Pony Megathread

[Kreekakon]

Errmmm...well I just got back from seeing Equestria Girls (Don't ask me how I did it hint hint), and I'm going to leave my thoughts/review down below.

Do note that the following is a result of my first viewing. Something I noticed with myself is that sometimes after watching an MLP episode for the second time, my opinion of it will sometimes change, usually for the positive when it does. Not something that happens often, but just throwing it out there.

Here come the thoughts! I will keep it spoiler-free so all you folks who haven't seen it yet can go ahead, and read on!

Kreekakon's Equestria Girls Afterthoughts!

While I would hesitate to say that I hated the movie, I would have to say there is a very big chunk of it that I do not like very much at all. Putting this out in the clear right away: The movie was a disappointment to me.

The movie will start off exactly as you would expect from the trailers. Twilight has her crown stolen, and she must go after it into a human world.

The start of this is promising to say the very least. Twilight behaves exactly as I expected her to. She stumbles, does nonsense things, and frequently shows that she is actually a pony, and not a human through her various actions. These segments were actually handled very well. They were hilarious, and made complete sense seeing as Twilight is just a HORSE in a human body. I wouldn't have expected any less. The humor built around this aspect is awesome, and even carries the movie at some points.

After the opener however, and the plot starts to get underway my main problem with the movie starts to appear, and never goes away: The movie is shallow. Yes, SHHHHAAAAALLLLLLLOOOOOOWWW. It is absolutely the main thing that tears the entire movie down.

How you may ask? Allow me to go into more detail. Most of the characters in the movie have no depth to them at all. No one undergoes any development (Stuff that I feel matters anyways). The interactions, and plot developments are for the most part very one dimensional. What I think was the main deal breaker of all this however is that nothing in the movie seemed to bear any weight whatsoever. Maybe it does, but the movie overall did a very poor job in showing that, and making the audience understand the gravity of any situation, and/or care about it.

It also doesn't help that a lot of the plot aspects were really cheesy. Many of it feels very static is is built upon cliches. The movie tries to give out good messages which is a good thing, but the overall delivery of said lines, and execution of the scene is just really cheesy most of the time.

The movie also never takes any drastic dives, and turns in the story, instead mostly playing it safe, and only hovering up, and down in a neutral zone. I would've liked it if they played around with the plot more, and tried some more drastic, and impactful plot developments instead if having problems which were small, or problems which seemed to have been solved to easily.

Also, I dislike how the creators kept constantly shoving "fandom fan-service" into our faces. Don't get me wrong, I like fan-service, but only when it's cleverly done, and/or subtle. I can appreciate it when small nods to the fandom when done subtly without being directly called out on, but with anyone who's paying attention being able to see. Other times however they just obnoxiously shout it out in your face. Some people may like it though. It's probably just a personal peeve of mine that makes me cringe.

It also bothers me just how much untapped potential there is in the movie, mainly in two areas: Sunset Shimmer, and the overall alternate reality setting. I'll touch on both, but as some aspects can't be talked about without spoilers I'll have a small spoiler block at the end of each one.

First off Sunset Shimmer, who is the main villain in this story. I was disappointed with how shallow she was which is further amplified by how long she's in the movie. Her motives, and backstory are never deeply touched upon at all beyond a few sentences. One may argue that not every villain needs something like this to be compelling, but to that I say that if you don't have something like this you'll need some other sort of charm to be compelling, and it's sadly something Sunset Shimmer does not have. It's a real shame, because her backstory is one that was screaming potential of what could've been done with it.

Now for the spoiler-segment for Sunset Shimmer (It's actually only light-spoilers so read on anyways if you wish):

Spoiler below!

It is explained early on in the movie that Sunset Shimmer was Celestia's pupil who had a falling out with her when she didn't get what she wanted.

I really wish they could've taken this places. They could've shown what exactly eventually led up to Celestia, and her's parting of ways. How she felt that she was justified in her ways, and thought herself the victim. How she felt rage, and jealously towards Twilight for being Celestia's prized pupil instead of her. I could go on forever.

Instead Sunset Shimmer rarely ever comments on her time with Celestia, and her primitive motivation at all, and really kind of seems to be a jerkass for the sake of being one. She never once tries to justify it in her own way.

After Sunset Shimmer let's take a look at the setting of the high school. Going to have to go into spoiler-mode right away here, but again it's only very light-spoilers so read on if you wish:

Spoiler below!

The alternate reality is one Twilight she herself visits herself. None of her friends come with her. All the "friends" she sees in the other world are alternate versions of themselves from back at Equestria.

It is actually established, and constantly hinted throughout the entire movie that the alternate reality is exactly that: A mirror, human version of Equestria down to all the people/ponies inside it. Everyone has a counterpart.

This isn't exactly a problem I have with the movie, but just something I thought is interesting: Seeing how every character each has a pony, and human version of themselves, wouldn't it have made sense for there to already have been a human version of Twilight in the world before "pony" Twilight arrived? Where was she this whole time? It would've been really awesome to have the two meet up with each other, and watch hilarity ensue, even better if it helped the plot somehow.

Another thing I thought would've been awesome, but not a necessity, is if Equestria, and the high school world had somehow overlapped with one another meaning that characters from both sides somehow knew of the others existence beyond having Twilight, and a few others as the only one to have come, and gone from between.

Now as this thought train of mine is coming to an end, I do have a couple other positive things to say about the movie. The portrayals mane 6 in the movie I feel were done justice. They didn't do anything groundbreaking, but I feel that they did their job well enough in exactly how you would've expected them to act.

The songs I also remember enjoying them, but I kind of forgot so I have to go back, and give them another listen later on.

Verdict: A sub-standard, and shallow plot really drags down what had a ton of potential to be amazing 3-4/10

Congratulations if you've read all the way here. You get a cookie, and hug from me ^^

Still the main thing that irks me so much is that MLP has overall given me a very high opinion of the show which is also why I'm so harsh on Equestria Girls. I really don't like it when a sub-standard work from a prized franchise challenges my high opinion of it.

In most of the mindset in my review I'm probably asking for too much, but is that really wrong here? Would you really be willing to lower your standard of something you've come to enjoy so much just to tolerate a more sub-standard piece of work? I know I wouldn't.

Oh well, at least it's just a movie. I always still have the main show to look forward to