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Rainbow Rocks Review


starswirlthebearded

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Alright, so another non-pony pony movie and another review... I'm going to do things a bit differently this time around, for a few reasons. Probably the chief reason is that I feel this movie can be more easily rated on a fair level without compensating for characters and biases going in like I did last time (I gave the last movie a 6.5 due to the characters and novelty of being sort of a pony movie) despite the glaring issues of the movie) So this time around I'm going to give two ratings, one as a fan of the show and another as impartially as I can. I'm also going to try and avoid spoilers.

Technical stuff: This movie actually felt more like a movie with it's production values. You can tell Studio B actually put more effort and more money went into it. The best part of the series are the facial expressions. This was one of the highlights of the movie. On top of that, rather than looking like it was an extension of the series, it looked like the production values were increased to make it more separate from that. I'm not going to say it is top flight, but it is certainly low grade cinema level animation. What I mean by that is, it is no Pixar/Ghibli/Disney/Dreamworks animation (For their main movies), but it is closer to that than it is to the TV show animation values. I personally appreciated this increase in production. Likewise, the sound editing remained fantastic, which was needed for the nature of the movie. That said, if I was going to give a rating for this it would be a 3/5 (while the first one would have barely scored a 1/5). If I was comparing this to the show it would be a 5/5 for reference.

Characters: Again, these are the characters we all came to love, and nothing has really changed there. The only thing that changed is the new dynamic with Sunset Shimmer and the new villains. That said, I can't really speak about most of the character involvements in this because of the nature of the villains. The good thing is that because of that, Flash Sentry played a far smaller role than he did in the first one. The villains was your typical trio dynamic (think CMC/Powerpuff Girls). This isn't a bad thing, it is a common dynamic and it is used for a reason, because it works. Would I have liked to see something new? Perhaps, but at the same time I can't fault them for using it, any more than I can fault any other trio dynamic from using this common set up. I do like the fact that the villains were Sirens and that was their role in this world and in Equestria. But like with most things MLP does with lore they modified it to suit their own purpose. I find this fine usually. They didn't *******ize the lore, so much as made it work in universe. (3.5/5, fans would give it 5/5 (ok let's face it, most fans would go for broke and break the scale and give it a 6/5))

Plot: The plot in many ways is similar to the original movie, and they even joke about it in the movie. However it was unique enough that it didn't have me thinking about it too much. Though I'm sad they didn't make any references to any other movies that used Battle of the Bands as a goal or a plot point (or even other shows, it's a pretty common thing). But again, save the world, must win to do it. Same song different tune. Not in a bad way though, it was actually a fresh way to do it, and they even made it a point to say that winning wasn't a necessity (it was just implied that it had to be that way). There were still plot holes, the biggest was unanswered questions about the Sirens. Everything else was minor, and honestly everything played out much smoother than before. For me the plot was a 3/5. Fans would probably say at least 4 or 5. It is an average plot told in a better than average way. They could have done more with it though which is why the score is lower than it should be really. The biggest annoyance was really the reusing of the same joke.

Music: Ok this is the highlight of the movie. Not for me. Of all the songs, most were average at best, and half the time I thought I was listening to the same song. All the creative ones were pretty bad (possibly on purpose). But honestly, the flair that Daniel usually has was lost here. Most of the songs used a pop/pop-rock base, which made them sound very predictable. And this is just the featured main songs, that are meant to sound good. They featured other bands songs kind of which all had some creative flair but you didn't really get to hear enough of any of them to really make a call on them. Out of 10 songs, only one really stuck out to me, and it was cut short. The villain songs all come in second and the main character songs (save one) all come after that. But again, the biggest problem is that the villain songs all sounded like they were generally the same as did the main character song. While the songs were sufficiently catchy, they really weren't all that inspiring in terms of overall quality and uniqueness. (2/5) Also as an aside, I'll still never forgive Hasbro for not greenlighting a Glam Rock or 80s rock/metal theme for the music (main cast) vs Pop (villains) I think that would have been amazing and could have allowed for more variation and greater musical pliability.

MY overall rating is 8/10. That is as a fan of the show and characters. As a movie I'd say this was closer to a 6/10. Slightly better than average. Animation fans could watch this and enjoy it even if they aren't invested in the characters. But if you are a fan of the series and characters that is where it shines. The pitfalls are actually the music and the once again recycled plot, but in an interesting way (I couldn't say that it was the same plot and set up from S1E1-2) Some interesting things were done, plot holes were kept to a minimum and it was an enjoyable experience.

Also the after credit scene was awesome. Clearly Hasbro and DHX have been taking notes from Marvel Studios.

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Excellent Review. I agree that this was a marked improvement to the first one. Then again I liked the first movie so this one only made things better.

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