What Movies Have You Seen Recently?

[Green Arrow]

Thank you for sharing this with us, Toadettefan. I personally felt that Friendship Games was by far my least favourite of the four movies, but still enjoyable in its own right, and it sounds like you feel the same (or at least as far as the first 3 movies go; you haven't seen Legend of Everfree yet iirc but I recommend you do since that one was my 2nd favourite after the first Equestria Girls).

Your review is very well written and raises many good points about the movie for better or worse, which I almost entirely agree with, except that I did like ACADECA and Unleash the Magic quite a bit - nonetheless I do consider this film's soundtrack the overall weakest in the tetralogy. I also agree I wish they kept the duet version of "What More Is Out There" and moreover wish that Sunset had been given more development as well as Sci-Twi.

One thing I noticed you didn't mention was the appearance of the human versions of Cadance and Shining Armour. I personally found them a bit odd and felt Shining Armour was very underused, but Cadance was ok and good to balance out from how mean Cinch is. What did you think, Toadettefan?

 

[Toadettefan]

Thank you for sharing this with us, Toadettefan. I personally felt that Friendship Games was by far my least favourite of the four movies, but still enjoyable in its own right, and it sounds like you feel the same (or at least as far as the first 3 movies go; you haven't seen Legend of Everfree yet iirc but I recommend you do since that one was my 2nd favourite after the first Equestria Girls).

Your review is very well written and raises many good points about the movie for better or worse, which I almost entirely agree with, except that I did like ACADECA and Unleash the Magic quite a bit - nonetheless I do consider this film's soundtrack the overall weakest in the tetralogy. I also agree I wish they kept the duet version of "What More Is Out There" and moreover wish that Sunset had been given more development as well as Sci-Twi.

One thing I noticed you didn't mention was the appearance of the human versions of Cadance and Shining Armour. I personally found them a bit odd and felt Shining Armour was very underused, but Cadance was ok and good to balance out from how mean Cinch is. What did you think, Toadettefan?

I felt Cadence was quite nice, which helped to balance out Cinch's personality. I wish Shining Armor had more screentime as well, since he could've acted as a motivator for the recovery from her transformation alongside Spike.

 

[Will Solace]

Equestria Girls: Friendship Games (2015)

Spoiler

I thought the third installment of this series was very fun, and had a decent story. I think Sci-Twi has a well-written personality, since she's a lot more introverted compared to the Twilight from Ponyville. She also has a good amount of flaws as well, including being pushed around by her classmates, and giving into peer pressure without thinking of the consequences. While I didn't like her unknowingly stealing other students' magic with her pendant, her transformation into Midnight Sparkle had me on the edge of my seat.

I felt that Sunset Shimmer's writing toke a turn for the worse here. In fact, when she confronts Sci-Twi regarding her pendant, she has an angry outburst that's reminiscent of her personality in the first Equestria Girls film. So this scene not only felt out of character, but also made me feel sorry for Sci-Twi even more. Before I saw this film, I also saw some deleted scenes from it, including one where Sunset has a chat with the Twilight from Ponyville regarding her homesickness for Equestria. This made me wonder if an earlier draft had equal focus on both Sunset and Sci-Twi, which would've made the film's plot get into a proper flow.

The songs here are mostly alright. The only two that stood out to me are What More Is Out There? and Right There In Front Of Me. The opening song sets the tone for the movie, but isn't unique enough to stand on its own merits. ACADECA is quite uninspired, Unleash The Magic is a good villain song, but I've heard better ones from the first two films. The CHS Rally Song starts off ok, but it gets listenable once DJ Pon-3 adds her own music to the composition. But having seen the deleted scenes, I wish they would've kept the duet version of What More Is Out There in, since again, it would've gave Sunset just as much development as Sci-Twi.

A lot of the film's new characters from Crystal Prep are interesting, but a lot of them had too many flaws and not enough strengths. The Shadow Bolts have cool designs, but they don't get much time to fully introduce themselves, so we only see their signature traits. I don't like any of them because of how mean they are towards Sci-Twi. Principal Cinch could've been a well-rounded secondary villain, but the plot doesn't make her seem threatening enough. She also kind of gets away with her intentions, since we don't see her after the climax concludes.

However, there are still some fun scenes, and the competition's events were quite fun. I also liked when Sunset's friends were helping out Sci-Twi, as it showcased how welcoming they are compared to the students at Crystal Prep. Overall, I'd give Friendship Games a solid 7/10. It's certainly not a bad movie, and has enough good things to make it suitable for its target audience. But the previous two movies had a lot more going for them, which only make the flaws of Friendship Games stick out more. Still, I had fun watching this film, and am looking forward to how Legends of Everfree continues this series.

Hmm, I'm still on the opposite end from you in terms of how I'd rank each of these three movies (and from MiracleDinner). I actually found Friendship Games to be my favorite Equestria Girls movie up to its point, with it feeling really immersive and novel to see the movie entirely focusing on Sci-Twi instead of Twilight and how her emotions and powers work, and I found Sunset Shimmer's arc to be the most interesting out of the first three movies. I also found the new school's setting and characters to also add more suspense, I liked the overarching competitive feel to the songs such as ACADECA actually even though you found that one to be weak, and I also loved What More Is Out There, and it had by far my favorite climax out of the three movies which felt really touching to me seeing the two characters interact. I remember the scene where Sunset got angry not bothering me as much because she was under stress and I felt it showed she still had flaws she needed to work on, as Sci-Twi did do something that had erratic results. I remember thinking Cinch was a decent villain, as a good reason for Sci-Twi's behavior, although I agree that she should have gotten consequences for her actions. I did think the Shadowbolts could have been used more too, but liked their contribution to the atmosphere of suspense. Overall here, I think you have some good points, and I'm curious to see what you'll think of the fourth movie.