Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog may be a staple part of gaming thanks to his beloved speed-focused platforming games released by Sega, but he’s had a pretty rough ride thanks to some shoddy to downright bad releases, and he was almost cursed with a film that would’ve tarnished his legacy even more. When the first teaser trailer was released for the live-action Sonic film released by Paramount, audiences were horrified by the uncanny realism that was used to bring their beloved blue hedgehog to life, with the backlash being so vocal that the filmmakers actively pushed the film’s release back to reanimate the role to better match his gaming counterpart. This put the film in the fan’s good graces and was rewarded by earning $320 million worldwide and very glowing audience reviews, developing a cinematic franchise that still brings in the money. While critics weren’t so favorable, it warmed its way into the hearts of the fans and birthed something that is evolving in the right direction, but did this goodwill distract them from the plain faults present in this first feature?

Sonic the Hedgehog (voiced by Ben Schwartz) is an anthropomorphic, extremely speedy hedgehog who was sent to Earth from an alien world by his mother figure, Long Claw (voiced by Donna J. Fulks) after they were attacked by invading bandits, telling him to keep hold of this magic bag of rings that can open up portals to other worlds if he must flee once again. Taking residence in a cave outside a small rural town named Green Hills, Sonic lives a lonely existence and only experiences human life by silently viewing the general day of local sheriff, Tom Wachowski (played by James Marsden). After accidently causing a mass blackout by running too fast resulting in a massive energy jolt, the U. S. government sends the brilliant yet deranged roboticist, Dr. Robotnik (played by Jim Carrey) to determine what caused it, leading him to locate Sonic and try to capture and experiment on him. After revealing himself to Tom and losing his teleporting rings in the process, the two are forced together now that Robotnik has labelled Tom a domestic terrorist, leading to a road trip where the two start to bond whilst tracking down Sonic’s lost rings. Learning that he could live on Earth after making his first ever friend, Sonic will evolve from an aimless rascal into a full-fledge hero when he faces off against Robotnik and fights for the town he considers his home.

Sonic the Hedgehog is not a terrible film and is helmed by people who clearly love the franchise and want to do justice by the fans, but it would take them some time to iron out the chinks, as this introductory is riddled with lame cliches, terrible writing, a very bland story, and limited integration of the elements that made the SEGA mascot so iconic in the first place.

Making a Sonic movie in live-action already spelled disaster besides the initial hideous design, as it continued an unfortunately popular trend of adapting famous animated IP in a live-action/hybrid format where the titular characters would play second-fiddled to a popular actor or actress and be stuck in a story not befitting or creative enough to match their source material. Whether it be Alvin & the Chipmunks, Smurfs, Garfield or a variety of other options, it’s a tired trope that never did right by the characters, and Sonic was set to be next in line, even though plans to make a film started all the way back in the 1990s. While this eventual release was helmed by an entirely different team and studio, everything about this movie feels like it was written in the 90s, and not in a good way. While Sonic as a brand has some cool effective 90s cliches to work with, this movie adopts barely to any of those attributes, sticking with the worst to result in a movie that feels tired, decades old, and purely relying on nostalgia and hollow references to lure in fans rather than providing them something that feels fresh or even that authentic to the source material.

The film goes at a very fast pace befitting of the character, barely allowing for any meaningful plot or character developments, the inclusion of the real world does nothing but suck the inventiveness that comes from Sonic and his world, the jokes range from mind-numbingly lazy to just plain unfunny, the script in general written by Pat Casey and Josh Miller (whose filmography prior consisted of low-grade R-rated comedies like National Lampoon Presents Dorm Daze, Transylmania, Shotgun Wedding and Hey, Stop Stabbing Me) is annoyingly simplistic, and the direction by Jeff Fowler (who mainly worked as an animator and made the CG movies presented in the 2005 video game, Shadow the Hedgehog) has passion behind it and it’s clear he wanted to make a film that the fans would love (he didn’t need to recommission the entire film to reanimate Sonic if he didn’t want to), but the barren plot, bland characters and immovable writing just makes the entire experience feel stale and lacking to anyone who isn’t a die-hard fan. With that said, there have been far more offensive and inaccurate video game adaptations in the past (probably why this movie gets a pass when it really shouldn’t), and while largely very bland and lacking in any memorable characters, good writing or connectable narrative, it does have some okay moments sprinkled throughout and ends on a fun climax where the film finally kicks into gear and starts incorporating in some of the high-flying action usually associated with the brand.

Sonic is a great character who has survived failed experiment after failed experiment, as even though the games can be poorly constructed and his cast of characters can be irritating at best, he’s always remained as a cool fast-talking show-off who still possess an honourable heart and heroic spirit, it’s a simple but effectively timeless hero. Seeing a film based on him on the big screen sounds like a great idea and actually seeing the authentic design instead of what was going to be produced is certainly the better idea, but aside from himself and Robotnik, all the other characters are these bland, forgettable human characters who barely add anything to the overall story. Sonic himself is decently realized thanks to the colorful and expressive animation and Ben Schwartz solid vocal performance, but since he’s forced into a human environment with human characters that need to abide by human laws, it limits how far and how often his powers can be showcased (why does the fastest thing alive need to drive by car?). James Marsden isn’t even doing a bad job as Tom Wachowski and even has a small but cute enough bond with Sonic, but the writing for him is so bland and predictable that it never feels like he’s used correctly.

The same can be said for Jim Carrey, who from an outside perspective, is a pretty decent choice for Robotnik, but nothing about the character feels very well defined so it kind of rides on Carrey’s shoulders to make him work, and he really doesn’t. While his sporadic energy can be unpredictable at times, it also feels like he’s going overboard for his own sake rather than the character, resulting in some moments that feel over-the-top and shouty for no reason. Every human actor does have good comedic and dramatic timing, but the script just doesn’t support them very well, leaving people like Marsden and Carrey screaming for good material, and people like Tika Sumpter and Natasha Rothwell begging for any relevant part. This would be something that’d be remedied in the later movies (giving more attention to Sonic’s roster rather than more pointless humans), but it is something that plagues this movie.

While the redesign on Sonic was greatly appreciated and is more appealing than whatever they were envisioning with the previous design, it doesn’t remove the fact that the effects on him aren’t great. It does accurately look like the character, and he is colorful and expressive enough to work for the movie, but it rarely if ever feels like he occupies the same space as the humans and since the film only rarely incorporates some of his classic move set or environment, it mainly feels like the flashy effects and sequences are emulating other redundant sequences that featured quick characters, or feel flashy just for the sake of mindless captivation. The action can be entertaining on some occasions, and the climax does do some fun things with teleporting to areas around the world like China and Egypt, but because a lot of time is dedicated to Sonic doing mundane every-day things like playing baseball, driving in a car, or getting in a bar fight, there isn’t time dedicated to the unique components that make up his universe. The music also doesn’t shine very strong, with the score by Tom Holkenberg barely doing anything to illicit the iconic tunes and bits from the games in a way that brings more of an identity to this movie, instead opting for something stereotypical and again pretty dated.

Sonic the Hedgehog was set to be a colossal failure that would’ve been an unforgettable moment of cinema, so while it’s good that the team behind this film realized their mistake and rectified it (ensuring that they’d have a successful film series), it honestly feels like the movie has nothing worth mentioning now that the abomination was destroyed. This 2020 live-action feature feels like something ripped out of the 1990s, and while the movies would later integrate the Sonic identity in a flashy and effective manner while still providing something unique for the big screen, this first entry is very shallow, lacking in variety or interest, and is splintered by lame cliches, boring characters, and underwhelming action. The story is predictable and feels very lazy, the world is ill-fitting of Sonic, the characters are bland, the writing is almost humorously unfunny, and it just doesn’t feel like Sonic despite being led by a team who seem to really care about the character. Would blossom into something better, but it got off to a slow start.