It is crazy to think about how this movie franchise originally started on such bad footing with that ugly Sonic design. However, they listened to fans and altered the design to a more game-accurate one. Now here we are with 2 surprisingly good Sonic movies. The 3rd one finally introduces the iconic Shadow the Hedgehog! My favourite character! Is this another great Sonic movie entry or is another in the 3rd movie curse?
Firstly, Shadow is handled wonderfully in this film. The film does a great job of illustrating Shadow’s strength and making us feel like Sonic has met his match. Keanu is just doing a Keanu voice but it does work very well for Shadow. Thankfully, they keep the core of his character and backstory in the film. He is menacing but also sympathetic which I find the most important aspect of Shadow which the director also understood. Our main trio is great as they have always been. We do finally get more of them working as a team and I like that the story shows how each of the team has different strengths and weaknesses. They all have incredibly fun chemistry!
Jim Carrey also returns but this time, as two different characters. He returns as Dr Ivo Robotnik but also plays the grandfather, Gerald Robotnik. It seems like the director gave Jim Carrey more freedom to go nuts because Jim Carrey goes full Jim in this film. He steals every scene with his wacky performance! There is an amazing makeup design that makes Gerald look very different from Ivo. However, Jim helps differentiate the two by giving Gerald a distinctively different voice as well. The movie does a great job of making it feel like both characters are there at the same time. Funny enough, both characters have great chemistry which means that Jim has great chemistry with himself!
The movie has some fun action set pieces as well that really show the speed! The first 30 minutes contains many excellent ones including a Team Sonic vs Shadow fight and an awesome chase sequence too. The final act set piece feels like it was pulled right out of Sonic Adventure 2. My one gripe with previous Sonic movie entries was the lack of actual music from the games. This entry remedies this a bit by including a fair amount of notable songs such as “Live and Learn”. There are a lot of jokes just like previous ones but this one thankfully is less pop-culture reference galore. There are a fair amount of jokes that actually gave me a chuckle. I think the one standout is how much heart there is in the story. There is the obvious one with Shadow but there is a surprisingly great arc with Dr Ivo Robotnik and his subordinate Agent Stone that might tug on some people’s heartstrings.
There is less human character involvement in this entry, which is for the best. However, that doesn’t mean the human characters aren’t involved as G.U.N is a big part of this story. Krysten Ritter joins the cast as a high-ranking officer in G.U.N but her character is bland and under-baked. Her character leaves the story in a weird anti-climatic way. Gerald Robotnik is also a very one-dimensional villain which is a shame as there was a lot to him in the games. The movie doesn’t explore the extent of his grief or even show enough scenes of him with Maria to make him interesting. The pacing also drops a bit in the second act when it becomes exposition heavy and the plot slows down to reintroduce Dr Robotnik and introduce his grandfather.
Overall, it is crazy to see the Sonic movies get better with each entry. The movie is respectful of the source material and provides enough fan service to please fans while telling a solid story. There is an exciting mid-credit scene that is making me look forward to the inevitable 4th entry. I hope it continues to be this good!
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