Here we are, once again! To give a small recap on the history of the Sonic live action movie franchise, this was just supposed to be another garbo video game adaptation vomited out by Hollywood to cash in on a popular character. In fact, the fans were so sure that the the first movie was going to be a failure because of the original Sonic character design. The infamous original design was lambasted by fans and critics alike and the first trailer that featured it was funneled into the same place we put everything we'd like to forget about Sonic. After that, our expectations were in the basement.
It was surprisingly good, though! The fans and critics liked it? What sort of alternate world do we live in? This was unprecedented! Not only did the director come through for the fans by redesigning Sonic to be closer to his original video game character design, but he also made a movie that showed off fan service and knowledge of the game franchise as a whole! It was a marvel to behold! The first movie was awesome, for certain.
That's all well and good, but we all know that the second movie is very easily where everything could fall apart in the blink of an eye. Well, spoiler alert! (For real, there are spoilers) It was good! Now, was it fantastic? Not so much. It has its highs and lows and its nitpicky moments, but there is still plenty of good stuff that works out in its favor.
First of all, we still get a great performance from Ben Schwartz and Jim Carrey. They were still great highlights from this movie, but the real shoutout goes to our new characters, played by the ever AMAZING Idres Elba and the sweet sounding Colleen O'Shaughnessey. Adding Knuckles and Tails to this movie really upped the game for it in several ways. Not only do we get more backstory for the Echidnas from the first movie but we also get a better feel for how the Sonic universe will add to these movies, if they so choose to go that way with it.
What really worked for this movie was a large scope that was not too over-the-top, while also being somewhat over-the-top. The vast landscapes that our heroes traverse and the dangers they face along the way are all kinds of fun to watch. This includes the weird and technically unneeded Syberian dance off scene and no I am not kidding. This movie takes some very strange turns.
One of the stranger turns that it takes is with Rachel (Pretzel Lady's sister) from the first movie. I did not like her character and I was not supposed to like her character. She was especially one-note and not much has changed in this movie. She is still obnoxious and unsubtle, though they did take steps to make her a bit more relatable. Still, her wedding scene in the movie is one of the low points for more reasons than one.
In fact, most of the humans, as a whole, become rather useless as the movie goes on. Yes, Donut Lord and Pretzel Lady (No, I don't remember their actual names and probably never will) are prominent and serve a purpose here and there, but the writers for the movie seemed like they just tagged them in for the sake of the first movie. They even brought back Wade and his scenes have their funny moments but, again, he falls into that category of superfluous. In fact, there was a scene where the two main human characters are going on vacation where I thought they were pretty much going to go the route of Jason Lee in the Chipmunk sequels. It's not how they go with it, but honestly there are times when it looked like they probably should.
There are plotholes, obviously, all movies have plotholes to some extent. Still, these aren't really extreme, but they were rather noticeable. The ring portals last a lot longer than they did in the first movie and the map just so happened to project the image of Sonic's adoptive owl mother when they needed it with no explanation. That scene in and of itself wasn't great and not just because it was another Wade scene.
Now, what worked very well for this movie, once again, was Tails and Knuckles. Aside from Idres Elba's amazing voice, Knuckles has a purpose and his mindset it on nothing but that purpose. He is also a great foil with his serious exterior to Sonic's careless nature. Tails is given some great scenes, even when you thought that he was going to be punted from the story, he comes right back in and takes it up several notches. The gadgets he uses are a brilliant combatant to Robotnik's high tech weapons, so he gives Sonic a much better fighting chance against some of the more dangerous mechanical opponents.
This is where the spoilers are going to get very heavy, so be warned!
The greatest part of this movie (how many is that now?) is, by far, the third act! When Robotnik gets the master emerald and we see a god-like entity that creates Robotnik's monstrous mech. That was a bit of fan service that is impossible to overlook. If you've never seen the giant robo-mech, then I call your Sonic fandom into question! The fight they have is amazing. It is very well paced, very suspenseful and doesn't let up until the real final showdown.
After Sonic, Tails and Knuckles manage to fend off the giant robot and get the master emerald out of Robotnik, the ultimate fangasm moment comes in the form of Super Sonic. It was worth the entire wait from 2020 and now it comes and it does not disappoint! Everything about this scene is humorous, badass, and evokes childhood memories of collecting all of the chaos emeralds in the video games to get that wondrous yellow Sonic we all know and love. I wish they could have made it last a bit longer but that's definitely the subjective fanboy side speaking.
This movie is not perfect but there is so much to love. There are corny moments, moments where the CGI doesn't really hold up well, and there are a few time-wasters that could have hit the cutting room floor to make room for something else but that is all just foam on an otherwise refreshing drink. If you fancy yourself a Sonic fan, then this movie is definitely worth a shot.
