Sonic the Hedgehog: Should You Rush to See It?

I was shocked.  How did this monster get approved.  It was like watching a train wreck.  It shook me to my core.  Apparently, it shook a lot of other people too, because the trailer received over a million dislikes on YouTube.  After re-watching the trailer, I decided I needed to see this film, not because it looked good, but to convince myself I wasn't having a fever dream.  In a rare turn of events, complaining on the internet worked and the director of the film took to Twitter to say the little hedgehog would be redesigned.  I was upset about this for a number of reasons.  The main one was because I felt bad for the effects artists.  They would undoubtedly be overworked if the movie was to keep its November release date.  They were taking the fall for something that wasn't their fault.  Another reason I was upset was because this could become a dangerous thing for film.  If enough people complain, then they get what they want.  Yes, this sounds good, but the fans aren't always right (look at Rise of Skywalker as an example).  When does it end?  Will fans be in charge of movie making now?  It's pretty unsettling to think about, especially after seeing the reaction to the director's announcement.  I saw several Tweets saying, ¨We won!¨ and it was sort of upsetting.  These people had no idea what sort of Pandora's Box they just opened.  The final reason I was upset was because, well, I wanted to see this abomination on screen.  We can't always get what we want I guess. 

Sonic the Hedgehog is directed by Jeff Fowler and stars Ben Schwartz, Jim Carrey, James Marsden, and Tika Sumpter.  Sonic (Schwartz) is a super-fast hedgehog who's been by himself for years.  This all changes when the evil Dr. Robotnik (Carrey) discovers his existence and wants to take him apart.  Sonic teams up with local police officer Tom Wachowski (Marsden) to defeat the insane scientist.  With all of that out of the way, let's dive into the review!

Even though I really wanted to see the original design for Sonic, the new look he has is great.  He looks much more like his video game counterpart.  They should've just used this one from the get-go.  It reminded me of Detective Pikachu, where the character is a perfect combination of realism and cartoon.  Sonic, in general in this movie, is awesome.  Don't worry, he's pretty much in every scene.  The movie does a good job of making you feel for him.  Sonic has been by himself for ten years and he's been looking over a town called Green Hill.   Sonic feels that if anyone discovers him, he'd be destroyed.  There's a sequence toward the beginning that shows him playing baseball by himself and it's actually really sad.  I genuinely felt bad for the little guy.  It helps that he's adorable.  Ben Schwartz did a great job as Sonic.  He really brings his energetic personality to life, but never to the point where it gets annoying.  I think that was spot-on casting.  This movie is essentially a buddy film and the other buddy is Tom.  James Marsden did a pretty good job in the role, too.  His chemistry with Sonic was great and the two felt like genuine friends, which is important since that's a central concept of the film.  At first, he's not too fond of the little guy, but, over time, he grows on him.  It was really great to watch.  The scenes with them bonding is where the movie, for me anyways, really shines.  Another stand out was Jim Carrey as Robotnik.  He knows he's the smartest guy in the room and has no problem offending anyone.  When Carrey was announced as the mad scientist, I was a little worried because I thought he would phone it in.  He doesn't.  Watching the movie, I could tell that Carrey had fun with the role.  He was over-the-top (per usual Jim Carrey fashion).  He stole a lot of scenes.  The action was also pretty cool too.   It does a good job of taking the combat from the video games and tweaking it a  little for it to work on the big screen.  At the same time, it's familiar.  There's a sequence that's pretty much the Quicksilver scene from X-Men: Days of Future Past.  It was pretty funny.  The humor was also really good , also.  There were several times where I laughed pretty hard.

There are some parts of the movie that do tend to drag on a bit, particularly in the beginning with Marsden's character.  There's also a subplot that involves Wachowski being labelled a domestic terrorist for helping Sonic.  It doesn't really go anywhere.  There are also some pretty predictable elements to the film as well (I won't go into depth because they're spoilers).  It also didn't help that a pretty big moment was spoiled in one of the trailers.  That's not the movie's fault though.  There's also a ton of product place.  Half of the budget must've been donated from Olive Garden because its name-dropped many times.  It wasn't discrete at all.  There's also a scene where someone says something like, "Oh, I found a house using Zillow," and then it cuts to the Zillow website.  It was pretty cringey at times.

Overall, Sonic the Hedgehog was a pretty good movie.  Sonic is awesome (which is important since , well, the movie is named after him), we really empathize with him, Ben Schwartz does a great job as the character, the chemistry Sonic had with Tom was really good, Jim Carrey is hysterical, and the action and humor really work.  Sometimes the movie drags on a little bit, there is a pretty pointless subplot, and there is a ton of product placement.  It's a lot better than I thought it would be!  If I were to rate it, I'd give Sonic the Hedgehog a 7.5-8/10.  Also, there is a mid-credits scene, so be sure to stick around!