The film gets off to a rocky start, opening with the dreaded freeze-frame "I bet you're wondering how I got in this situation" in media res beginning. Villainous Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) and his army of drones are chasing Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) through the streets of San Francisco, but in true clichéd fashion, the story rewinds to an earlier point in time to attempt to explain how our titular hedgehog has gotten himself into this predicament. Whether or not you're familiar with the Sonic franchise, the opening bit of backstory doesn't make a lick of sense. Baby Sonic lives a mostly peaceful existence in an alternate world of some sort. Too bad a bunch of masked tribesmen are after him for unknown reasons that will immediately become irrelevant two minutes later. Sonic's caretaker hands the hedgehog a bag of magic rings that can transport him to other worlds, then whisks Sonic off through a ring-portal, stranding him on earth for his own safety.
Ten years later, we find Sherriff Tom Wachowski (James Marsden), living a humdrum life in the rural town of Green Hills, Montana. Unbeknownst to him, Sonic has been living in the woods outside of town for the past decade, entertaining himself with comic books (The Flash, naturally), one-man games of baseball, and by spying on the townsfolk from afar. One night, Sonic's loneliness gets the best of him, sending him into frustrated electrical super-speed overdrive, which causes a massive blackout that attracts the attention of the US government. Enter Carrey's Robotnik, a mad scientist sent in to handle the potential threat in Montana. For better or worse, Carrey reaches a level of manic mugging here that he hasn't hit since 2004's A Series of Unfortunate Events. Your personal tolerance for Carrey's cartoonishness will likely make or break the movie.
Past the lengthy setup, Sonic the Hedgehog falls into a formulaic groove. There isn't a plot beat or moment of character development that can't be seen coming from ten miles away. Sherriff Tom encounters Sonic, freaks out, but then eventually decides to protect Sonic from Robotnik's clutches. Sonic accidentally teleports his bag of rings to the top of a San Francisco skyscraper, so he and Wachowski have to team up to retrieve them. Why Sonic can't just use a map and his speed to retrieve the rings in a matter of minutes is brushed aside with the flimsiest of reasons. The movie wants a road trip to happen, so a road trip happens.
If you've ever seen any kind of road trip movie, there won't be anything you haven't seen before in Sonic the Hedgehog. There are lengthy conversation scenes in Wachowski's SUV, a scene where the duo stop at a biker bar and get into a barfight (which shamelessly apes the slow-mo fight scene from X-Men: Days of Future Past), and even more conversation scenes when Sonic and Wachowski stop for the night in a motel. There's a fart joke, a few halfhearted attempts at crafting a believable bond between Sonic and his human costar, a mildly perilous chase scene, and a myriad of other plot beats that will be all too familiar to adults or any child who has seen more than three movies. The movie coasts through its climax without much excitement, but at least manages to generate some mild interest with its two post-credits scenes that tease a sequel that might not be as bland as the first film.
The story of Sonic the Hedgehog doesn't do the film any favors. It's generic to a fault, and will likely only appeal to children and the hardest of diehard Sonic fans. However, the cast puts enough effort into the proceedings to elevate this ever so slightly out of tedium. Schwartz provides the right amount rad, rebellious attitude that has made Sonic such an enduring pop culture icon. Marsden works well as the straight man because his generic good looks and charm don't outshine Sonic's antics. And as previously mentioned, Carrey's energetic performance will amuse those who enjoy his shtick. The beleaguered animation staff deserves credit, too. Within the span of months, they overhauled the uncanny, monstrous original design for Sonic and replaced it with one that's far less unpleasant to look at. I almost would rather see the version with the nightmarish original Sonic, if only because that would break up the monotony of the tepid story, but the animators still deserve praise for their last-minute damage control.
Sonic the Hedgehog isn't great, and depending on your attitude towards cutesy family movies, it may even be considered bad. But, given the history of truly atrocious video game movies, this is comparatively a success. It might not be as visually inspired as the baffling Super Mario Bros., but it's also not as inaccurate to the source material and narratively incoherent as Super Mario Bros.. A bland but respectful water-cracker adaptation of Sonic is arguably better than one with a flagrant disregard for anything appealing about the series. It's a step in the right direction, at least. With this film and Detective Pikachu before it, we're hopefully reaching a baseline of middling quality that can serve as the benchmark for other, better video game movies in the future.
If you've ever seen any kind of road trip movie, there won't be anything you haven't seen before in Sonic the Hedgehog. There are lengthy conversation scenes in Wachowski's SUV, a scene where the duo stop at a biker bar and get into a barfight (which shamelessly apes the slow-mo fight scene from X-Men: Days of Future Past), and even more conversation scenes when Sonic and Wachowski stop for the night in a motel. There's a fart joke, a few halfhearted attempts at crafting a believable bond between Sonic and his human costar, a mildly perilous chase scene, and a myriad of other plot beats that will be all too familiar to adults or any child who has seen more than three movies. The movie coasts through its climax without much excitement, but at least manages to generate some mild interest with its two post-credits scenes that tease a sequel that might not be as bland as the first film.
The story of Sonic the Hedgehog doesn't do the film any favors. It's generic to a fault, and will likely only appeal to children and the hardest of diehard Sonic fans. However, the cast puts enough effort into the proceedings to elevate this ever so slightly out of tedium. Schwartz provides the right amount rad, rebellious attitude that has made Sonic such an enduring pop culture icon. Marsden works well as the straight man because his generic good looks and charm don't outshine Sonic's antics. And as previously mentioned, Carrey's energetic performance will amuse those who enjoy his shtick. The beleaguered animation staff deserves credit, too. Within the span of months, they overhauled the uncanny, monstrous original design for Sonic and replaced it with one that's far less unpleasant to look at. I almost would rather see the version with the nightmarish original Sonic, if only because that would break up the monotony of the tepid story, but the animators still deserve praise for their last-minute damage control.
Sonic the Hedgehog isn't great, and depending on your attitude towards cutesy family movies, it may even be considered bad. But, given the history of truly atrocious video game movies, this is comparatively a success. It might not be as visually inspired as the baffling Super Mario Bros., but it's also not as inaccurate to the source material and narratively incoherent as Super Mario Bros.. A bland but respectful water-cracker adaptation of Sonic is arguably better than one with a flagrant disregard for anything appealing about the series. It's a step in the right direction, at least. With this film and Detective Pikachu before it, we're hopefully reaching a baseline of middling quality that can serve as the benchmark for other, better video game movies in the future.
