls = 55%
• Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks = 86%
• Equestria Girls: Friendship Games = 90%
• Equestria Girls: Legend of Everfree = 95%

[Toon4Thought 273]

Equestria Girls 1 - Most of the movie plays out fine considering the concept, and a lot of the ideas brought up are truly interesting, but none of them are ever fully fleshed out and the third act takes such a weird shift in direction that it's hard to remain invested - 6/10

Rainbow Rocks - The beginning is rather uneven, and a few seemingly big plot points are kind of pushed aside, but by the time Princess Twilight comes in things really pick up in virtually every regard, all culminating in a really effective and unique climax - 8.5/10

Friendship Games - They did the best job they could given the story and runtime, but it comes at the expense of some elements being overly simplified or just underwhelming. Still, the Sci-Twi plot is handled quite well and there's still a lot of things to like - 7/10

Legend of Everfree - The story seems fairly uninteresting at first, but the execution is the most consistent and least flawed of the four. Twilight and Sunset are both written really well, the new powers add a lot of intrigue (especially with the other main characters), and its main conflict avoids being black-and-white like the others - 8/10

[Thrond 3,257]

Just the movies? Okay:

Equestria Girls - 6/10. It's pleasant enough, captures the main characters' charms pretty well, and has a nice moral, but there's too much cringe comedy, and very little of it makes any sense at all. The songs are nice but kinda forgettable in my opinion, and one or two of them add to the secondhand embarrassment, which I just find unpleasant. People like to say it's a parody of these high school tropes, but while I don't think it's entirely cliched, I do think it's too dumb to be successful satire. 

Rainbow Rocks - 8/10. A touch simple, but I adore the songs, I adore both Sunset's and Twilight's character arcs, the jokes are generally fantastic, the Sirens are thoroughly entertaining villains, and it retains the upbeat tone of the first while adding a boatload more polish. I genuinely feel like, aside from the mane six being at times annoying and the pacing being a little slack, any complaints to be had about this one are nitpicks. 

Friendship Games - TBD, previously 7/10. Kind of a mess, with story elements which are never resolved and other elements which are poorly explained or come out of nowhere. But it's also downright bizarre, with freaking high school motocross among other things, the songs have grown on me a lot, and the purpose of several elements has made more sense to me the more I thought about them. It's a shame that Sunset's arc was removed, but Twilight is fascinating, and I think there's a lot of thematic ambition here which might be clarified for me on (yet another) re-watch. 

Legend of Everfree - 4/10. Total snoozefest which doesn't even have the good grace to be thematically coherent. There's some nice ideas in here, and I like that it's shooting for a warm bonding vibe, but it basically eschews everything which makes these films interesting, the jokes are mostly rubbish, the characterization is poor around the board, and the main plot falls flat because it can't be bothered to explain how we're supposed to feel about Midnight Sparkle. The songs are nice but I can't imagine myself getting past the lyrics, which would inevitably remind me of how boring the actual movie is. 

[strangepigeon 31]

It's been a while since I watched some of these films, but I'll rate them anyway.

I think I would have to give it about a 6 out of 10. I don't really think it's as bad as others think it is. Now compared to the newer films it is sort of boring. It's just your average animated movie set in a high school, but with ponies.

I really, really love Rainbow Rocks. The songs are amazing (I actually bought the soundtrack I loved them so much), the villains were interesting, and the animation looked amazing. The designs for the Dazzlings looked really good. Sunset was also awesome in this film! I would give it an 8 out of 10.

Friendship Games was also good, but I don't know if it was as good as Rainbow Rocks. The songs were almost on par with the ones in Rainbow Rocks. It was more colourful than the other two films, but probably only to promote the toys. Twilight's human version had a good story arc, but the other new characters from Crystal Prep didn't really do much other than be background characters. I think it deserves a 7 out of 10.

Legend of Everfree had a few good songs, but most of them sounded the same. Maybe I just don't like that type of music as much. I found it less interesting, probably because I hate camping. The new villain was cool, but she was just a repeat of Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle's evil forms. It was just another one of those kids films that happens to be set in a camp. I think it still deserves maybe a 6.5 or 7 out of 10, though. 

I actually watched the first Equestria Girls movie before I properly started watching the show. It kind of encouraged me to start watching the show. I know it is just a generic high school series made to sell crappy dolls, but I still love it. Sunset Shimmer has really grown on me, now she is one of my favourite ponies in the entire franchise!

[bigbertha 410]

 Equestria Girls: -8/10 -   I go by JelloApocalypse's scale so a negative number means ironic enjoyment. This is a bad movie with a mess of a plot, but it's still very entertaining. It has the most charm of any of the EQG movies and by far the best jokes. The entire movie, I'm either laughing at the jokes or the terrible story.

 Rainbow Rocks: 4/10 -  While a few jokes work and the songs are the best of all the movies, the entire thing was very dull. Sunset went from generic bully to            generic hero with all of her character development happening offscreen between movies. While certain scenes ("Awesome as I Want to Be") are up there with the best of the movies, as a whole, this movie was boring.

Legend of Everfree: 3/10- The only thing this movie has going for it is Gloriosa being a decent antagonist. Everything is else is even more boring than "Rainbow Rocks". Unlike the other movies, which all have moments that really stand out, I can't think of anything that stood out here. It feels the most cynically only doing the bare minimum.

Friendship Games: 2/10- Wow. What a mess. Everything about this movie feels underdeveloped and not thought out. The explanations for the "pony up" power are really stupid and the comedy is almost nonexistent. The only thing I liked in the movie was the "Unleash the Magic" scene. For the rest of the movie, I felt either bored or frustrated.

 

Edited July 22, 2018 by bigbertha

[KatonRyu 1,026]

Equestria Girls: 5/10
Sunset Shimmer had great potential as a villain, but she was a cardboard cutout, and a lot of the plot was incredibly flimsy, especially the shoehorned romance that every hgih school setting seems to be required by law to have. The reason my score isn't lower is because I genuinely liked the music in it and I didn't hate watching it.

Rainbow Rocks: 8/10
I love Rainbow Rocks. Sunset went from terrible villain to one of my absolute favorite characters in this movie, plus it launched my new favorite ship, SunLight. The music was great, and especially the animation on the Dazzling songs was excellent. It doesn't get a perfect score, however, because the relationship between music and Equestrian magic is never once explained in the movie, and because the Hate Plague villains are a bit too much of a staple of the franchise as a whole, much as I like the Sirens as villains.

Friendship Games: 7/10
Good movie, though not as good as Rainbow Rocks. I like that this time, the plot is something smaller in scale than world domination, despite the mishaps with Sci-Twi's magic seeker device. Sunset is developed well as a character and I liked the mirroring between the climax of the first movie and the climax of this one, when Sunset confronts Midnight Sparkle. The music is once again excellent, especially the final part of Unleash the Magic. I do think it's too bad they didn't use the deleted scenes, where Twilight comes over from Equestria and she and Sunset discuss her situation, and where What More Is Out There is a duet between Sunset and Sci-Twi.

Legend of Everfree: 6/10
I was underwhelmed, really. Them getting magical powers, fine, but I don't think it was handled as well as it could have been. The music wasn't as good as it was in the earlier movies, either, though by no means bad. Gloriosa wasn't the most interesting villain, and I wasn't really a fan of the attempts at humor in this one. I still think it was a better movie than the first one, though not at the level of the other two, hence the score.

[Denim&Venöm 16,515]

Imma be using Overkill Reviews skull system for this, rating the films on a scale of  ☠☠☠☠☠

EQG- Rushed. Uninspired. Convoluted. Plot holes everywhere. Shortcuts taken in the world building. Makes me wonder what could've been done had DHX been given time to flesh this out.

Having said that, good animation. Good music. I like the designs. The cafeteria song is a mother bucking anthem. If this were an album, it'd have been bought for the single. But hey, it could've been worse. 

It could've looked like the toys.  

• ☠ and a half

RR- The darling hit, if only because expectations were so low. Took what was good about the last film and made it great. Music and animation were cranked up. No smash his like the Cafeteria song, but overall a better quality OST. Villains were more interesting and memorable. Jokes and references were funnier.

Sunsets instant reformation was a blemish on the last film, but they made the best of a bad situation and ran with the face turn, making the film a lot more interesting, and giving shimshim more dimension. And Twi was far more interesting in this, as was her chemistry with sunset.

Yes, the new portal totally took the piss out of the last movie and its stakes, nitpicks like FlutterShy just playing tamborine (what is this, woodstock?), Rarity playing Key-tar (a guitar hero controller is cooler), etc.

But overall, it was an enjoyable film, and I totally marked out at moments like LyraBon piano duet, the Sirens getting their own dark version of the rainboom's transformation and Sunset finally getting a transformation as well. Oh and her ditching the leather jacket to take things seriously. Oh and that post credits art. And that cliff hanger.

So nice I went to the theaters to see it twice. 

•  ☠☠☠☠

 

FG- This film had a lot to live up to. But while it wasn't the bomb, it was still explosive. Music wasn't as good as it's predecessor, but still better than the first. Animation was improved even more. Well done writing for both Sunset and Sci Twi.

Speaking of, Sci-Twi was written as everyone else in this series should have been: different to her pony counterpart. And having magic adversely affect the human realm? It shouldn't be a novel idea, but apparently it is. The film was also a little darker, more real and relatible. It wasn't just pony drama. The human element was at the forefront here.

Shame that couldn't be said for pretty much all of Crystal prep. Characters featured in the intro only get intermittent screen time and zero development. The cast of G3 had more personality than Crystal Prep. Such wasted potential. Pretty much this movie is saved by Sunset, Sci-Twi and the tonal shift from the prior two films, as well as the role reversal from the first film.

If those few pillars could carry the movie this far, imagine what could've been done had more time and effort been allowed. And they still didn't really answer where the Humane 7's magic came from.

• ☠☠☠ and a half

LoE- Probably the best example of character writing, development and interaction in the franchise. Flash Sentry was almost a 3 dimensional character, and they did a good job finally addressing his and Sunsets past. Not only that but they made a compelling romantic interest in Timber Spruce.  

Again, great animation. Love how DHX experimented with new outfits and designs. Music didn't really gel with me, though I'm not much of a folk person admittedly. A bigger issue though is that LoE didn't really know what it wanted to be. Did it want to be an SoL summer break story? A mystery? A dramedy? It kinda tried to be all of those things and didn't do well in any to be considered memorable.  

The Mane 7 getting powers was interesting, but it all felt like a vehicle just for Sunset to get hers and drive the plot forward. Waste of some good plot devices. The specter of Midnight Sparkle had immense potential and part of me thought we would be getting a villain fight between her and Gloriosa. Yet again, the potential was sacrificed just to shove Sci-Twi over her insecurities.   And the climax felt weak because of it, even compared to the original. 

All in all, LoE tries to do a bit too much. Some things it does very very right, but only just passable on everything else. 

• ☠☠ and a half. 

 

 

[Octavia Heartstrings 28,407]

EQG: 4/10

RR: 9/10

FG: 8/10

LoE: 7/10

[Misty Shadow 7,084]

4. Equestria Girls 7.5/10

3. Legend of Everfree 8/10

2. Friendship Games 8.5/10

1. Rainbow Rocks 9/10

If we were also including the two specials, Rollercoaster of Friendship would be tied with Everfree and Forgotten Friendship would be ranked closely to Rainbow Rocks.

[D.R Oatz 17]

EQG: 10

RR:  7

FSG:   5

LoE: 9

[Zetta 148]

I will join (as a newbie here................. very shy...)

 -Equestria Girls (original): 6 (nothing special for me)

- Rainbow Rocks: 8 (loved the music and the final, 'cause everyone worked together)

- Friendship Games: 7 (reminded me of my childhood years but I wanted a more deep plot about friendship...)

-Legend of Everfree: 6 (I don't agree that the boy sci-twilight is that awesome (but its only my opinion) and I expected a more deep plot between the sci-twilight to know how she managed to fit on after the friendship games film)

And that's all, hope it doesn't bother anyone and that.....

Edited August 22, 2018 by Zetta
Well, I saw the last film and wanted to share my opinion...

[Dreambiscuit 8,024]

1. Equestria Girls (original) 8.5/10. Lots of fun and it had novelty factor, being the first.

2. Legend of Everfree 8.25/10. I like what they did with the characters and the setting was nice.

3. Rainbow Rocks 8/10. Good fun, lots of music and plenty of characters (including background appearances by some favorites).

4. Friendship Games 7/10. I liked it, but something has to take the 4th place slot. 

[Frosty Mist 9]

Equestria Girls 7/10 Story was pretty good as Twi was a sort of fish out of water character. Songs were likable

RR  9/10 Better Fan service, Best Villains of the series and Best songs

Legend Of Everfree 5/10  Story and songs were pretty meh for me

Friendship Games 7/10 I liked the whole competition aspect of the plot, songs were also pretty good but kinda forgettable (except for Unleash the Magic)

 

[Buttonmash1973 1,024]

1. Rainbow Rocks

2. Friendship Games

3. EG

4. Legend of Everfree

[Sepul-Coloratura 756]

EQG : 2/10

Rainbow Rocks : 4/10

Friendship Games : 4/10

Legend of Everfree : 4/10

[Dark Qiviut 22,173]

On 10/21/2017 at 3:46 PM, Dark Qiviut said:

LoE: Only watched the first few minutes, but was too bored to care. Haven't returned, and I don't care to finish it.

Well, that changed earlier this year, didn't it? 

• LoE: This film has some really clear faults. Other than SciTwi, the rest of the HM7 are bland or flat. The worst, however, is Rarity: Her flanderized dialogue's fashion-related only. Other than the post-credit joke, the humor's really flat. Additionally, the first fifteen minutes or so are full of boring, clumsy exposition, and Filthy Rich was super-generic and out of character. But once it got going, it got better. Gloriosa Daisy was the best villain in EQG's whole series. Despite its inherently sloppy worldbuilding, it's able to close bits of the gap by having the HM7 embrace Equestrian magic and use it for good. Timber Spruce is Flash Sentry done right, and he and SciTwi have decent chemistry. Speaking of Flash, this is also his best appearance of the series and feels a lot like a character instead of a sexist stereotype. By moving EQG away from the restrictive high school setting, Legend of Everfree isn't bound by obnoxious clichés and stereotypes that pander to tween girls, taking advantage of the strengths this world has. Is it good? No. But is it EQG's best film. Hell, yeah, and it's not even close!
  
  Score: 4/10
  Grade: C-

[Midnight Solace 5,129]

EQG: 6/10 (Because of Brad)

RR: 9/10

FSG: 8/10

LoE: 5/10

[DonMaguz 1,023]

Equestria Girls: 5/10

Rainbow Rocks: 7/10

Friendship Games: 8/10

Legend of Everfree: 7/10

[Beached Whale 56]

Equestria Girls (original): 7/10 (6/10 + 1/10 for the good music)

Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks: 9/10

Equestria Girls: Friendship Games: 7/10

Equestria Girls: Legend of Everfree: 6/10

I have a tendency to not use the lower half of the scale 

[Arkadios 91]

EqG was the first part of the franchise I watched.

EG1: When I first saw it, I enjoyed it a lot. It was like the opposite of my life at that point, which was exactly the kind of life I wanted. Nowadays, I watch it and I think it’s a terrible movie. But I don’t think that’s because of incompetence. No plan survives first contact. I agree about the whole Flash Sentry thing, though. Bumping into each other and giggling, hand-holding at precisely scripted moments, oh, no, he’s a zombie! What a waste of voice acting. And the 5 being friends before Twilight or Sunset Shimmer arrived makes no sense because they didn’t know each other before Twilight in Equestria, much less SS knowing that splitting them up was a good strategy.

3/10

RR: The music was nothing short of a pleasure to listen to. That said, it felt like Hasbro immediately went back and said, “We want you to make another one of those stat, and we don’t care which orifices it comes from.” The villains were 2D and the backstory came all at once, which sucked. Why don’t you the Dazzlings explain themselves? Oh, and Sunset kept a link to her least favorite pony for her entire exile in the human world and it’s like a magic antenna and its counterpart can be used to power up the portal-McGuffin whenever we want. (Where’d that damn portal come from anyway? Did Starswirl make it when he banished the sirens? What kinda a**hole dumps three extremely dangerous creatures on another planet without checking if it has inhabitants?) Oh, by the way, the thing that happened before can happen again with this random thing we do! I feel like Adagio et al. got a “monster of the week” treatment. And then they disappeared afterward. I was half hoping they’d turn up in Legend of Everfree living off squirrels or something.

3/10

FGs: My god, what EVEN...!? The entire movie was just to give an excuse for human world Spike to be able to talk. And also introduce human Twilight. Story... what story? “We hate Crystal Prep!” blackmailing the protagonist (light-hearted, doncha think?) and, oh, look, another she-demon. Must be something about that statue. Lucky Midnight got rid of it.

2/10

LoE: This one was okay. I think. Flash back to his old cardboard self. Johnny Galecki should’ve voiced him for the amount of floundering he did. But at least there weren’t any major plotholes or anything. I think. I first watched it last night, so I’m still processing.

But it felt right, y’know? For now, 6/10

Edited November 9, 2018 by Arkadios

[Vlazamal 338]

EQG: 8/10

RR: 5/10

FG:4/10

LoE: 6/10

 

I know it wasn't asked for, but Forgotten Friendship gets a 10/10 and Movie Magic and Mirror Magic get a 9/10.