This third entry continues the Equestria Girls' habit of putting more effort into a high school film for young girls than one would expect. Again, this film does a strong job of using history and characterization from previous films. Former villain turned supporter Sunset Shimmer has become the leader of the group and it was a nice choice seeing the stress of her dealing with the aftereffects of the magic she released in the world of Canterlot High.The plot, characters, and dialogue are all fun. The idea of the characters involved in a crazy competition worked well. Keep your eyes open for the obstacle course that can only exist in a children's film. Liked the competing students, the Wondercolts. Yeah, they were probably created to sell more dolls and they don't have quite enough time to juggle them all, but the girls have personality. The main villain Principal Abbacus Cinch is one of the MLP universe's best villains. So delightfully prideful and manipulative. Special credit to should be given to her voice actress Iris Quinn who really nails it.Animation is decent. Some of the character movements seemed a little awkward, but in fairness they were working on a straight-to-DVD budget. They did try to make the film as theatrical-looking as they could, especially during the musical numbers.Speaking of the songs, they were all good, though not very memorable. The one highlight is the sinisterly, seductive, and chorus-heavy villain song "Use the Magic." In fact, I think it might be the best of all of Daniel Ingram's songs for the franchise.Be aware that this film isn't supposed to be Shakespeare, but I think parents will mostly have as much fun as their children with this.

I've never exactly been a fan of the Equestria Girls movie series, but I've always given them a fair chance to see what they have to offer. Despite the flaws from the first two movies, there were things I enjoyed from both of those films. Whether it was the villains, some of the songs, or the interactions between Sunset and Twilight, the first two movies did have some good things in it. This movie though? I can't say the same at all.Taking place after the events of Rainbow Rocks, the human world's Twilight Sparkle, who was seen at the end of the last movie, is going around investigating the strange readings around Canterlot High. Meanwhile, the main focus is supposed to be about how Canterlot High is getting ready to face their rivals, Crystal Prep Academy, in the Friendship Games. Sunset is tasked with keeping the magic under control while the games are going on.Notice how I used to the word "supposed" in regards to the Friendship Games. Don't be fooled by the so called title of the movie. Despite it being about the Friendship Games, they barely play a part in the movie at all. That's the least of this movie's problems though.The real title of this movie should've been "Twilight's Magical Hunt." All that happens for most of the movie is Twilight going around Canterlot High and stealing magic in some device she made. A lot of the scenes in this movie can be described as the following: Twilight meets one of the Humane 5, interacts with them for a little bit, one of the girls ponies up, Twilight's device steals magic from the girl, and then a small scene with Sunset talking about the magic or the Friendship Games. There is so little going on in this movie that it gets very boring very fast.As I mentioned earlier, the Friendship Games hardly play a part in this movie at all. They talk about the games and all, but we hardly ever see them at all in this movie. You want to know how long it takes before we finally get to what is supposed to be the focus of the movie? One hour.You have to wait a full 60 minutes, in a 90 minute movie mind you, before the Friendship Games are ever shown. What's even more insulting though is that these Friendship Games are only around for 15 minutes before they are dropped from the movie completely. So out of the 90 minutes, the games are only around for 15 minutes. That's not even a fifth of the movie! The songs themselves are also pretty lousy. Many of them are just forgettable and aren't that interesting at all. The only one I liked was the final song about unleashing the magic. The rest of the songs though are just bland and not memorable. Even the first movie had a better soundtrack than this.The villains are just lame. Principal Cinch has to be one of the most note villains ever. She's not the least bit memorable. The Shadowbolts, while slightly better, are disappointing. While they are polar opposites of the Humane 5, and the intro title made it look like the two groups would face off against each other, they barely do anything in the movie themselves. The only Shadowbolt I liked was Sugarcoat, and that was because her bluntness was hilarious.Then there's the final conflict with Midnight Sparkle. When Twilight gets engulfed in magic, it turns her evil. Why is she evil? Because the movie said so. I know the old saying is power corrupts, but there's no buildup to Twilight turning evil. It would've worked out better if Twilight showed resentment for the way the rest of the school treated her. Here, she's just evil for evil's sake.Speaking of final conflict, this battle basically rehashes the climax from the first movie. Seriously, it's almost played out the same way. It's the same setting, same characters involved, and even Midnight Sparkle reminds me too much of Demon Sunset. I guess you could say this was meant to be an homage and some sort of test for Sunset as she went through this before, but this is a cheap cop out for a final battle. And the way it all ends is head scratching. All that happens is Spike, who can now talk thanks to magic, distracting Twilight, Sunset overpowers her, and convinces her to stop. Talk about an anti-climax of an ending.There are really only a few minor things that I did take from this movie. One, the romance subplot with Flash and Twilight is ignored completely. Two, at least pony Twilight didn't return in the movie until the end. But those aren't enough to help this mess of a film.Friendship Games is an overall mess, and arguably worst than the first movie. While the first film was bad, it at least had a three act structure to it, and some character development. This movie is a total mess and a complete bore. Aside from Sunset Shimmer and Human Twilight, nobody gets any screen time to develop their characters or anything. The story is all over the place with no focus, and it rehashes elements from the first movie. The villains are either lame or disappointing. The songs are bland. The writing is weak and the jokes aren't that good.I can't recommend this movie to anyone unless they are a die hard Equestria Girls fan. Otherwise, I would suggest staying far away from this mess of a movie. And I do mean stay far away from it.

Man, I loved this! I loved how twilight actually turned evil for once. I mean I nearly see someone who is a good character go bad. I loved all the characters, music, acting, loved the outfits too :3 and Sunset Shimmer!! oh gosh! just awesome!! she looked like sailor moon in this movie! Midnight Sparkle really made my heart pound. and spike... you sweet dog, you rescued your owner~ how sweet <3 I really really hope that equestria girls will turn into a series. and hope to see old faces again, ( Adagio, Sonata, Aria, ) The friendship games Really entertained me :D I will always love mlp and the EQG fandom. Pegasister for life... that's all I have to say

FIRST off, let me say that this review contains a spoiler, so if you have not seen the movie yet and you intend on doing so I suggest that you do not read on. I will start by saying that this film does not include a SINGLE pony (which is pretty ironic for a My Little PONY movie) and is only for Equestria Girls fans. When watching this film you may forget that it is, in fact, an MLP spin off. I am not going to disclose much information about the film. If you have young children, I would not recommend that you let them watch this- characters are accused of using "performance enhancing vitamins" (steroids) and there is one use of the word "sh*t" (Twilight tells her dog "try not to sh*t in there" when putting him in her bag.) . There are also explosions throughout that are "magical" but more closely resemble bombings or firework accidents. Besides the high amount of violent content, the film can be enjoyed by older kids and adults alike. It includes humor and some good one-liners (albeit not as good as MLP-FiM). Definitely worth a watch.