What's your opinion on EqG so far?

[Carolina 212]

I saw it recently on YouTube and thought it was a fun movie and much better than I expected. However, I totally agree that it had a lot of flaws in its construction. The biggest one for me being: how long exactly were the Mane Five angry with each other? Twilight and Spike found the old yearbook with pictures of them in Freshman year. Was that the last time they were friends? If so, who did they hang out with after the break up? Did they all have their own cliques? I think that would've been interesting to see, personally.  Also, why the hell didn't they just TALK to each other regarding the problems Sunset Shimmer set up? They were all such stupid misunderstandings (AJ/RD about the softball thing, Rarity/Pinkie about decorating for school events, Fluttershy/Pinkie about, what was it, a silent auction or some random crap?) Those things should have been easily solvable with a minimal amount of effort, yet they let it go on for...how long exactly? God damn, if they couldn't figure that out without Twilight's help (after she had been there for a total of two days, no less), they deserve to be miserable! I think if the conflict had actually been about how different all the girls' personalities were rather than stupid misunderstandings created by Sunset Shimmer, it would have felt much more organic. Hell, they even say in "Helping Twilight Win the Crown" (great song, by the way!) that they thought they "were different from the night is from the day," but this didn't seem to be their issue. At all, really.  Also, added to that, the girls KNEW Sunset Shimmer was a manipulative bitch (at least Fluttershy certainly did as evidenced by her reaction to Twilight standing up to her), so maybe they should have realized she was behind it instead of blaming each other right away.

 

Another thing that really didn't sit right with me, as I mentioned in the reaction thread, was the fact that the Mane Five decided to be friends with Sunset Shimmer at the end of the movie after she not only was a bully to them for four years and broke up their friendship, but actively tried to kill them. Just...huh? I'm all for forgiveness and tolerance, but c'mon! That doesn't mean you should invite a terrible person into your group just because she is sorry and she has never had friends before. What kind of a lesson is that? In real life, you cannot (and probably should not) be friends with everyone. There are highly toxic friendships that can be enormously harmful to one's well-being, but it seems here that the Mane Five are almost obligated to include Sunset Shimmer just because "friendship is magic."

 

On the other hand, I liked a lot of the humor, the songs were catchy and Twilight's reactions to her new environment were a lot of fun.  Best movie I've seen all year, though? Absolutely, 100% NO, of course not.  Now, I'm a film student, so I probably watch more movies than average, but I don't think I'd even put it in my top 50 that I've seen this year. It was fun enough, but it does it compare to the likes of Silver Linings Playbook, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Dogtooth or any of the other genuinely amazing movies I've seen this year? Obviously not. Objectively speaking, its not a very good film, although speaking as an FiM fan, it was enjoyable enough.

Edited June 28, 2013 by Carolina