The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014)

Well while I don't think they're bad, I didn't really get that invested in the first movie or either of the books. So it wasn't until the second movie that I actually felt really invested in what is happening in the series. So let's see how the third movie turned out.

Plot: Taking off shortly after the second movie, Katniss and her family are now hiding in District 13 where it turns out the people of that district have been hiding to secretly plan a rebellion against The Capitol. The leader of District 13, President Coin, wants Katniss to be the symbol of the rebellion through her reputation as The Mockingjay. But The Capitol is fighting back using Peeta, who is still captured, as their own representative to speak against the rebellion. So Katniss is torn between helping District 13 begin their rebellion, while wanting President Coin to find a way to save Peeta.

While it wasn't quite as pleasing in the action department, this film succeeds just as well as the last film in keeping me interested in what is happening and wanting to see more. Like the last film, this one this one delivers with building the suspense of what is happening and making the situation very compelling. A lot of that of coarse comes from the cast with Jennifer Lawrence who is still doing great as Katniss, Phillip Seymour Hoffman who of coarse we all miss, and even Julianne Moore who gave a great performance as President Coin. And what they discuss is very believable with all of the political propaganda they are trying to do to help start the rebellion and stop The Capitol. This leads to a lot of emotional moments where we see more of what The Capitol has done to the people in the other districts on top of (spoilers) District 12 being destroyed  (which by the way, am I the only one who felt like they should've made District 12 look more destroyed then it appeared to be in the movie?), and then what I think was the most emotional part of the movie, is when Katniss and these other people are singing this deep song while the district people are about to fight. Now a lot of people find the biggest problem, which I brought up briefly in the beginning of this paragraph, is the lack of action in this movie. Now it's no surprise that this movie is basically all build up, I mean it's part 1, and on the whole I didn't really mind it that much. But even I'll admit that at the same time, as much as I enjoyed watching the discussions of political propaganda, there where moments where deep down, I wanted more action. Heck, there's a moment where Peacemakers are bombing an area, and we only see them from the radars inside the district 13 base. But I think a bigger problem I discovered was from when one of my best friends, Candra saw the movie shortly after I did. She found it to be disappointing because she found the fact that it's mostly propaganda stuff to be so boring, but she said that with the fact that she hasn't read the book in mind. And...yeah that actually brings a really good point: if you haven't read the book, you might not find this to be all that interesting like Candra did. In fact, the more I thought about it from after she said what she thought of the film, I did realize that a good portion of what made this film interesting, was that I did read the book. And by knowing a fair portion of what happens, I was more on board with what I was watching on top of the great acting and so on. So, you might not like this movie because of how it has more of the characters just building things up instead of seeing some action. I mean there is a tiny bit of action in this movie, but...yeah, none of those moments are Battle of Helm's Deep amazing.

And that's my review for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1. if you haven't read the book and want more action, you might not be all that fond of this film. But otherwise, it's a very compelling film with excellent performances from the case and an all around interesting build up to the conclusion of the story. It's not as good as Catching Fire, but it's still an enjoyable film.

Rating: 75% 

The Heat (2013)

So recently, Candra and I watched a couple more movies - one of which I hope to get to reviewing soon, but for now I"ll be focusing on the one that we just finished watching: The Heat.

Plot: FBI Special Sarah is a skilled and professional agent who is trying to get a promotion in her department, but she has to prove that she can work with other people. So she is sent to work on a case in Boston, but finds herself having to work with Shannon, a loudmouthed and rebellious cop. The two of them have to find a way to work together while trying to track down a drug lord.

At the end of the day, I found this movie to be fairly entertaining. I mean true, it was a little predictable considering it's a buddy cop comedy film, but for what they had, they pulled it off. What really makes this film is naturally, the chemistry between the lead actors; Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy. For a lot of people, including Candra, McCarthy's performance as Shannon is what people like the most about the film. She does go completely out there with her performance, giving us the most inventive and memorable quotes of the entire movie. But for me personally, as I'm sure this might surprise some of you like it surprised Candra, I honestly found myself more entertained with Bullock's performance. Don't get me wrong, McCarthy was good and I see why people like her more. But for me, Bullock was the one that made me laugh the most. A lot of the stuff that she does in the second half of this movie especially, I thought was really funny. There's a scene where she has this kind of quiet outburst during a police meeting that especially made me laugh out loud to the point where it's my favorite part of the film. With that said however, there are some moments where the comedy does not work, especially where they take things too far. One scene in particular that has to do with a guy chocking on a pancake that both Candra and I felt should've been cut from the movie. And there are some serious moments int he films that mostly work, but I also felt there might've been a little too much of...at least from what I was expecting. But for the most part, those moments didn't happen all that frequently.

And that's my review for The Heat. It's really up to the person as to whether or not it's funny or if the serious moments work despite it being a comedy. But for me, it has its moments that I personally am not a fan of, but at the end of the day, this was an entertaining buddy cop movie that does deliver with its comedy all around. If you're not a fan of the style of comedy that this movie uses, then you should skip it. But if you like its style of comedy well enough, then check this movie out and see what you find to be funny.  

Rating: 70%

Birdman (2014)

I know this movie has been out for a while now, but despite my interest to see it, I have been unable to, mostly due to things like work and school. It didn't help that my film teachers this semester, particularly my screenwriting teacher, have more or less been going on and on recently on how "you gotta see Birdman. It's it's one of the best movies I've seen in years. It's an example of why I love film. etc.", which is where I would respond; "I know! I want to see it! But it stopped showing at my theater!" and be all bummed about it. But thankfully when I went to look at showtimes for Interstellar for this morning, I found that Birdman came back to my theater, and now I have finally watched it and can't wait to tell that to my film teachers so they know that at least someone (aside from one guy in two of my classes who is also autistic like me,) has seen it. I may just wait until this upcoming weekend to see Interstellar...but for now, who cares?! It's finally time to talk about Birdman!

Plot: Riggan Thomson is a washed up Hollywood actor, who used to play a superhero named Birdman, only to have left the franchise after doing three movies. 20 years later, he is back trying to make a comeback as the writer, director, and star of an adapted play. He goes through a lot of troubles with getting ready for his play, while all the while he is reflecting what has happened to his life and trying to figure out his purpose.

So as I roughly stated, this movie has gotten people talking about it like mad with talks like how it's great or that it's an example of why certain people watch film and so on. And to be very straight forward, I agree with what they've been saying. Birdman was a tremendous, film that talks about so many things from big blockbusters nowadays, acting, theater, critics, family life, and other subjects, and the way it's done has made it one of the most compelling movies I've ever seen. Michael Keaton was perfect for his role as Riggan, with not just his great acting, but also how the story - for those of you who don't know - parallels Keaton's own career with how he used to be Batman 20 some years ago. In fact, a lot of what they talk about when it concerns big movies or even actors revolves around superheroes. Just some of the first 10 minutes of the movie mentions starts that have played superheroes, whether they bring it up or not from Robert Downey Jr. being Iron Man, to Michael Fassbender who is Magneto, to Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, or even George Clooney who - sadly - once was Batman himself. Heck, even some of the other stars in the film have played a part in superhero films in the past, such as Edward Norton as The Incredible Hulk and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy. But it still focuses on deeper issues that Riggan or the other characters in the movie deal with whether it has to do with the past or the present. Whether it's Riggan's daughter, Sam with how she is raised and was recently in rehab, or one of his female actors wanting to feel like she made it big, everyone is experiencing some thing that represents life, show business, and so on. The biggest example is what Riggan himself is experiencing with whether or not he is important or if it's even possible he can make a comeback with his career. The acting is terrific in this movie. Michael Keaton, as I said, gave a great, compelling performance that is probably the best I've ever seen him in a film. Edward Norton also gave an excellent performance, to the point where I found it hard to believe that this guy used to be Hulk. And I would have to agree with video critic Chris Stuckmann in saying that Emma Stone was maybe the best she's ever been. Don't get me wrong, I love her work. I mean she is my favorite actress after all. But with Birdman, especially with her big monologue that she gives to Riggan, we get to see her go bigger than she ever has before and it is fantastic. I also really enjoy how artistic this movie is. Whether I understand the symbolism or not, this film has a lot of artistic moments to it that plays a big part in what makes the films so thought compelling. The first big example is one that apparently everyone else who has been talking about this movie has brought up; the editing. The movie 99.8% of the time is made to be viewed like everything that is transpiring is happening all in one shot. Even though it isn't, it has a very smart use of transitions that keep the illusion that it is in one shot, to the point that you feel like you're really there. I think there are only 7-9 ish cuts made in this entire film, at the most. And what makes it even better, is how beautiful the camera work is changing to various, well-positioned shots, all in several long takes. The second big example that a lot of people talk about, is a monologue that Keaton delivers that talks about film critics in general: how film critics will just label things or not really think about something just as a piece of film or about the film making itself. And what he says deep down is very true. I'll even admit that I myself, while not an official film critic, have focused more on using labels on how to describe on what I thought about a movie. Just look at almost half of my reviews in this blog alone. But that just makes it all the more brilliant what Keaton says at that moment.

And that is my review for Birdman. It was artistic, it was thought provoking, it had spectacular performances, brilliant camera and editing work - heck, I really don't know what else to really say about it. If you have not seen it, I definitely recommend that you watch it as soon as you have the oppertunity to do so.    

Rating: 100%  

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Rainbow Rocks (2014)

Well whether you liked, hated, or didn't really care about the first movie, the Brony community as a whole was uneasy about Equestria Girls despite it turning out not as bad as some of us instantly thought it would be. And it's sequel, Rainbow Rocks, while it didn't cause such a panic like its predecessor, it did not make things better right away when it was announced. A setting like the human teenagers of the Mane Six (Twilight and her friends) coming back and forming a rock band was not exactly the best way to regain their audience's confidence. But at the end of the day, we just sucked it up and prepared to recieve what we got.

Plot: Picking up where things left off after the first movie and season 4, the students at Canterlot High are setting up for a musical showcase. The human Mane Five are starting up their own band, The Rainbooms for the showcase while trying to help Sunset Shimmer learn about friendship as she is trying to redeem herself for everything she did in the previous film. But then three new students called The Dazzelings sing a song that magically convinces the students to turn the showcase into a Battle of the Bands also causing the students to be angry and competitive against each other. So Sunset Shimmer contacts Twilight from Equestria and asks her to help them figure out a way to stop the Dazzelings from what they are doing.

So for what we got in comparison to the last film, surprisingly, this turned out to be a movie that even people who made it no secret that they hated Equestria Girls found themselves liking if not loving Rainbow Rocks. Why? Because anything and everything about it was done absolutely, positively, almost 100%, beyond the shadow of a doubt better. The animation was better, the music was better, the characters, the comedy, the nod offs to the fans, the villains, even the story was done so much better that it's almost downright incredible. While the first movie had a story that was all over the place and had plot lines that where either unfinished or where resolved way too quickly, this one give us a much clearer and more interesting story that gives us a much bigger and more interesting conflict from start to finish. The characters where more entertaining and had more time to be developed. The best example was Sunset Shimmer, who came out a million times more interesting as someone trying to redeem herself than she ever really was as a villain. The entire time, you really feel for her and believe that she really is trying to be a better person and wants people to forgive her for what she did. Also...I can't believe I'm saying this...as an animated character mind you, she was... a little cute. I mean she's not cute, cute. After all, when it comes to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic as a whole, she still doesn't hold a candle to Fluttershy and Sweetie Belle who - in my opinion - are the queen and princess respectively of cuteness and adorableness. But at the same time, it helped her reformation appear more genuine as you can see how much she really changed even if most of the characters in the movie don't. Granted, Flash Sentry didn't get as much of an improvement as he still only appears a couple of brief times in the movie. But at the same time, he still is given a little bit more of a personality which...is close enough for now, but I for would like to see him much more fleshed out in the next film. The animation is also so much more grand. They where just figuring it out in the first movie, and now they have mastered it with even more new features such as the lighting and camera movement in their scenes. I know I didn't really talk a lot about the comedy in the first movie, but that's mostly because there wasn't much to talk about. They really had only one, maybe two jokes that I at least chuckled at, and that was it. But here, there's more jokes, and they are so much funnier and more memorable. The nod offs to the fans came out not only better, but in some cases, much bigger. In fact, while not giving anything away, there's a part in the movie where a very loved background character from the show plays a big part in the plot. I won't say who or when this happens, but let's just say, it was awesome, and it was even foreshadowed in a really smart way. The Dazzelings where great villains compared to Sunset Shimmer. True, their personalities where very cliched; you have the leader, the smart mouth and the comedy relief. But what they lacked in terms of standing out characteristics, they make up for it big time with their actions and songs. If causing all of the students to have negative emotions toward each other wasn't enough, we have hypnotizing, using students to sabatoge The Rainbooms, transforming into bat like monsters, holy cow did they come out so much more menacing. On top of that, they have not one, but two villains songs, both of which are great. Let's have a Battle is dark and epic, while Under are Spell is so incredibly catchy. And speaking of songs, the music is probably the biggest highlight of the film for me personally. The songs where great examples of why Bronies like me enjoy Daniel Ingram's work for the music in the show. They are given a lot of variety, they are fun, and catchy beyond all else. Are there any that are a little bland like most of the music in the first film? Well...yes, but even when the songs are bland, you can tell they have so much more heart and passion to them. All in all, the soundtrack is excellent. It's been almost a month since I first watched this movie, and I still can't quite get enough of the music. Now are there any problems with the movie? Sadly yes. There are a couple of moments like Twilight's first attempt at singing or when the characters Snips and Snails do a rapping number that are just painful to watch. And I really wish there was more of Flash and Twilight's relationship. The first half of the film started off so great with us seeing this whole conflict between them with Flash getting mad at Twilight because he's under the Dazzeling's spell, and it's great. But sadly when they are next seen together, the conflict is resolved way too easily. But hey, that's just one plot line quickly resolved as opposed to most of the plot lines like the first film, so I can live with that.

And that's my review for My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Rainbow Rocks. Where the first film was ultimately a bane to the show in the eyes of a lot of fans, it's sequel gave us a much better story, great animation, a catchy soundtrack and more that made it far superior hands down. It has it's problems, and it's a film that you wouldn't understand unless you've watched the show. But if you just they the setting; the human teenage Main Six are back and are forming a rock band, chances are that this was much better than what you thought it would turn out. I have only seen it three times already, but I hope to see it many more times in the future.

Rating: 85%

P.S. - sorry that this review didn't come out that much shorter than the review to the first film.

Big Hero 6 (2014)

Well two big, anticipated movies came out on Friday, and I hope to see Interstellar some other time, but for now, here's Big Hero 6.

Plot: In a hybrid city of San Fransokyo (a mix of San Fransisco and Tokyo) a boy named Hiro tries to get into his brother, Tadashi's university where he can create new inventions for the good of mankind. But when a fire breaks out at the university, which results in Tadashi's death, Hiro discovers that one of his inventions is stolen and being secretly used by a mysterious man with a mask. So with the help of Tadashi's healthcare robot Baymax, Hiro decides to find out what the mysterious man is up to and if he is responsible for his brother's death.

Well by now, the majority of reviews have pretty much praised the crap out of this movie. And for me personally, I definitely agree that it's a pretty good film...not spectacular per say, but still a very good film. Don't get me wrong, the things that people praise this movie for, I'm siding with them all the way. But the problems I have with the film, while arguably nitpicks in some respects, are big enough that they take me out of the film on occasions. But once again, let's talk about what's good first. First off, I really like how this film handles the really heartfelt moments, namely what Hiro is going through with Tadashi's death. Even if they don't actually say the word "dead" or even just "death" (which by the way, come on Disney. We appreciate you guys keeping things happy and upbeat, but we both know you're decades past the point where you can hide that death is real in your movies. Not saying it isn't fooling anyone.), they still give us a deep and relatable set of scenes that truly fleshes out what Hiro is going through. Also, the animation is great. I mean that should go without saying, but there are some moments where they really give us some beautiful and colorful pieces of animation. And they also gave the action for the movie justice with its animation too. It was a little creative, it was exciting, it was very fast-paced, it's fun to watch. And then you have the character that most people figured was going to steal the show after seeing the trailers; Baymax. Who didn't feel pretty sure that this robot was going to get the most attention? I think I can say that I was for the most part. And...yeah, he didn't exactly disappoint. He was likable, he was funny, his friendship with Hiro was very strong, he was the highlight of the movie. So where did the film fall a little flat? Well firstly, and this is probably the problem that's the most likely to be a nitpick, the story as a whole was familiar. Certain parts in the film where pretty predictable rather easily. Was it enough that it really hurt the movie as a whole? Well...no, but at the same time, I feel that they need to up their game a little. Second problem is the villain. Sure he acts and looks pretty darn cool, but the character himself, without giving anything away, is not that interesting. I mean you understand his motivation, but the motivation has been done many times already. But the biggest problem I have that I think some people can agree on, is the lack of time with the other member of the Big Hero 6. Aside from one or two characteristics, I barely remember anything about most of them. Granted, this is Hiro and Baymax's story. I get that. It's about them and therefore that's who they really needed to focus on, which they did. But I still wish we got to know the other members of the Big Hero 6 better. I couldn't help but like some of them like Gogo and Honey Lemon. Why couldn't we get more time with them?

And that's my review for Big Hero 6. It's a fun and funny, action packed film with great heartfelt moments, wonderful animation, and a terrific relationship between Hiro and Baymax. Do I see it winning Best Animated Feature? Well...as much as I would love that as a Disney fan, I honestly think that as an all around piece of cinema, The Lego Movie is the superior animated film. But if for whatever reason, The Lego Movie loses, I'd say Big Hero 6 is an enjoyable movie to lose to. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out.  

Rating: 85%

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls (2013)

This movie has been out for over a year now, and for the most part I have been very reluctant to review it, mainly because this is not exactly an easy movie to talk about in the best way. I had no real idea of what to say about it, or how I would really rate it. But thankfully with its sequel recently released, I think I have a more sincere way to discuss this movie when it comes to comparing it to the sequel. So here at last is my own review for the very controversial My Little Pony: Equestria Girls.

Plot: Set shortly after the events of season 3 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, recently crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends come to the Crystal Empire for Twilight's first royal summit with the other princesses who rule Equestria. But later that night, her magical crown is stolen by a unicorn named Sunset Shimmer who takes the crown through a magical mirror. Twilight followers her through the mirror with her dragon assistant, Spike, and so travel to an alternate world where everyone from their world are teenage, high school humans, and Sunset Shimmer is the popular girl who rules the school is an iron fist. So it's up to Twilight as a human herself and Spike as a dog to find a way to get her crown back with the help of the human counterparts of her friends.

Now with this particular movie, I have to split my body paragraph into two paragraphs (yeah I know, big shocker), because before I can talk about the film itself, it's important to talk about its background. Now like I said, this is a very controversial film, especially on account of the fact that, generally speaking, this was a movie that few to NOBODY wanted. As I've briefly explained in my Top 15 Songs from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, what gave this show this surprisingly big fan base was how it turned out to be entertaining for both kids and adults of both genders. Yes, it is a kids show that is aimed for girls, but that only makes it more impressive that when the creators of the show, DHX studios, wanted to make something better for kids than what most kid TV shows have to offer nowadays, they ended up creating something more than being just for kids. Whether it's the story, the world, the songs, morals, music or all of the above, they made something that people of all ages and both genders can enjoy and love in roughly the same way that Disney or Miyazaki or Dreamworks animation or in some respects, the Marvel films can be for everyone. The reason I am explaining all of this is because even with all of that said, there have been times where Bronies have worried that the show would lose what makes it unique by having something too girly in a sense. Part of that is because it's still a kids show, but its also because its franchise is owned by Hasbro: a company that you could arguably say has a bit of a reputation for sometimes focusing too much on the quantity of merchandise sold, than the quality of the films/shows that are based on that merchandise...or even the quality of the merchandise itself for that matter. And the mere existence of this movie, with the setting as the characters appearing as teenage humans in high school, debatably caused the biggest scare that Hasbro was finally going to ruin the show for good. Actually, let me elaborate on that. The problem itself is more the high school setting than the characters appearing as humans. In fact, some Bronies where okay with this because of how it was made because we made a lot of stories and art about how the characters would look as humans. So it seemed like this was a good risk to take and expand the universe if you will of MLP. And in some respects, yes, that is very true. But where there is artistic differences between Hasbro and the Bronies is that when we made our stories and art of the ponies as human, we made them as adults. Young adults at the least. After all, the characters in the show are pretty much adults themselves. They usually live by themselves, some of them run their own businesses, and so on and so forth. So the idea of making them humans in our general opinion would be a bigger, better and more reasonable risk if they are adults and NOT by taking a rather cliched, one-noted and lazy direction as having them just be teenagers in high school. And I know what some of you are thinking: "It's a kids movie, you shouldn't expect it to be to your liking, its just for little girls to sell dolls."  But there are a few problems to this so-called argument. 1) Just because it's intended for kids, doesn't mean people who like the show like me are not allowed to want it to be good, rather than just let it be something that talks down to children - especially when it's based on a show that is made by a studio who have proven many times to be better than that. 2) Even girls questioned this idea...or at least I've seen a video or two where a little girl questioned the move, and 3) Hasbro focusing on just girls gives them the same problem as DC Comics seeming to focus on just young men and Cartoon Network focusing on just little boys. That being, it's a demographic that they ALREADY HAVE! Thus, it would be smarter to focus on more than just one group, which kind of goes double if not triple for Hasbro since they know full well about the Brony community and thus that they have more people to please and make money off of besides just little girls and their parents at best. 

Okay I'm done rambling about how controversial this movie was. So let's finally talk about the movie itself. How did this movie turn out despite its major controversy? Well for me personally, I think it's very entertaining...majorly flawed as I honestly expected it to be, but still very entertaining. I find myself enjoying this film for the most part whenever I watch it, because they surprisingly don't focus so much on the fact that the characters are in high school, but more on the characters and what they where experiencing, on top of little Easter eggs related to the show and the community that kids and Bronies could enjoy. Now did those things always work? Well...let's talk about the good stuff first. First off, they did a genuinely good job at giving us the human counterparts of the original characters - namely, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rainbow Dash - in a way that keeps the personalities of the ponies from the show while also changing a couple of things about these new versions of the characters in a way that makes sense. We still have Fluttershy being shy along with having her passion for taking care of animals, we still have Rarity with her sense of fashion, we still have Applejack with her apples and Pinkie Pie...well... being Pinkie Pie. And we get brief moments with secondary characters like the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Big Macintosh, The Great and Powerful Trixie, just all of these examples with some of our most beloved characters in the show appearing as humans is just enjoyable. And while some characters had less screen time than others, it was great to see their human counterparts all the same. Also the animation in a sense is somewhat impressive. The show is made via Flash animation, and so I would agree with some Bronies such as AnY Pony that while it's not the most beautiful animation, this is still a well done feet considering that DHX studios had to basically start from scratch with creating new designs, movements, facial expressions, backgrounds and so on with this new setting of the characters appearing as humans instead of ponies. On top of that, while I can't vouch for how people feel about most human designs of these characters considering the controversy, there are some characters that most people can agree turned out very well as humans. Human Fluttershy especially in my opinion and in the opinion of a lot of Bronies, turned out to be just as adorable (as an animated character mind you) as the pony Fluttershy herself. And there are cases here and there where the music is very fun to listen to. The opening song, I think gives a great sense of excitement that sets most of the mood of the film in general. But that is nothing compared to the biggest song in the film; Equestria Girls (Cafeteria Song). Even people who made it no secret that they hate this film's guts admitted that the scene where this song played was easily the best part of the entire film. It's hard to explain why other than the fact that, on top of a couple of nods to the fans that were pretty awesome, the song itself just gives so much excitement and joy along with being extremely catchy that you can't help but have so much fun watching the scene again and again and again. Now with most of the good stuff talked about, what about the bad stuff? Because sadly, there's a lot of them. Let's start off with what is probably the film's biggest problems; the plot and the pacing. Now as I said, it's great that, for the most part, they focused more on the characters and on Twilight trying to get her crown back. But that sadly doesn't really save the film, because the plot is actually very flawed and poorly paced. While it's not as bad as something like the Transformers sequels, Equestria Girls is very littered with some major plot holes. Why didn't Twilight just take the crown since she knows where it is? Couldn't some of the stuff Sunset Shimmer did to sabotage Twilight's attempts to become Princess of the Fall Formal actually get her kicked out of the election? Why didn't Sunset Shimmer use Photoshop when she was trying to frame Twilight? How was Sunset Shimmer suppose to destroy the portal? All of these plot holes and more ended up hurting the movie really badly. And part of it is because the film was kind of rushed. Considering that they basically had 70 minutes to pick up where season 3 left off, start the plot, introduce this new world and versions of the same characters and then finish the rest of the plot, it's clear to see that some plot lines had to be either unfinished or just finished really quickly in order to tell the story in that short amount of time. Which is a real shame considering that some plot lines, like the human counterparts of Twilight's friends starting off hating each other, where actually pretty decent ideas for introducing this alternate world, but sadly where resolved way too quickly. Two other big problems where the two new characters, Flash Sentry and Sunset Shimmer. Flash Sentry is basically the popular boy in the school with his band and "cool" hair and guitar and so on, who Twilight develops a crush on. A lot of people hate him because he falls into the high school cliche of the main character having a crush on the popular person from the opposite sex.  I personally don't mind too much about this since I kind of like the idea of Twilight (or anyone among the main characters) getting a love interest...except they do almost nothing with Flash Sentry. He barely says anything to Twilight, he doesn't really have any characteristics that makes him stand out, and so he came out as a pretty bland and uninteresting character. Sunset Shimmer, while not the worst villain in the franchise, was barely any better in comparison to Flash in this movie. The premise to her character is interesting with how she was a former student of Princess Celestia, but the execution of her character and her actions were badly done. She's basically another example of how the plot itself was very flawed and horribly paced in how she did have potential as a villain, but because of those problems I just mentioned, she ended up falling pretty flat. Finally, the music in general was not that good. Don't misunderstand me, I still stand by how I felt about the opening song and Equestria Girls (Cafeteria Song). But with the rest of the soundtrack...you can tell that the music composer for the show, Daniel Ingram, who has given a considerable amount of variety of music in the show, had a lot of trouble bringing his A game for the music to his film. With basically all of the music more or less needing to be pop songs, the majority of the music aside from the ones I talked about already came out pretty bland.      
 

And that's my review for My Little Pony: Equestria Girls. This film has a lot of controversy as to whether or not it should have existed, but for what it was, I thought it was at least entertaining with what it did with its characters, some of its music, and its nice little easter eggs for the fans of the show. Was that enough to save the film? Well...no. As a film altogether, I have to admit that it is bad because of its numerous plot holes, mostly bland soundtrack and poorly developed new characters.  But at the end of the day, this film gained some very mixed reception from its viewers. There are people who like it, some hate it, and some just think it's "meh". For me personally, I like it enough that I consider it a very guilty pleasure at the end of the day.

Now I know that this review is extremely long and kind of all over the place, and I apologize for that. But please try to understand that, similar to some of my reviews like Man of Steel and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 with the controversy with those movies, this was not a film that I could simply say if it's good or bad and why without going into major detail, especially since my blog is generally meant for everyone to view, which includes both people who do watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and people who don't. But don't worry, I assure you that the review to this films sequel will be LOADS smaller and more to the point than this was.

Rating: 50%