Random Movie Review - Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic has been around for almost as long as I have. I have played many of the games, seen at least two cartoons and read at least a couple of the comics. As the main rival to Nintendo's Super Mario series, the Sonic the Hedgehog series has had a pretty decent run in comparison. Not as many games and most are considered inferior to others, but there have been some stand out moments here and there. Now we have the film which according to Paramount is a film that they have been very committed to making, and they even delayed the original release to redesign Sonic to look more like his video game appearance instead of that too real abomination that we got in the first trailer. Video game films have a bad reputation of being inferior to the games they are based on, but many have redeemable qualities to make up. Such qualities include casting Angelina Jolie in the first couple of Tomb Raider films because at the time she looked like Lara Croft until her redesign. Others include Assassin's Creed where they use the Animus in a brand-new way and the first Angry Birds film in which despite its flaws, it did eventually do something that came from the video games and did a good job of it. So let's see how Sonic fared in his film which turned out to be among the last films this year to be released on big screens just before the pandemic:

So the truth about his origins have never been made clear, but Paramount decided to attempt at telling a potential one anyway. Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) as a child spent most of his time in what I am guessing is Green Hill Zone. But when his guardian Longclaw the Owl (voiced by Donna Jay Fulks) is shoot known by a tribe of echidnas, he escapes using his rings and lands in a small town on Earth called Green Hills. There he spends a lot of time running and exploring the town, but longing for the day when he can make friends. But when he causes a power outage one night, his presence attracts the attention of one Dr. Robotnik (played by the always energetic and insane Jim Carrey) and so Sonic is forced to team up with the Green Hills police officer Tom Wachowski (played by Cyclops himself, James Marsden) to recover his rings and flee the planet. But things may change over time.

I am happy to say that despite the lack of originality, this is a pretty good film that is pretty much what I would've expected from a Sonic film. Its clear Paramount wanted to try out stuff that other films have done like Deadpool-style narration, Quicksilver like scenes and loads more. As well as making Eggman's over the top machinery more modern and without animals inside (though we do get a reoccurring racoon). As a buddy film, it doesn't spend much time with the usual clichés which is good and very well known sayings are said in the film but the punchline is changed. Jim Carrey I think was the best choice to play Eggman as Eggman is the type of character that's basically an insane scientist and Jim Carrey can do that just fine (he even looks like the original one at the end). So yeah one of the good video game films for once with its delayed release date paying off in the long run. Also expect to see a certain fox appear during the credits scenes. 8/10