Transformers: Prime - One Shall Stand

Note: This review contains spoilers for Transformers: Prime - One Shall Stand and the Transformers: Prime cartoon.

Even 10 years after its debut, Transformers: Prime remains one of my favorite Transformers cartoons, if not one of my favorite animated series in general. In light of the show’s 10^th anniversary, I decided to revisit one of the two feature-length edits of the show released by Shout! Factory, Transformers: Prime - One Shall Stand, which combines seven episodes of the series from the end of the first Season and the beginning of the second, removing commercial breaks and repeated scenes. While I have previously viewed the seven episodes both individually as they aired and in combined form, I had not previously reviewed the combined version. After giving it another look, I thought it worked very well for what it set out to accomplish and served to remind me why I loved the show in the first place.

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Legend of Everfree

Note: This review contains spoilers for My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Legend of Everfree.

After having watched and reviewed the first three My Little Pony: Equestria Girls spin-off movies, we decided to watch the fourth and final movie, Legend of Everfree, in order to have a full opinion on all four of them. However, when trying to watch the movie, we saw no convenient way to legally stream it, mainly since we aren’t Netflix subscribers and didn’t want to waste the free trial just to watch one movie. This necessitated us to instead take advantage of our Amazon Prime membership and purchase a physical copy of the movie, opting for the DVD version in order to spend as little money on the endeavor as possible. All that said, Legend of Everfree did present some good ideas with its story and characters, however it wasn’t entirely executed as well as it could have been.

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Friendship Games

Note: This review contains spoilers for My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games.

The year after Rainbow Rocks released, Hasbro released a follow-up, Friendship Games. This release coincided with my personal disillusionment with the Brony fandom, so I didn’t get to actually watch it until about four years later when I remembered I had recorded the TV version on a DVR. The long wait to watch it was actually a blessing, since I was able to view it more objectively. With that in mind, I feel that compared to Rainbow Rocks, this film took one step forward and two steps back.

Second Look - My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Rainbow Rocks

Note: This review contains spoilers for My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks.

Back in 2014, I had reviewed My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks based on a limited theatrical screening. With the passage of time, however, I’ve come to dislike my original review. I didn’t take the review seriously enough and I realized that I was overly harsh due to a negative experience with particularly overzealous “Bronies” (Friendship is Magic’s adult male fans) at a theatrical screening. After about five years, I decided to take another look at this film, alongside the original Equestria Girls, to see if I felt any differently and look at any of its flaws more objectively. I turns out that I warmed up to it a bit more, but I still felt that at least one change could have improved it dramatically.

Second Look - My Little Pony: Equestria Girls

Note: This review contains spoilers for My Little Pony: Equestria Girls.

Over the course of its nine-year lifespan, the inexplicably popular My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic cartoon had a short-lived spin-off series of films, collectively known as My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, which was made to into a toyline designed to compete with Mattel’s popular Monster High series and its ilk. When I first saw the original Equestria Girls film in 2013, I came away with a largely negative opinion of it, which I admit was partly influenced by having initially seen it in a theater alongside an audience with some particularly obnoxious members of the “brony” community, which, for those who aren’t aware, consists of the Friendship is Magic cartoon’s periphery demographic of adult males. Though I eventually stopped caring about the Friendship is Magic cartoon after 100 episodes, only tuning in later to watch the series finale, I wasn’t entirely satisfied with how my original review of the first Equestria Girls movie turned out, and so decided to revisit it in a context entirely divorced from my original experiences. Though not quite as bad as I remembered it, there were still some issues I had with the final product.

G.I. Joe: Resolute

A number of ‘80s toyline properties initially aimed at children, including some of Hasbro’s IPs, have since garnered an adult fanbase, some of which would rather that franchise cater to them. Rarely does such a franchise actually deliver on this request, which is where G.I. Joe: Resolute comes in. Originally released as a series of 11 episodes (ten 5-minute and one 10-minute) released on [adult swim]’s website, these were then compiled into a feature that was aired on TV and released to home media in this form. Though I’m more of a drive-by fan of G.I. Joe, this special seemed intriguing enough that I watched it via DVD. Not only was it better than I expected, by the end of it I almost wanted to see what happened next.

Cobra Commander (Charlie Adler) has taken the world hostage, threatening to destroy various nations around the world with a particle beam unless the UN gives him control over all of them within 24 hours. When Cobra Commander destroys Moscow to show he’s serious, the Joes, led by Duke (Steve Blum), work tirelessly to come up with a plan to stop Cobra’s plans. Meanwhile, Snake-Eyes has some personal business to take care of when Storm Shadow (Eric Bauza) challenges him to a final showdown at their dojo.

There’s a lot going on in the story, however everything resolves and comes together in interesting ways. The combined form of the special results in some hesitations, meaning you can tell when each of the original episodes starts and ends, however these actually allow one to better absorb what’s going on in the feature’s multiple subplots. The story is overall one of the better takes on G.I. Joe that I’ve seen, not just because of its more violent/serious nature, rather it was just really well-written and executed.

Storm Shadow (Eric Bauza, left) and Snake-Eyes (right) about to face off.

The animation, provided by the well-regarded studio Titmouse, Inc., is very well-done, using a polished, yet gritty art style that fits well with the G.I. Joe setting. Knowing that Titmouse animates in Flash makes the animation quality seem more impressive than it already is since it’s not obvious and very much resembles a more traditionally-animated series.

The voice acting for Resolute is impressive, especially given the size of the cast and that all of them are voiced by four people between them: Steve Blum, Eric Bauza, Grey DeLisle and Charlie Adler. Each actor’s vocal range is on good display here, each of them providing voices for several characters at once while still making them sound different from each other. Steve Blum’s range kind of shows a little if you’re familiar with some of his other work, however I only knew it was him when voicing Duke and some background Joes without realizing who he also voiced (among them Ripcord and Zartan) until the credits rolled. Charlie Adler’s take on Cobra Commander is rather interesting; having seen clips of the original cartoon where the late Chris Latta voiced the character, it was evident that Adler was trying to emulate Latta while at the same time giving it a more sinister twist that matched his more ruthless personality in this feature (amusingly, Latta and Adler have also each provided a voice for different versions of Starscream in the Transformers franchise, as has Blum).

G.I. Joe: Resolute is a very interesting take on G.I. Joe that older fans of the series should not miss. The animation and voice talent are excellent, as are the writing and character dynamics. Though the G.I. Joe brand generally aims at a younger demographic, Resolute was designed for a much older audience and, as such, is best not shown to any younger G.I. Joe fans. That said, even those with only a passing knowledge of G.I. Joe will be able to get some enjoyment out of Resolute.

[OLD] Transformers: The Last Knight

This film has been re-reviewed. Read it here: https://trophyunlocked.blogspot.com/2023/06/second-look-transformers-last-knight.html

Following the release and success of Age of Extinction, an effort has been made to turn the Transformers Live-Action Film Series into a Cinematic Universe as a way to cash-in on the recent trend to emulate the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This includes releasing a new Transformers film every year, or at least for the next three years, starting with the fifth installment, subtitled The Last Knight. In my anticipation to see this movie after enjoying the previous installment, I was able to view an early screening at AMC in 3D IMAX, in what was called the Optimus Prime Time event, in which attendees to the screening also received a free T-shirt and lanyard commemorating the event. While the movie certainly has flaws, I still enjoyed the movie, which I see as a good sign for the new direction of the Transformers Live-Action Film Series going forward.

In medieval England, the Knights of the Round Table are struggling in an epic battle, prompting the wizard Merlin (Stanley Tucci) to summon the aid of the Knights of Iacon, whose existence he had previously kept secret. In the present day, the world has fallen into chaos in the wake of Optimus Prime’s departure at the end of Age of Extinction, with Transformers being hunted down by a new group called the TRF. Meanwhile, on Cybertron, Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) has met his maker, Quintessa (Gemma Chan), who subsequently brainwashes him, now under the name Nemesis Prime, into carrying out her plan to restore Cybertron at the cost of Earth.

The plot of the movie is generally easy to follow, although I will admit that the plethora of new characters introduced may muddy things for some people, as it now gives them more things to keep track of. That said, the movie seems to have embraced going in a sillier direction where it does not take itself so seriously, which I think will help the new Cinematic Universe in the long run. Though there is plenty of humor and well-spaced action scenes, a lot of the humor comes from an increase in cursing and rude gestures, however these things are not new to this continuity. On the subject of continuity, there are plenty of call-backs not only to previous installments in the Live-Action Film Series, but also to a number of things previously established in the Transformers mythos.

The visual effects are spectacular as always, especially in 3D, with each robot designed in a way to help them stand out, such as bright colors and more streamlined designs. There are, however, still a good amount of moving mechanical parts to provide some solid eye candy for those looking for it. The acting is also good, with some voice actors providing multiple roles in a way that still sound unique from each other. A couple stand-outs include Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime (as always) and Sir Anthony Hopkins as Sir Edmond Burton, the latter of which provides a good source of humor and helps tie the story to its medieval theme.

Transformers: The Last Knight is an excellent installment in the Transformers Live-Action Film Series and a great celebration of the series' 10^th anniversary. The story manages to make great use of its medieval theme, though, while not a complicated plot, there’s evidently at least a couple of retcons to try and make it work and the huge number of new characters can make some viewers not follow the fight scenes as easily. Still, this movie proves to be a step in the right direction for the new Cinematic Universe and is easily a must-see for both Transformers fans and fans of the Live-Action Film Series in particular.

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Rainbow Rocks

As I’ve expressed in my previous review, I’m not really much of a brony at this point, as I’d consider myself more of a collector of Friendship is Magic memorabilia. I’m still really selective, acquiring only specific toys and all of the comics (to stay in the loop), but I have more of a love/hate relationship with the fanbase. There are some good things that come out of it, like good art and sometimes music, but they can also be incredibly relentless about their passion to the point of almost being a complete turn-off; my audience at the screening of Equestria Girls didn’t really do much to help that at all.

Speaking of which, I found Equestria Girls to be an incredibly wasted concept, since the idea of creating a new world was squashed in favor of having the new universe be exactly the same as the original, but with people, and totally came off as the Monster High ripoff that it really is (this coming from someone who doesn’t care at all about Monster High). Furthermore, the plot was really thin, required a lot of contrivances and the new characters were especially bland and one-dimensional. Rainbow Rocks, the inevitable sequel, decided to take a different approach with its marketing by having a series of shorts on YouTube which serve as a lead-in to the film itself. This is a little problematic in itself because there may be some people who don’t regularly look for Rainbow Rocks updates (and for those who care I bet they’ll be on the home video release), but in any case they did give me an idea of what to expect. In the end my expectations were still pretty low, but I decided that, despite not really liking the previous movie, I should see this one in the theater to get a more complete opinion, as well as see a version that isn’t tainted by TV edits.

So now that I’ve seen Rainbow Rocks in the theater, did it manage to fare better than Equestria Girls? In my opinion it did, but only marginally so.

Here we go again.

Continuity Note: Due to the placement of Rainbow Rocks within Friendship is Magic continuity, there may be unmarked spoilers regarding the events of S4E26 Twilight’s Kingdom - Part 2.

The movie opens with the Dazzlings, three girls with otherworldly origins, talking in a café about being trapped in the human world. After they walk outside, they see the ending of Equestria Girls and their leader, Adagio Dazzle (Kazumi Evans) (hence their collective name), realizes that the magic on display means that they have a chance of regaining their original forms and going back to their original dimension. Less than 30 moons (months) later, Canterlot High is going to host their first ever musical showcase. As Sunset Shimmer (Rebecca Shoichet) helps out her new friends, the human counterparts of the “Mane 6” sans Twilight Sparkle (Tara Strong), with their act, she laments the fact that no one in the school fully trusts her yet and still sees her as a villain. As her friends try to cheer her up, she is called on to show three new students, the Dazzlings, around the school. With their arrival, it’s also announced that the musical showcase is now a battle of the bands, where only one musical act can win it all. Once the Dazzlings show off their magic, Sunset’s party realizes that in order to fully defeat them, they’ll need Princess Twilight Sparkle to join them. After being contacted through a magic book that Sunset happened to have in her locker, Princess Twilight shows up to help. With her newly added to their band, the Rainbooms, the girls believe that they have the power to defeat the Dazzlings and save both of their worlds.

The Dazzlings (from left): Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze, Sonata Dusk.

From a strictly narrative point of view, I don’t think it was necessary for Twilight Sparkle to be the main character. The beginning of the movie actually did a good job setting up Sunset Shimmer to be the lead and hinted heavily that she would be the one to handle the villains, but she seemed to drift into the background more once Twilight was re-introduced to the world. Speaking of which, the method for contacting Twilight, a magic book, comes right out of nowhere and is given a pretty poor explanation of why and how it got into her locker. She mentions something about having it on her in case she wanted to contact Celestia again (or some odd thing like that), despite the fact that in the official prequel story from the 2013 My Little Pony Annual comic, there is absolutely no evidence of Sunset taking anything with her to the human world, not even a book; to put it simply, the existence of the book introduces more questions than are answered. Furthermore, why did they even need Twilight anyway? I know they said that it’s because of her magic being compatible with the residual magic that the human versions of her friends have, but Sunset wore Twilight’s crown in the last movie, so that means she should have some of the residual magic as well and thus be compatible (none of this is headcanon; I am strictly following the logic of the movie’s narrative). On top of that, it felt like the movie was going to set up a very interesting plot twist for the ending that I started piecing together after a while, but unfortunately the potential was erased at the very last second by a line of dialogue. Also, Flash Sentry (Vincent Tong) is still as flat as a board, existing only to revive an unnecessary plot thread.

This really didn't need to happen for the plot to work.

At this point I should probably talk about the main villains, the Dazzlings, comprised of Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze (Diana Kaarina) and Sonata Dusk (Marÿke Hendrikse). Their personalities are easy to identify, as Adagio, who gets the most lines, is the leader who keeps the other two in line, Aria is kind of prickly and Sonata is a ditz. I question the need to have an idiot in the ensemble, but nevertheless I liked that their personalities were at least better developed than Sunset Shimmer in the first movie, as this time it’s the opening conversation that gives us an idea of who they are. Their motivation is also better thought out and their plan is actually a bit more subtle. Plus, their final battle was more visually interesting, even if it touched on the same points, and I didn’t feel as annoyed by them as I did with Sunset from before.

Since music is actually more important to the plot this time, I’m going to start discussing it here instead of at the end like I normally would. This time around there are 12 songs crammed within the film’s 75-minute run time, which is a lot for any movie, and I’m not sure all of them were particularly good. There are a couple of them here and there that are a little catchy and the Dazzlings have admittedly great singing voices, especially in the finale (accompanied by a fantastic guitar solo). However, a couple of them were repetitive and the lyrics aren’t completely the best, plus it feels like every one of the songs from the Rainbooms had a ton of harmony in them and I found Rainbow Dash’s guitar playing to be just all right. Overall the soundtrack is kind of what I’d expect from Friendship is Magic, but also of a higher quality than Equestria Girls. However, I have one small nitpick: whenever the Dazzlings are singing, you can hear additional instruments being played, but none of them are visible. Is this just a shortcut for the animation or do they create an ambiance whenever they sing?

[Background music intensifies]

This time around the animation also seems to have improved, with smoother and more unique character animations despite having the same models. The instruments are also much more technically accurate this time around and it appears that they did actually take some time to make sure that the finger placement on a guitar actually looked like it matched with the music being played; this is a must for any animation related to music if it wants to be more believable. However, there are two background characters that stand out, as they have much more intense detail in their designs, as though they followed a non-standard model. It almost feels like these two were meant to resemble Monster High characters, but I don’t really know for sure. In any case, it shows what the animators are capable of if they try harder.

The two girls on the very far left look pretty non-standard.

As for the fandom nods, they were certainly there, but nowhere near as obnoxious as in the first movie, almost as though they scaled back a bit. Similarly, my theater experience this time was less annoying than before, despite having the exact same group of obnoxious bronies from last time (these guys seemed to embody every stereotype you can think of for the fanbase, which does nothing but give us an even worse reputation). Thankfully nobody shouted “Wingboner” or anything, but because they were in the back and sound travels forward, you could still hear their quiet commentary, which a much louder (male) child right behind me parroted at times. Someone was also visibly trying to record the movie, but fortunately that got nipped in the bud [NOTE: Trophy Unlocked does not condone piracy of any kind]. Apart from that, I enjoyed actually having surround sound this time around and no visible sign of the film being on DVD, but I may still watch it again on TV just to catch some things I might have missed.

Twilight just realized what movie she's in.

Since I mentioned the end of the credits last time, I think I should mention that you really need to stay this time, since it hints at something going forward (oh joy) and answers a question created by the first movie. Also, the credits sequence itself has some drawings of several of the characters from the movie and they look like they are better drawn than the actual animations (though this is just my opinion).

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks is just okay. The plot is a bit tighter and the villains are more developed, although there are a couple of missed opportunities that really bog down the experience. In addition the music and animation are a bit better and more attention was paid to instrument detail during the songs. Despite improvements however, the movie hasn’t completely gotten away from feeling like a Monster High ripoff (based on what little I know) and should there be a third movie, more effort should be put into distancing this sub-series from its rather cliché setting. If you’re a fan, then you’ve probably already seen this or are making plans to, but even then I’d say to err on the side of caution when trying to view this one. However, if you’re a nonfan, there’s nothing here that’ll really sway you. I may watch it again, but I’d be very hesitant to pay money again to do so.

Transformers Prime Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising

I have already made evident on this blog that I am a big fan of the Transformers franchise, as well as mentioned multiple times that the Transformers: Prime cartoon on The Hub network is good. However, after 3 seasons and a total of 65 episodes, the inevitable time has come for the show to end. Not only did the show have some very solid writing, it had a very interesting take on the Transformers mythos and became an excellent centerpiece to the Aligned continuity. While the finale episode, “Deadlock”, did provide a good conclusion to the series, it didn’t have enough closure as certain plot points had not yet been resolved, including ones from the concurrently-running Beast Hunters comic from IDW (at issue #5 at the time of this writing). Thus, the creative team behind Prime came up with the idea of a TV movie, Predacons Rising, that would not only wrap things up, but also provide a good conclusion to the cartoon as a whole (if the San Diego Comic-Con 2013 panel I went to is to be believed, the team came up with it out of a need for an extra 66th episode that ties up all the loose ends). With this feature’s recent premier on The Hub, I decided it would be a good idea to watch the episode “Deadlock” again, which re-aired before Predacons Rising, to remind myself of what happened due to the amount of time between the finale episode and movie. Having recently seen the TV movie, it seemed to be a worthy sendoff of the Prime cartoon.

Spoiler Note: This movie takes place after the Transformers: Prime Season 3 (subtitled Beast Hunters) finale “Deadlock”, so there will be unmarked spoilers regarding the movie’s placement in the continuity. If you do not wish to be spoiled of any events in Prime, turn back now. You have been warned.

After Cybertron’s reformatting at the end of Beast Hunters, as Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) congratulates his fellow Autobots on a job well done, Megatron (Frank Welker), having been offline and at the bottom of one of Earth’s oceans, is given a new lease on life thanks to Unicron (John Noble), who uses Megatron’s body as a vessel to get back to Cybertron and fulfill a desire he had not yet been able to carry out. Back on Cybertron, after Optimus promotes Bumblebee (Will Friedle) from an Autobot scout to an Autobot warrior, Prime gives the team orders on what to do regarding the rebuilding of Cybertron before leaving with Wheeljack (James Horan) to retrieve the AllSpark, which he had shot into space to keep it away from Decepticon hands (sound familiar?), which would help to ensure Cybertron’s future. As the Autobots make efforts to rebuild, Smokescreen (Nolan North) and Ultra Magnus (Michael Ironside) explore the now-inaccurately-named Sea of Rust, where they encounter two bots that are not what they expected: Predacons.

The story of Predacons Rising is actually very compelling, with a multitude of plots going on that come together one way or another. These plots wrap up rather nicely at the end, with a hint of more to come by the end of it all. The characterization is very consistent with that of the Prime cartoon, with some additional bits of character development seen amongst the characters as the events unfold. Though there are a couple of new characters introduced (mainly to sell toys), they are introduced in such a way that they don’t seem out of place in the grand scheme of things and actually manage to contribute to the overall plot without feeling out of place. Overall, the story has great execution and is enough to keep you watching until the emotional climax.

However, it doesn’t wrap up everything in the overall Prime continuity, though it mainly comes down to a couple of tidbits. In the events of Season 3 of Prime, the Decepticon Airachnid ends up becoming, for lack of a better term, a robotic vampire in space, residing on the moon with an army of loyal subjects last time she was seen. This does not get any resolution in the movie, though admittedly the plot was already fairly packed to begin with, so whether this is a good thing might depend on the viewer. As for the other thing, I had some expectations that the Dinobots, last seen on Cybertron in the Beast Hunters comic, would somehow show up in the movie, though I had my doubts that they would even show up in the first place. Hopefully, the Beast Hunters comic will resolve their side of the story and provide some sort of closure for them. These details might be nitpicking, but they were things I had in mind before going in.

The ongoing Beast Hunters comic is at issue 5 at
the time of this review.

The animation is very spectacular, showing the pinnacle of quality in the Prime cartoon. I’ve commented on how good the animation was in the Darkness Rising feature, but the motions of the characters are much more fluid here, displaying three seasons worth of experience on behalf of the animation team to great effect. As with the show itself, I sometimes almost got lost in the detail of some the character designs, including minor things such as reflections and tiny scratches on metal, most especially during close-up shots where these were much more visible. There were also times where, due to the complexity of some of the character designs, I began to wonder how difficult things must have been to animate.

The voice acting is as great as always, with special note going to John Noble returning as Unicron from Season 2 of the Prime cartoon. Everyone delivers a solid performance, including (relative) newcomer Will Friedle as Bumblebee (with him and Nolan North making two Deadpool voice actors appearing at the same time), which help sell the characters they voice well as it shows the actors really gave it their all for one last hurrah. And as usual, Brian Tyler’s music is very good for the movie, though like with his other works, the music totally works when it’s happening, but it isn’t very memorable afterwards, the main exception being the main theme for the series that plays at least once or twice for 65 episodes and the movie (a good handful of times with a special remix), which really sticks with you for a good while.

Transformers Prime Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising is a great example of Transformers animation and is a well-produced movie in its own right. However, this is a movie that should not be viewed on its own, as it contains several callbacks to episodes of the show and in general is part of a show that is heavily driven by continuity. If you want to see this movie, I would suggest, if you haven’t already, watching all 3 seasons of the Prime cartoon before watching this so that you have a better understanding of what’s going on. However, this is still something that any Transformers fan, especially one of Prime, should definitely see. To put it simply, it does not disappoint.

Second Opinion - My Little Pony: Equestria Girls

While I am a big fan of the Transformers franchise, despite its various ups and downs over the years, and I've dabbled somewhat in the G.I. Joe universe before, with plans to watch Renegades and Resolute in the future, I will also admit to watching My Little Pony, specifically the most recent iteration, Friendship is Magic, incepted by Lauren Faust (wife of Craig McCracken of The Powerpuff Girls fame). If I were typing this at an earlier point in time since the show premiered, I would have considered myself a “brony”, but to be honest I am not digging recent material, namely the entirety of Season 3 and the accompanying comics released by IDW Publishing (although the recent Cutie Mark Crusaders Micro-Series comic proved itself to be a true diamond in the rough by my standards), to the point where, like my brother, I am on the brink of being disillusioned by Friendship is Magic as a whole. One of the major problems I have, aside from the declining writing quality across the board, is the series’ obsession with pop culture references as opposed to focusing on telling a solid story. Granted, things like the current Deadpool comic run by Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan can pull this off and still be hilarious, and references are fine if it’s a natural part of the universe in some way, such as with Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and naming characters/fighting moves after artists/songs/albums in music, but My Little Pony seems currently so stuffed with them, and putting disproportionate emphasis on fandom nods, that I audibly groan every time they come up (unless they’re subtle such as with IDW’s Transformers output).

Dio Brando from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
(Part 1: Phantom Blood).

Anyway, when it was announced that there would be a feature film written by veteran Friendship is Magic writer Meghan McCarthy titled Equestria Girls, made to compete with Mattel’s popular Monster High property, I became somewhat curious about it, but a little thrown back by the concept of humanized ponies present in official canon material, let alone it being set in a high school. The first trailer released online did not help matters at all, as I cringed at how cliché the concept appeared (the second trailer, while better, still did not entirely sell me on the concept). Despite this, I decided to watch the movie anyway during its theatrical run, mainly so I could form my own opinion and not be influenced by those of others. When I was watching, I think I had the wrong audience since it consisted mostly of die-hard fans who simply would not shut up, especially when a favorite background character of theirs popped up on screen, which no doubt confused any of the few audience members who were actual children. The sound quality didn’t really help matters, since it was very much presented in mono (one speaker). While I didn’t like the movie anyway, I decided to watch it again during its recent broadcast on The Hub network (which broadcasts the soon-to-be-concluding Transformers: Prime), if only so I could actually hear everything the way it was intended (my sound system at home is very much not mono). However, unlike Thor where it’s better once you can actually see everything, this movie isn’t any better even if you can actually hear it.

Spoiler Note: This movie takes place after the Friendship is Magic Season 3 finale, “Magical Mystery Cure”, so there will be unmarked spoilers regarding the episode. If you care about this sort of thing, please stop reading right now. You have been warned.

Following the events of “Magical Mystery Cure” (get it?), Twilight Sparkle (Tara Strong) is now a Princess, and she and her friends arrive at the Crystal Empire so Twilight can attend a meeting there with Princesses Celestia (Nicole Oliver), Luna (Tabitha St. Germain), and Cadance (Britt McKillip) the next day. While they are sleeping, a mysterious unicorn enters Twilight’s room to steal her crown, but she is spotted after tripping over Twilight’s dragon assistant, Spike (Cathy Weseluck), and everyone runs after her. However, it is too late and the crown and thief vanish through a magic mirror portal. It is then revealed that the thief is actually a former pupil of Princess Celestia’s named Sunset Shimmer (Rebecca Shoichet), and Twilight has to go through the mirror to stop her in another world. However, she has to recover the crown fast, since the portal will close soon and will remain closed for another thirty moons (or ~2.5 years, assuming they mean a “moon” to be a full moon cycle); also her friends can’t follow her, lest they upset some sort of strange cosmological balance. Twilight soon jumps through the portal, with Spike following after her, where she ends up in another world in the form of a human, with Spike taking on the appearance of a dog. Not only does Twilight have to get her crown back, but she must also get used to her new form as well.

Twilight Sparkle getting used to her new human body.

The idea of Twilight Sparkle dimension hopping leaves open a lot of possibilities, including several different types of plots that could have been explored to make Equestria Girls more exciting. However, the end result  is, to put it bluntly, so cliché that it hurts, almost physically. Much like how Cars 2 is every spy movie imaginable, Equestria Girls’ plot mostly follows the structure of nearly every high school movie plot ever constructed, although even saying that might be giving it too much credit. Sub-plots come out of nowhere only to be dropped soon after, making them utterly pointless and only serve to make you say “There’s that scene”. The movie also can’t seem to stay consistent with itself for more than 5 minutes, since one statement or event is often made only to be contradicted by another almost immediately afterwards; for example, Princess Celestia tells Twilight Sparkle in one early scene that she doesn’t know much about the other world, yet a few minutes later seems to display an awful lot of knowledge about how the space-time continuum works, using that as the basis for why Twilight’s friends couldn’t join her. Not helping this are numerous plot holes that the story proper doesn’t even attempt to address, though going into too much detail on that would create spoilers.

The characters themselves also leave something to be desired. When Twilight Sparkle reaches the human world, she happens to find other people who not only share the same names as her friends, but are also just like them down to personality and skin tones (which really just brings up comparisons to Nickelodeon’s Doug). I know this is an alternate universe, but I have a hard time swallowing that a more realistic human world would only have people whose real names are Fluttershy (Andrea Libman) or Rarity (Tabitha St. Germain) or whatever; perhaps they would have been better off if they were somehow just sort of nicknames (this was probably to be more like Monster High, but from what I've read it appears to be based in more of a fantasy horror setting, so the names there are more excusable). As for personalities, the human versions of existing characters are so much like their pony counterparts that, like a remake of an already good movie, you start to wonder what exactly the point was. Human Rainbow Dash (Ashleigh Ball) is pretty much still pony Rainbow Dash (Ashleigh Ball) and human Applejack (Ashleigh Ball) is exactly like pony Applejack (Ashleigh Ball), so it comes across as more repetitive of the show proper (Friendship is Magic), not taking into account scenes already recycled from the original show. The original characters of Sunset Shimmer and Flash Sentry (Vincent Tong), on the other hand, seem very underdeveloped for what they’re worth. Sunset Shimmer, the main villain who has a name eerily similar to Twilight Sparkle’s, is a one-dimensional, self-centered, unsympathetic jerk who is so cardboard that 80’s cartoon villains seem more three-dimensional by comparison and her 180 at the end seems so forced as to be unbelievable. Flash Sentry, on the other hand, is so generic that literally any other character could have taken his place and things would have played out exactly the same way; his only real purpose is so Twilight could have a love interest, which is one thing that the show the movie is based on was actively trying to avoid.

Pictured: The cast of Equestria Girls.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the animation of the movie is actually rather decent, showing improvement over the source material, especially over earlier episodes. I can’t say anything that would significantly knock down the animation, since even more subtle movements are animated well for being done in Flash (though guitar playing could’ve been done better), but the art style of the human world deserves some flak. For the most part, everyone has the same body type as the next guy, and on top of that nearly every character is rail thin, much like a Barbie or Ken doll. I know that most pony characters back in Equestria have similar character models, but if you’re trying to go for a human world more akin to real life, there should be more variety in body types, much like a real high school would. Oddly, footwear also seems to be a permanent fixture of human anatomy in this universe, which is weird when you see people having changed clothes between scenes. At least you can say the movie was animated well.

Pictured: Rarity, a perfect example of what humans normally look like.

The voice acting is also good, especially when it comes to more familiar characters from Friendship is Magic. I’m not sure if the voice actors themselves also found the script to be lackluster, but it’s clear they are at least making the most out of the lines they were given to read. The voice actors for new characters Sunset Shimmer and Flash Sentry also seem to make the most out of what they have, pulling off decent performances despite what they had to say, though I can’t help but feel they were given the short end of the stick on this production; hopefully if they return in Season 4 of Friendship is Magic, they are handed better scripts to read from. As for the music by William Anderson and Daniel Ingram, there is no doubt that they put their best into it, though Daniel Ingram’s compositions don’t really reach any more new highs than they already have in the original show. However, the sheer number of songs in this movie seems like nothing more than padding, no matter how good they may be, though as a fan of electronic music, I thought the remix of the Friendship is Magic theme present in the movie wasn’t very good (I wasn’t thinking it should be like Daft Punk or Deadmau5, who are within my personal top 5, but it still could’ve been a whole lot better).

Though it is better than Flash Sentry's (left) guitar playing.
(Also, I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure he's holding a bass.)

Now my brother has already gone into great detail about the fandom nods and references present in his original review of the movie, though I still have a couple of things to say regarding this. Within the first scenes of the movie, Pinkie Pie (Andrea Libman) curls into a ball while explaining a made-up word, only to uncurl soon after to a transformation sound present in the Transformers franchise. When I heard this for the first time in a theater, I honestly thought it was coming from someone else’s cell phone (incidentally it’s a sound I even have on mine, though I had my phone off the whole time), but then I learned it was actually an actual part of the actual movie, which I found weird when associated with a pink cartoon horse (although when I gained this knowledge, the sound itself instantly became my favorite part of the movie, since it reminded me of better things). As for the amount of references and nods, there actually seemed to be fewer of them upon my second viewing, mainly because the TV version actually removes at least two scenes, likely for time constraints, one of which had a rather pointless cameo from Trixie (Kathleen Barr in the theatrical version, Snake Eyes in the TV version), and another of which contained its own pointless cameo from the Cutie Mark Crusaders: Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo (Michelle Creber, Claire Corlett, and Madeleine Peters respectively in the theatrical version, all also Snake Eyes in the TV version). Removing the latter scene also creates yet another plot hole, but let’s not get into that right now.

Even after a second viewing with clearer audio, My Little Pony: Equestria Girls is a train wreck of a movie with not much to show for it. Though the animation, music, and voice acting have their upsides, the writing is rather sub-par and the world presented in the movie is very unbelievable, even by Friendship is Magic standards. Meghan McCarthy’s skills as a writer may have proven themselves in earlier episodes of the show (before Lauren Faust’s departure), but perhaps she could have at least done more revising on the script for this movie before it was sent out for recording. I have no doubt that some fans will continue to defend this movie despite all its faults, but it still failed to impress me. I would still recommend watching this movie at least once, if only so you can have your own opinion of the movie.

Later this year, the story of Transformers: Prime will reach its conclusion with a TV movie called Predacons Rising, which I am looking forward to seeing and will review once I do. Based on what little I’ve seen and heard about it at a panel from this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, I have high hopes that it will turn out a lot better than this mess of a movie.

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Big Adventure, Little Fun

Perhaps I should explain myself on this one. For the past two or so years, I have been a fan of the television series known as My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Thanks to my friends, and countless pictures on the internet (particularly DeaviantArt), I decided to give it a shot while Season One was still airing on the Hub network. After watching a couple episodes, I ended up getting sucked into the whole thing, fandom included, and eventually accepted the fact that I had become a fan of something that, at first glance, appears to be made for little girls. I suppose that would make me what the internet has chosen to identify as a "brony"...

Wait, where are you going?

...but that label has become less applicable with time. You see, when I first got into the fandom, it was in the good way, like, it felt pretty cool. Some of my friends were also fans and it was a little fun to find out just who else was into this show. However, it's also been quite interesting to watch something gradually go from a simple fascination into some uncontrollable obsession. Over time I've seen the fandom, the same one that I am still a part of mind you, do some pretty crazy things to the point where my last visit to San Diego Comic-Con, way back in 2012, saw various parts of the experience get absolutely pulverized by cosplayers, people buying WeLoveFine shirts in droves, others standing in line for panels and signings and, perhaps worst of all, effectively hijacking the Hasbro Toy Shop booth by relentlessly utilizing a "scorched earth" strategy to buy as many copies as possible of My Little Pony 2012 Special Edition Pony (the max was three and it was only $20, so do the math there). It was an absolute nightmare to have to deal with bronies at the convention, which was but another straw on the camel's back, as it eventually caused me to have to buy the aforementioned toy off Ebay later at an inflated price. The final straw has yet to be placed onto that metaphorical camel, but the pile has already been building up, each new straw piercing me in yet another new way to gradually lead to my disillusionment.

As that dark future has yet to hit, I'm, again, still a part of the fandom, but I haven't been as enthusiastic as I once was. I'll still watch the show and read the comics that have come out, and I have participated by writing fan fiction and speculating on the franchise's future, but that is not without its caveats. I am under the personal belief that since near the end of Season Two of the show, or perhaps even before that (which, coincidentally, happens to be the time Lauren Faust dropped out entirely), the writers have been tanking it by including reference after reference in an attempt to pander to the fanbase, which, as a result, has been contributing to the show runners really not knowing who to appeal to; the balance between kid and adult demographic appeal has been lost in favor of the sudden periphery. I read the comics, but I feel that none of them have been really all that good due to the invisible "reference war" between IDW and DHX Media, in which the winner is the one who can shove the most references into a single space without batting an eye. The first four-issue arc of the comic, for instance, has a plot that is uncannily close to that of Avatar: The Last Airbender's overall dealings with Sozin's Comet and there have been parts where the characters literally do nothing but stand around making references. The amount of references is simply astounding, but not in a way that has impressed me, and the only issues I actually have liked, because they actually focused on telling a story, have been issues five to seven and Micro-Series: Fluttershy.

At this point, I'd consider myself more of a collector, since I've been buying a select number of the toys and use the popular fandom site Equestria Daily as more of a toy catalog (Hello, EQD Bronies!). I've come a long way from my origins as a fan, but time has yet to claim me as a lost member; it probably has a long way to go.

Then along came news of a movie being made based on this incarnation of the franchise. To my surprise, it turned out to be a story that sees the ponies in human form. While, yes, the fandom has created "humanized" artwork and stories over its lifetime, the prospect of there being a canon movie surrounding this concept was actually a little disturbing. As production went along, I realized that I really didn't like the character designs, thanks to them sharing very similar silhouettes, and new details regarding the plot didn't really help to win me over. I was never that enthusiastic about the project to begin with, but then the very first trailer came out and managed to further cripple any hope I might have had.

My reaction to the first trailer.

Even when the second trailer came out, my hopes weren't raised any higher; the damage had already been done. I began to speculate that the movie would just be filled with one high school cliché after another and eventually have a completely unsatisfying payoff. The idea of Spike being a talking dog, let alone a dog in the first place, and the knowledge that there would be no less than six songs wasn't doing me any favors, especially considering that I thought that that last one got in the way of the third season finale.

If Spike did this then, it would have immediately redeemed his character.

Since I try to exercise the tenet of "don't knock it 'til you try it", tickets were pre-purchased for the most convenient showing, which happened to be today, aka the last weekend of the movie's rotating theatrical runs. When we were able to get into the theater and find some good seats, I was a bit surprised to find out that the film was literally being broadcast from a DVD, which was somewhat questionable until I remembered that these screenings were really more of a glorified showing of a made-for-TV/direct-to-video movie anyway. Not only that, but there were two other obstacles which affected my movie-going experience: the sound and the audience. The movie was played in Mono, so I think there was only one speaker playing the sound, which robbed me of some of the effect that could have been there. The audience, on the other hand, was exactly as I had feared. It was an uneven mixture of both demographics, but once again the periphery took over, and they were definitely not afraid to blatantly ignore the rules of theater etiquette, which means that I may need to watch the movie again in an alternate format so I can actually hear what was being said.

Well, I've delayed this long enough, and you probably just want to know what I think of the movie itself. To tell you the truth, I went in with very low expectations, figuring that it would be reference overdosed, topped with high school clichés and a side helping of fandom nods. After I walked out of the theater, when all was said and done, I realized...I was right.

Spoiler Note: Due to the nature of this movie, there will be unmarked spoilers regarding the events of the third season finale, "Magical Mystery Cure". Don't say I didn't warn you.

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls follows the events of the Friendship is Magic episode "Magical Mystery Cure", with Twilight Sparkle now an Alicorn Princess. She is summoned to Canterlot for a summit with Princesses Celestia, Luna and Cadance, though they are going to have it the next day. During the night, Twilight's tiara crown is stolen by a unicorn named Sunset Shimmer. In the ensuing chase, the crown is knocked into a magic portal, Sunset Shimmer escaping into it. Given the situation at hand, it is revealed that the portal leads to an alternate dimension and that it opens "once every thirty moons" (which is about two and a half years if a "moon" is a normal moon cycle). Twilight alone must venture inside, for fear of upsetting the balance between worlds, and retrieve the crown to restore order to her world. She ends up going through, Spike in tow, and discovers that she has been transformed into a human and Spike is now a dog. Humanity ensues.

I don't like it any better than you do, Twilight.

While the premise sounds not entirely unlike the show, the execution of the plot leaves something to be desired. The concept of an alternate dimension is something I'm fine with, although it's one of those plots that makes me wonder if they've run out of ideas, but the location of the portal seems all too convenient for use and the knowledge of what it is and what it does feels like they knew quite a bit about inter-dimensional travel and its effect on the space-time, which can bring up quite a few questions on that issue (though I do know now how Twilight fits in as a temporal object). Actually, I think I found the word that would describe this plot: convenient. It's convenient that Twilight would just happen to end up in a world where all of her friends happen to exist and, barring the fact that the name of the high school she ends up in happens to have a familiar name, this world just happens to share the exact same naming conventions, which just feels plain weird. Of course, I also found that the problem was solved in an even more convenient way, since not only does Sunset Shimmer not use the extremely advanced technology the human world has (compared with Equestria of course) to carry out her plan, she seems to make her plan easily destructible. When her overall plan is revealed in the end, there are so many threads that she had forgotten to consider, which made me ask to myself "okay, what now?" Finally, there's the fact that the final battle at the end is concluded rather abruptly with no buildup and just left me confused. It should also be noted that, thanks in part to the story and audience, I remained pretty much stone-faced throughout the entire film.

The characterization for everyone is very spot-on, but perhaps maybe a little too much in that direction. There's nothing added to give the impression that they are any different from their equine counterparts, but the real prize has to go to Sunset Shimmer, an original character who wins for being disappointing. At first impression, I really had no idea what to expect from her, but then she turns out to be a rather bland villain. She's ambitious in that she wants revenge on Princess Celestia, though this ambition was born out of being unreasonable and her plan depends entirely on petty acts, destruction of property aside, not being reversed by some fortune; in other words, her plan required everyone to be stupid. As a high schooler, she's even worse, since her image is that of a complete bitch and never ever straying from that path. Really, there is no clever way of establishing that she acts this way aside from belittling someone for no discernible reason.

Sunset Shimmer (right) in her natural habitat.

If there's one thing I can give praise to, it would be the animation. Never let it be said that I don't like the animation of Friendship is Magic. DHX Media did a great job here, with movement that looks smooth and shows that fluidity in My Little Pony's animation has come quite a long way from the first season of the show. The attention to detail is also quite admirable and there are some character quirks which translate well to each scene. However, if you'll allow me, there are still a couple of things that bug me. On a minor note, as a guitarist, I think that the character Flash Sentry, who becomes known for playing said instrument, is terrible at it, since they could only animate him playing a single string and a couple of bends (I know this isn't Metalocalypse, but I at least expected a chord or something). The other thing is more major, and that would be the character designs. To put it bluntly, there appear to only be a couple of character models used for every character, male or female. Yes, there are a couple here and there who have something unique to them, but for the most part they are a little too similar. The "Main 6" even have silhouettes that are almost exactly the same, which is to say nothing about the odd doll-like anatomy and the amazing technicolor skin tones which remind me of Nickelodeon's Doug.

This should illustrate my point.

As I mentioned before, the sound of the movie was presented in Mono, so my opinion of the following is based on the unfortunate lack of a second speaker. Despite this limitation, the voice acting I think was pretty good, but that's because it's the exact same voice cast from the parent series. I've always been good with this, but that's because it's never been bad. As mentioned in our previous Despicable Me review, it's a little difficult at times to tell when voice acting is good, but I think emotional range would be a good contributing factor. There is some range, but only for what exists for each character, so I don't have more to say there. As for the music, I thought the songs were just all right. A couple of them do advance the plot, while others still are mere background music, but it's also pretty much par for the course for Daniel Ingram's composing. There's nothing that really stands out if only because his quality has been mostly consistent.

Finally, there's one particular subject that I was deathly afraid of coming to pass, and yet this beast decided to rear its ugly head: fandom nods (for the periphery of course). Fandom nods are a tricky thing to handle. When a series decides to do them, they need to be done in a way that doesn't get in the way of the plot, so it's best to do it where it's subtle, but whoever knows what it's referencing will get a chuckle. While Transformers has recently been doing a ton of these in the Prime cartoon, they have all followed the tenet I have described above. Equestria Girls, on the other hand, isn't as lucky. Whenever something appeared onscreen, the fans in the audience were vigilant enough to not only cheer, but also yell out a character's name or laugh every single time a reference popped up. It is because of these blatant nods that I remain unimpressed by them, but they also still managed to get in the way of the plot thanks to this unneeded audience reaction. By contrast, the crowd I had for Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D: Bonds Beyond Time laughed at certain jokes and cheered when certain cards were played, but they at least had the courtesy to stay quiet when someone was talking.

How the script meetings must have gone.

That is to say nothing of the stinger at the very end of the credits. I had read that there was one and I had seen a hint of what it was, but when the credits rolled, I began to fear the audience reaction to this development. Every guy there seemed to know what it was, since they exclaimed at as soon as it began to appear, which tells me that they must have had the willpower to see the movie multiple times or the fandom really hates keeping secrets. In any case, I was pretty much ready to groan when it showed up, especially given how positively crazy the periphery got.

My reaction in a nutshell.

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls overall was just all right. It's plot is a little too convenient, the characters aren't developed very well and the themes of the show aren't presented in any clever way, simply serving to establish that, yes, Twilight Sparkle is still a Princess. It seems to be a reverse of what Lauren Faust had been trying to do with the series, down to introducing a romantic sub-plot that might be expanded upon in Season Four. Still, it's pretty harmless, but I feel that more effort could have gone into it to focus more on telling a good story instead of some kind of mess that really wasn't worth the hype. My disillusionment with the show has yet to come, but I feel like it's growing ever closer. Bronies will definitely love this movie, but parents who want their child to watch should probably try and let them watch it at home so that they don't experience the same alienation that the children in my screening no doubt did. It may be worthwhile to see once, but I know that thanks to my experience, I'll need to see it again.

By the way, I apologize for how Cracked-like this review may seem, but that's just how it came out. I'll be sure to rein myself in next time.

Battleship - Miss

Everyone knows what Battleship is. It's a game where you and another player set up ships on a grid and each one calls out coordinates to try and sink the most ships first. It started out in the 30's as a pad-and-pencil game, but since its release as a full-on board game by Milton-Bradley, Battleship has become somewhat of a household name in the board game community ("You sunk my Battleship!" should be a familiar phrase to you at this point). So naturally, after successful forays in adapting action figures into movies (financially at least), it was decided to begin adapting Hasbro's various board game lines, Battleship starting things off (I'm guessing that Candy Land will be getting a movie at some point). Now reviews of this movie haven't exactly been that great, but after recently viewing another movie based on a line of action figures, I decided I might as well give this one a shot. The result? Well, surprisingly, this movie was actually better than I was expecting it to be, but it's most definitely not a hit.

Upon discovering a planet similar to Earth, dubbed Planet-G, NASA sends out a signal in the hopes of being able to communicate with an alien life form (three guesses as to what happens later as a result). While this is going on, Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch) is trying to impress a girl at a bar, Samantha Shane (Brooklyn Decker), by returning with a chicken burrito from a nearby convenience store within 5 minutes. However, as the store is just closing when he arrives, he resorts to a hi-jinks-induced break-in that results in his arrest. Upon waking up in an icy bathtub after a severe tazing from the police, Alex's older brother, Stone, (Alexander Skarsgård) tells him to join the Navy to get his act together. The plot that follows gets a tad predictable at times for those that have seen enough blockbuster films, but manages to muscle through to the end.

Like I said, the plot can get a bit predictable and slow at times, but one of the bigger questions is why they decided aliens were necessary to try and recreate the board game this movie takes inspiration from. Then again, this was probably so as not to offend any particular nation, so I guess this decision wasn't too much of a loss. What I can say however is that, like in the case of Super Mario Bros., this movie can actually get pretty clever. The primary weapons that the aliens use are explosives, which actually look and function much like the familiar pegs in the board game, and there's a sequence near the end that actually recreates the game board, with military language being used to call out shots. (Don't worry about the catch phrase appearing in the movie; a character in the last act actually delivers a nice variation of it.) While these scenes are nice to have to remind the audience why it carries the Battleship name, they are few and far between and only serve to make the naval battles the most exciting part of the feature.

Cora Raikes (Rihanna) and Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch) witnessing the
surfacing of what will be their enemy for the next hour or so.

The acting of this feature isn't awful, but it is competent as the actors work with the dialogue they are given (this includes the surprise casting choice of singer Rihanna as a main character). Admittedly, a few things did make me chuckle, but this movie is not exactly a laugh riot. On the plus side of things, the music was good, bringing a sense of dread at times to the actions of the aliens and making the naval battles a little more epic. The effects are also amazing, given they were done by Industrial Light and Magic, the quality of which lead me to actually believe that the first ad I was seeing was for another Transformers movie (and believe me, you will be thinking of Transformers a few times while watching this film).

As a whole, Battleship was surprisingly decent for a movie based on a children's board game, but it does have its flaws. As far as plot goes, the most exciting parts are when it actually pretends that it's a board game, but you must tread through a rather predictable story in order to get to these parts. In any case, while the movie misses the shot, it doesn't miss completely and it's worth viewing at least once for fans of live-action movies based on Hasbro board games.