Just like the superhero movie and the reboot, video game movies are undoubtedly one of the biggest blockbuster seat-fillers of newer cinema. But video game movies aren’t yet as highly recognized as superhero films or remakes because, the video game adaptation sub-genre has a horrible track record with critical and audiences reviews. The vast majority of these movies rarely reach a 50% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with anything at around a 70%, or a C grade, being seen as a better adaptation. Last month we saw Uncharted, another video game adaptation, and it proved to us yet again that studios sure love throwing money in places and hoping to have it returned to them. The outliers of this genre usually don’t disappoint though, whether it is the animated Angry Birds 2, which weirdly surprised audiences, or Detective Pikachu, a live action adaptation that reminds us why those games should never go hyper-realistic.
Then Sonic the Hedgehog came out on Valentine’s Day 2020, and to everyone’s surprise, it wasn’t awful. It was good, in fact —well, good comparatively speaking. It also performed well enough to technically become the highest grossing superhero movie of 2020. Now, a lot can be said about the quality of its games, but when it comes to the movie the first Sonic did everything it really needed to, except it didn’t feel a lot like a Sonic adventure. Although the sequel is a little shakier on the plot, and definitely has a lot of pacing issues, it delivers a big screen Sonic adventure while staying true to what it already has set up and is trying to do going forward.
Directed by Jeff Fowler, who also helmed the first film, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is about moving past the set up of Sonic and Eggman and the world they are in in order to more subtly set up the history of powers in this universe, while delivering a Sonic adventure that starts to connect all the best parts of the Sonic story: the characters. We finally get Tails and Knuckles. Tails is played by his game voice actress Colleen O’Shaughnessey, and Knuckles is played by Idris Elba, of all people. It makes sense they would do this, and God, does his performance feel weirdly natural. The end of the movie also sets up some more characters in the future, which excites me more, because honestly it’s just funny that there will probably be at least 5 movies for this franchise.
The plot of this movie is an uncomplicated round-the-world treasure hunt set up to find the Master Emerald, which holds ultimate power. Sonic is attacked by Eggman and Knuckles, who form a loose alliance. Eggman wants this power to take over the world and destroy Sonic, while Knuckles wants it to defend his race’s honor and do what he was trained to do. Tails comes in to save Sonic and help him along on his mission because apparently he is a fanboy of Sonic’s action in the first film, which he watched across the universe on another planet. There are fun fights complete with the witty commentary that’s classically attributed to the character, a lot of ridiculous feats of action, heroism, and many big egocentric Eggman moments. While in any other film you would scoff, even in a superhero film, here, with Sonic, it’s exactly what you want. The ridiculous egg robots, the mustaches on evil creations, the silly Tails inventions, the absolute enormity of Knuckle’s knuckles: it isn’t commonplace but if you’re thinking, ‘this is a Sonic movie’ then it’s charming. It is exactly what you expect and want, and these aspects exceed everything you feel like you need from this movie.
It’s gonna make the big bucks, it’s gonna get kids in the theaters, and a lot of weird adults will be in the audience probably 3 or 4 times. It’s gonna get a third, and fourth sequel, we are gonna get that Knuckles series, and probably a few more as well. Sonic is a cash cow that Paramount won’t ignore, and yet the franchise’s success doesn’t feel undeserved. While that first abhorrent Sonic design was almost definitely a stunt, everything after feels like it was crafted with love, not with the sole intention of drawing in crowds, but by Sonic fans and for Sonic fans. Does that mean this is peak cinema? No. It probably isn’t even ‘maybe if I stretch my head I could sorta see the peak’ cinema. It is a Sonic movie, enjoyable, deserved, well crafted, and a kid movie, but not rushed or in anyway hamfisted into pop culture just for money’s sake. If only the games weren’t bad then everyone would be happy.
3.5/5 STARS
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Great read! Found the article very informative. I really feel like I would want to watch Sonic now.