Will this movie bomb?

Also, Lauren is writing for the characters. She knows very well how to 'introduce' characters to their new audience quickly and succinctly, while weaving in world details naturally with their dialog instead of having a pony say something blunt and forced such as, having Rarity spout out at the beginning, "Oh look, there's Princess Celestia, the alicorn who raises the Sun and rules the country now alone instead of her sister who turned into a villain called Nightmare Moon and was banished to the Moon by the Elements of Harmony, which are six magical gem things which we'll probably need to find at some point."

To which Pinkie would become annoyed and reply, "Gee, thanks for the infodump, little Miss Exposition."

Faust won't be doing that.

I probably would... trolls gotta troll, after all. 😜

I have a feeling it's not going to do so well with the critics. It looks like it's falling into the trap of trying to shove far too much into the movie and leaving out all world- and character-building and lore-creation. It's going to end up being frantically paced and poorly plotted. I have NO doubt that the villain is going to be ludicrously over-powered, succeed thanks to idiot-balling and worfing of our heroes; and then eventually get beaten by sheer plot convenience at the end by a completely out-of-the-blue Deus Ex Machina, and then they'll sing about friendship.

Critics are going to eat it alive. Heck, they'll be far better-written, well-spoken and more convincing villains than the movie's.

And then coming out against two movies that are going to be promoted like mad... and considering it just doesn't look like it's going to appeal to anyone other than little girls and hard-core bronies who love anything pony-related in the same way Star Wars fanboys still defend "Attack of the Clones" (only there are far fewer pony fans than the tens of millions of die-hard Warskies).

I'm really of the opinion now that they've squandered their chance to create a good animated cinematic universe. From the get go, the writing was going to be CRUCIAL to attracting large numbers of new fans and keeping the bulk of the old.

I think they blew it. This looks like a mish-mash of several random unrelated cartoon tropes and G1 Pony nostalgia. They threw in Sea Ponies, for crying out loud. Why? Are they suddenly going to be strong enough to fight the supervillain? Even in "Escape from Midnight Castle" the seaponies were practically irrelevant and only there for the toy line advertising. And pirates happen. Because apparently there was a longing for pirates in pony... who are anthropomorphic cats and parrots... uh-huh. So three more races appear out of the blue who are likely going to inspire absolutely no scientific curiosity from Twilight despite them being creatures she's never seen or heard of before because that would be what would actually happen if series continuity mattered... which it clearly doesn't since there's no trace of Discord, changelings, Tirek, Sombra, etc... all of whom should have prepared the Mane 6 to fight effectively against a rather blunt and predictable villain archetype, as well as learning not to stand around stupidly doing nothing.. which I'm quite certain they're all going to do when he shows up. Luna and Celestia will be taken out in the first minute or so after he shows up without putting up any sort of fight.

And we have a unicorn with dark coloration (and red mane), a broken horn, and a scar on her face. And of course she's wearing black armor. Do you have any idea how many terrible fanmade pony villains in both picture and fanfics there are that look exactly like that? And her name... there is nothing that screams BADLY WRITTEN GENERIC VILLAIN more than a name that is CLEARLY a villain name... as though her parents knew she was going to be evil from birth. Consider other pony villains: Starlight Glimmer, Sunset Shimmer, Trixie Lulamoon... those are just names. And none of them were dark and brooding and had scars or broken ANYTHING! Nothing about them outwardly cries out I'M A BAD GUY, because a good villain is one who's villainy is apparent from their ACTIONS, goals, and motivations and NOT solely from their name and appearance. When every physical characteristic pummels you in the face with the knowledge that this is a villain with a tragic backstory (another god-awful, overused, badly-utilized fanfic-laden TV trope), then this more often than not suggests that the STORY cannot back any of it up, and so physical traits must cover for a lack of personal characteristics and personality overall.

If they wanted to do a sea-themed movie, then leave out the generic overpowered super villain. Have them go on a trip that goes afoul, or they run across a sea demon and have to help the sea ponies defeat it. Or do something with the Atlantis idea: looking for the lost alicorn continent of Marelantis. THEN seaponies and pirates are a logical fit to the rest of the plot and need no additional explanation or introduction.

I have rarely seen a movie where EVERY additional piece of information I hear makes me groan and reflects so poorly upon it. It's as if every bad fanfic I've ever viciously torn to pieces somehow congealed into one Smooze-like abomination and oozed onscreen. This was basically one of the lists I compiled when the movie was first announced of what NOT to do. You CAN make an independent alt-universe, but only to an extent! If you do that, you must keep in mind what DIDN'T happen thanks to the changes you've made in the history, and the characters must then change their personality and behavior accordingly. But this is very hard to do successfully, and is a huge risk when the fanbase is already small.. you risk alienating your core audience AND confusing new viewers if you haven't fleshed out the alternate take well enough.

The best bet would have been to take a preexisting story from the show and retell it in a cinematic manner. The Nightmare Moon story would have been perfect for this. The basic recipe for the characters and world is already there to spice up and decorate with flourishes. The original story could be elaborated upon, made more dramatic, filled in all the gaps in the original tale (which are still unexplained in the show). And then if that movie's a success, THEN you can begin to steer your cinematic universe in different directions. But you never want to upend everything from the start and simply throw a dozen disparate concepts onto the screen simultaneously.

All I can hope at this point is that some of those characters went into major redesigns early on and look very different now and that the recent synopsis release is an absolute fabrication.. because otherwise this is going to be dismal for all but the most pathetically desperate and delusional fans.