My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic: Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks

Rating:

The general consensus is that Rainbow Rocks far outclasses its predecessor, which in some ways is almost true.  With the setting and most characters already established, RR can focus almost exclusively on its story.  Canterlot High is having a battle of the bands, but the dreaded Sirènes are threatening to use their bewildering voices to take over the school.  These Equestria ex-pats are still another retcon creation from Meghan McCarthy, who again provides the usual things I complain about in every single review of her work.  EG’s mane six know serious trouble is imminent regarding the new “students”, and quickly find a way to bring Twilight back to help.  At least McCarthy attempts a number of good character moments regarding the reformed Sunset Shimmer, who has assumed Twilight’s place in the group…sort of.  Shimmer’s previous actions have left her an outsider, and she struggles to fit in for the entire movie.  And having now formed a band, the mane six’s personalities frequently clash as well.  Cameos are once again omnipresent, but Trixie has a much larger part while Maud and Vinyl Scratch make surprisingly memorable contributions.  Naturally a fair amount of songs are included, and whether by choice or not the Sirens get the best ones.  Our ponies don’t fare as well, but their suspiciously strong playing makes them passable.  Although McCarthy’s focus is strong, her dialogue is not, since the script is literally pervaded with clichés.  Fortunately, that doesn’t distract too much from the enjoyment, as RR is another better-than-would-be-expected entry into this series.  And there will be more Equestria Girls movies.  To get into the spirit of things and borrow a cliché, make sure to watch throughout the credits.  You’ll miss the best scene if you don’t.

Such is her confidence that McCarthy starts with the villains.  Three apparently normal pony-tailed teenagers are anything but while they steal negative energy from arguing patrons with their pendants.  Exactly like the previously aired My Little Pony episode, they are attempting to gather magic/energy to grow stronger and eventually wreak havoc in Equestria, but diner customers aren’t giving much of a hit.  As if by divine gift, a rainbow-helix eruption soon explodes from the local high school, which naturally focuses their attention.  These Sirens are a somewhat evil breath of fresh air, but they’re also troperific as characters.  There’s the bossy one, the wishes-she-was-the-bossy one, and the goofy one (the Lion King hyenas also fit this mold).  While theoretically making sense, their vaguely-feminine sounding musical designations aren’t what you’d name your kids if you knew their meaning (“adagio” means “at ease”, and “sonata” is a piece with a featured instrumental solo.  Thanks to Game Of Thrones though, “aria” is a viable name even though it’s the vocal version of sonata).

We continue at Canterlot High, where Sunset Shimmer is failing to live down her previous actions.  Most students are still suspicious, but the mane six are happy to accept her.  While it’s somewhat refreshing to have Sunset Shimmer trying to reintegrate herself into society, this decision also costs her a fair bit of interest.  She becomes a stock character in a way that the other mane six members never are.  For instance, the reform angle isn’t even original to the series, with Discord much more effectively straddling the good/evil line.  Here, Sunset Shimmer is a lot of talk with nothing to back up her words.  Having some “bonding” moments with Twilight makes SS feel redundant, and her eventual success and joining feels extremely predictable.  Still, it’s a good angle for the movie even if McCarthy isn’t able to explore enough for the thread to feel satisfying.

Part of this redemption involves Sunset Shimmer volunteering to give some new “students” a tour.  These “eighth graders” (?) are of course the Sirens, who couldn’t care less about learning the ropes.  They badmouth SS before turning their attention toward the school in an attempt to uncover that previously seen Equestria magic.  As “sirens” implies, they can virtually hypnotize anyone by song, and the negative energy this inevitably produces gives them power.  For now, the Sirens turn a mere “musical showcase” into a full-fledged battle which all of the students desperately want to win.  Of course, our ponies (or whatever) remain unaffected, but they’ll find themselves pulled in as well since Canterlot High will otherwise be lost.

Naturally Twilight must be called on for assistance, but McCarthy wrote that portal out pretty decisively last time.  No worries.  Sunset Shimmer has a magic journal that can totally cross interdimensional boundaries to deliver written messages, and the book that receives them can power a device that permanently reopens the portal.  That was easy.  Despite newly being given a castle and actual duties, Twilight quickly abandons everything to save the mirror world, while informing everyone else they’re not welcome to join her.  Although given Twilight’s prodigious experience with world-deciding conflicts, she knows enough to act now when she’d have to eventually.  If only Twilight could impart this difficult “wisdom” to her mentor.

Since their Equestria magic from last time isn’t working anymore, Twilight spends the duration trying to find a counterspell in song form.  Having no experience with writing music, this task “surprisingly” takes Twilight longer than expected.  Instead of ending things early, the band must push on toward the finals if they want to save everyone.  In between, Twilight enjoys her first slumber party at Pinkie’s (despite the freak-out of Maud being at home), and the band survives multiple first round sabotage attempts thanks to being paired versus Octavia’s solo cello (Bulk Biceps’ violin is victorious though, granted against Snips and Snails horrid old school rap).

The semi-finals pit our ponies against Trixie’s band (their songs hilariously praise her), but disaster strikes after Rainbow Dash’s solo gets too virtuosic.  On the brink of sprouting ears, Sunset Shimmer tackles Dash, and probably destroys several instruments in the process.  While everyone applauds Shimmer’s return to form, the band’s performance is immediately ended along with their chances.  Or not, because the Sirens’ hypnotic hold on Celestia and Luna puts them through anyways.  Rather than a desire to beat the best, this is part of a semi-complicated plan to have Trixie dump our heroes in a big trap door.  They’ll ostensibly be out of commission for the final concert, but Spike eventually just has Vinyl Scratch open the room everyone is in.  She isn’t under the Sirens’ spell because of her headphones.  That was easy.

Haven stolen the mane six’s power due to their bickering, the Sirens are poised to completely take over.  But with everyone freed, an actual band battle can now occur.  Despite playing worse songs and sporting incredibly garish costumes (yes, that’s Rainbow Dash wearing green and yellow tights), the mane six are successful in vanquishing the Sirens with Sunset Shimmer’s help.  Stripped of their power, they’re just three off-key teenagers who are quickly booed off stage.  Because of the assist, Sunset Shimmer is inducted as a full band member, but that doesn’t mean she’s this world’s Twilight replacement either.

Although Rainbow Rocks is allowed to focus more on character interactions, they are problematic for various reasons.  As she’s still a student, Sunset Shimmer is left to be reintegrated, but this doesn’t work out all that well.  The mane six still feel awkward around her, and now robbed of a dark side, Shimmer is presented as something of a Twilight clone.  This isn’t helped when both share moments together where they just agree on everything, or her acceptance into the band.  While progress almost seems to be made, mostly it feels like true development for Shimmer will have to wait until the next movie, and that everything seen here was just setup.  Perhaps that will work, but Shimmer’s character still feels very incomplete and somewhat unnecessary for now.

The other mane six members are left to exist within a band dynamic, but this isn’t entirely successful either.  Sure, Rainbow Dash’s frontman posturing which threatens to split everyone up is very accurate, but Fluttershy’s George Harrison-like dismissal of her alleged songwriting ability is undermined when Daniel Ingram was responsible for every song.  The buildup to Fluttershy’s big debut at the end falls flat because there’s no discernible difference between it and everything else we’ve heard.  Even within the same band, this is rarely if ever the case for different songwriters.  Instead of a knockout, Fluttershy is just a copycat, which reinforces Dash’s decision not to perform any of her songs.  Likewise, Rarity’s costumes are all terrible, and should also not be a part of the band based on what is seen.  How every member is suddenly so proficient at their instruments also remains unexplained, as it’s extremely unlikely a group of teenagers could develop so much talent in just one year.  All of this makes their band feel clichéd and not well thought out.

On the opposite side are the Sirens, who at least have some mildly decent tunes.  Unfortunately, only Sonata is somewhat interesting as a character, and she’s basically a slightly eviler version of Pinkie Pie.  The other two are uninteresting tropes who want power just because.  Also unhelpful is that they are voiced by whichever actors happened to be around, apparently.  Kazumi Evans is Rarity’s (distracting) singing voice, while Marÿke Hendrikse previously voiced Gilda(!).  Not that they do a terrible job, but there’s nothing to make the Sirens stand out as characters either.  Especially since their backstory is literally the same as Tirek’s in the final episode aired before this movie came out (Twilight’s Kingdom).  Both banished villains from long ago are biding time and amassing power before their eventual assault on Equestria.  Tirek got a bit farther in his plan, but having these stories air (more or less) in succession was a huge mistake which hearkens back to the Season 2 sequencing problems.  That they both came from the same writer ends up feeling lazy.

And again, McCarthy’s writing is very problematic if one takes any time to think about it.  Not only is she reusing plot elements, but the amount of clichés is absurd even for this series.  I made a cursory list during a second viewing, and came up with 23 separate mind-numbing aphorisms even when being pretty lenient (some examples are “no thanks, we’re good”, “…if I do say so myself”, “I can’t put my finger on it”, “I’m in a much better place now”, “too bad, so sad”, “right under my nose”, “things are definitely looking up”, and no less than three occurrences of  “no offense, none taken” (the attempt at a knowing nod didn’t help)).  People do speak in clichés more than they should, but sweet Jesus does this get annoying after a while.  Admittedly, I do have my own problems with too many of these constructions, but such sloppy writing should be beyond the “head” writer of a very popular television series (which to be fair usually is).  What prompted McCarthy to desecrate her script with so many trivialities can only be a mystery, although perhaps this was her impression of how high schoolers talk.  As stated in my previous EG review, we probably both have about the same knowledge in that area.

Props must be given for the credits cookie though, which in terms of surprise and focus is easily better than the movie proper.  Mirror Twilight may have been hinted at before, but alas seemed destined to remain offscreen if she even existed in this world.  Then with no warning, a bespectacled purple teen is making a pronouncement which suggests she will soon be visiting a certain high school due to an unusual number of strange occurrences.  This development is stronger than anything regarding the villains du jour, and actually builds anticipation for the forthcoming sequel.  How will Mirror Twilight react to seeing herself or behave around the other girls who already “know” her?  How butthurt will Sunset Shimmer be when she’s threatened with replacement again?  With the push toward character interaction started here, the series needs to continue in this direction, and not put forth another world-deciding conflict that is frankly becoming boring.  Whether McCarthy can handle this shift is debatable, but at least an effort is started.

Unfortunately, despite better focus and a technically more enjoyable experience, Rainbow Rocks doesn’t really deserve its reputation of being vastly better than the prequel.  With McCarthy at the helm, there are too many writing problems that continue to go unfixed, which includes uninspiring new characters and more bland/average pop songs.  The ending at least suggests that this Equestria Girls sidequest can be more than just the cash grab it appears at first, but Rainbow Rocks only offers promise instead of substance.  That doesn’t mean there isn’t some fun to be had, but the expected improvement never really coalesces either.