Well.... after my review of Equestria Girls back in the summer, I kind of promised I'd do the sequel when it came out. But sadly, once again, no theaters were playing it here in my lonely little city, so I had to look on the internet. But, through time and patience (AKA A Google Search), I managed to find it. So.... think the pony summer is over? Yeah, it is. But as any brony (including myself) can tell you.... any time is pony time! So grab your brony t-shirt and hug your stuffed animal (don't lie, every brony has or wants a stuffed pony) and get ready to rock!
We start with a scene unfolding in the human world, at a coffee shop where many people are arguing for some unknown reason. We are introduced to the villians Sonata and Aria and their leader Adagio, who apparently were once denziens of Equestria and need to find a good source of anger to power them. Suddenly, a rainbow blast appears and, seeing the signs of pony magic, they decide to use it to make the world adore them. And.... Epic theme song time!
During the theme song, we get a recap of the original film along with images of the human ponies playing instruments in sillouette, before introducing the final main character as... Sunset Shimmer?
In case you never saw the first film, Sunset Shimmer was the prime antagonist. She stole Twilight Sparkle's crown, acted like a big jerk at school and turned into a giant demon sorceress before being blasted by a blast of friendship. How exactly are they going to turn her around into a good guy? But on with the review.
We see people decorating banners for a music event (I assume, because all the banners have instruments) as SS tries to help. She is called over by the other members of the Mane 6 in human form (did I mention I find human Pinkie sort of attractive?) as they discuss the banner and engage in hijinks (Pinkie used frosting instead of paste) before Principal Celestia comes in and explains our setup for the evening: the school is having a Musical Showcase and everybody is stoked to help raise money, but when the Fall Formal of last year is brought up everyone shares a disgruntled look at Shimmer. Apparently turning into a giant demon and hypnotizing the entire dance is looked down upon (kudos to the film, though, for explaining it again).
Later, the girls are setting up their instruments and discussing the events of last year. Due to Twilight's intervention at the dance, the Mane 5 (sans Twilight) forgive her for her, as Rarity puts it, "Boo-boos" last year and welcome her as a friend. They then rehearse and we get a shot of all the girls on their instruments: Dashie on lead guitar, Applejack on bass, Rarity on keytar, Pinkie on drums and Fluttershy on rhythmic tambourine (taking percussion classes in the 7th grade, I can vouch that this is an actual musical point). The song plays out well while we see cameos and such, and somehow the ponies grow their horns, wings, ears and tails during the song. They try to unravel what happens and begin to argue over thigns before Flash Sentry enters and interrupts the argument. After he leaves, we get more discussions about Shimmer's reformation, followed by another short argument (Cough Cough Rainbow Dash) as Sunset Shimmer shows three new girls around the school: Sonata, Aria and Adagio, who then discover the showcase. Talk about a coincidence.
A few scenes later, these three enter the lunchroom singing about the Battle Of The Bands, which somehow hypnotizes all of the students into being extremely competitive and determined to win. Of course, the song is good, staying in critic mode....
Oh, who am I kidding..... THIS SONG IS AWESOME!
Say what you will about the easily identifiable villians, but they can really sing. This is a really intense, but somehow still calm song about competition that somehow manages to stick in your head after it's done. I love it. Somehow, the new Mane 6 is immune to the spell as they all suspect foul play. Of course, the principals disagree with them (possibly because they've so clearly been hypnotized) and the Mane 6 are on their own.
The group tries to contact Twilight Sparkle with a mystical book Sunset Shimmer has. With it, she is may be able to send messages to Princess Celestia. Cut to the newly-reformed Ponyville, where Princess Twilight and her pony friends are relaxing when an important message comes in- the one SS sent, of course. Twilight easily identifies these mysteriouis girls as The Sirens, who gain power through absorbing negative energy. They were then banished to the human world many years ago, where they just now surfaced for reasons unknown, probably due to the magical forces of plot convience.
Twilight invents a machine that will allow her to transport between worlds at will, and has to abandon her pony friends once again to avoid confusion. She takes Spike with her and again enters the world of fan service. We learn that Flash Sentry (who's band now includes two of the Big Lebowski ponies as humans) still has a crush on Twi, and that the girls can change forms when they play music because some of Twilight's magic remains in them.
The Mane 6 (7?) arrive at a party for the bands, hoping the Sirens will be there. Sure enough, they arrive and attempt to use the power of their friendship to stop the sirens, but to no avail. The sirens then spark the anger of the student body (and Trixie, because her overrexagaration is always funny) and while distracted, plot to find out what makes the girls immune while Twilight and SS plan to stop the Sirens by using a counter-song. Twilight is drafted into the band (while somehow Pinkie gets ahold of a theromin) as the lead singer, much to the dislike of Rainbow Dash. The girls have a slumber party in order to give Twilight a place to sleep for the night, but probably more to make an excuse to see the girls do random things: Pinkie updates her Facebook status, AJ and RD get carried away playing video games and Fluttershy strokes Pinkie's pet alligator (apparently Gummy is now canon in the human world). But try as she might, Twilight simply cannot write her counter spell (although part of it may be because she's holding the pen in her mouth). Sunset Shimer and Twilight have a short discussion about living up to expectations before it is interrupted by a cameo (Maude Pie, Pinkie's incredibly boring sister).
The next morning, the song turns out to fail (with another cameo) and the band begins to argue before being interrupted by a rush to sign up. This leads the gang to come up with a plan: because Twilight hasn't finished the song yet, Rainbow Dash will once again take control of the band to keep them in the battle until Twilight can finish. But Twilight is worried: will she live up to her friends' expectations?
So the Battle Of The Bands begins, the principals remain hpynotized and the Sirens absorb all the competitive energy in the room. We then get a montage of failed musical acts (Snips and Snails do a rap act) and then the girls prepare to go on with a small joke about Rarity's new outfit (must...hide...teenage boner). As the girls sing their first song (Shake Your Tail from the preview) many of the other acts attempt to sabotage them. Although, mad credit to the gals for keeping up an awesome song with both sabotage and Rarity crying.
The Sirens then perform at the battle and, let's face it, their music is still awesome. The odd thing is, they say they're still saving their best songs for last. I'm expecting something amazing. We get a montage during this about how the girls are arguing before their next match is revealed to be against Trixie. She gets a decent few lines of songs and gets some shots off at Rainbow Dash before it's the girls' turn to go on. Of course, their song is great, but Rainbow Dash hogs the spotlight and begins a small fight within the group after SS tackles Dashie to prevent the Sirens from seeing the rainbow magic. Of course, everyone sees it the wrong way and the group has a slight argument before the Sirens manipulate the principals into eliminating Trixie's team from the tournament. But as Trixie storms off, the Sirens get to her and she begins to go evil again. She tricks the Mane 6 and sends them down a trapdoor in the stage, then closing it off.
The group remains there until night, as the Mane 7 argue while Trixie plays a song in the background (I love it, of course). The 5 supporting ponies fall vicitim to the evil bug as their energy is slowly drained. As the energy flows into the Sirens and SS attempts to work out the band's issues, they begin their song to hypnotize everyone and release their true forms (basically girls withdragon wings).....
You all know what I'm going to say about it, don't you? Of course you do. I freaking love it. Moing on.
Twilight and Sunset Shimmer help the gang be friends again and Spike manages to break out the girls with help from an unlikely friend: the human Vinyl Scratch (DJ P0n-3), who is immune to the Sirens' song because she never takes off her dubstep-blasting headphones.
The group realizes that any song they sing with the power of their friendship works as a counterspell, and with the help of Vinyl's car that transforms into a DJ booth (don't ask) they work to outplay the Sirens' song with a song that releases their true friendship and enter an apocalyptic battle of music and epicness as the Sirens release giant dragons that are supposed to be their music's power, but they are quickly met by the Mane 6 with help from Sunset Shimmer (who, I have to admit, is a pretty good singer). They sing a song that allows Sunset Shimmer to reenter her pony/human form, which allows them to all work together and blow the sirens to oblivion with a giant magic unicorn blast. The Sirens lose their musical prowess and quickly lose the battle of the bands. Flash Sentry gets another romance scene in, Trixie makes another braggy joke and Sunset Shimmer is signed on as the band's new vocalist before Twilight has to go back. End of film.
Those of you who actually follow my blog may recall I gave the first Equestria Girls a semi-decent review. I said it had it's good points and it's bad points, but overall it was a decent film. So, how does number 2 stack up?
OVERALL RATING: 6/10
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Okay, it's a mixed bag like the first one. There are quite a few plot holes (how could Spike get Vinyl's attention if she always has her headphones on?) and a few missed opportunities (I'd love to have seen some of the season 4 characters as humans, like Cheese Sandwich if only to get Weird Al back into the MLP universe). But hey, whatever the bad points are, they're easily outshined by the fantastic song numbers: whatever Equestria Girls did in the musical department, Rainbow Rocks surpassed it tenfold. The songs are, obviously, the high point; every single one is amazing and catchy, and if the soundtrack ever comes out, I'd gladly purchase it without a second thought. I think if they make a third EG film, my advice would be to combine the basic high points of the original with the music of the second. Maybe then I'd be able to give a MLP movie more than 6 out of 10 without a sense of pandering.
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