Sonic the Hedgehog Movie Review – Paving the way for video game movies at the speed of sound!
*Disclaimer: this review may contain spoilers. I’ll do my best to avoid them but I should do the responsible thing and let you know that I may have to spoil some parts of the movie*
Sonic is an absolute delight. And I honest to God never thought I’d hear myself say those words…
I’m going to be fair and admit that after watching Detective Pikachu and actually really enjoying it. My bar for video game movies was already high. It was clear to me from that movie that if a studio wanted to make a good movie, instead of a quick and cheap cash grab, they could.
Sonic not only didn’t disappoint but it’s raised the bar even higher for video game based movies.
Now I thought I’d be fair and make sure I judged the movie based on it’s merits. Yes. I was always aware that it was a movie aimed at families. But I didn’t want that to get in the way and allow me to give it free passes in places I usually wouldn’t.
This movie really is paving the way for video game movies at the speed of sound!
Plot
Sonic finds himself in the town of Greenhill (get it?) And ends up befriending a human named Tom Wachowski. Dr. Robotnik discovers his presence in the area. Sonic and Tom are forced to protect each other from the evil, manic Doctor. Throughout the journey Sonic discovers more about himself that changes his perspective forever.
Blue hedgehogs and fish don’t mix
Review
Sonic knows what it wants to be and what it is. There are moments where the film can seem a little slow right at the start but that’s quickly flipped on it’s head.
The shining stars here are Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik and Ben Schwartz as Sonic’s voice. Both of them bring such individuality to the characters that they portray that it’s hard to see them as fictional.
Jim Carrey actually made Robotnik likeable. It’s hard to believe, I know, but he was so hilariously evil that you kinda liked him but never once wanted him to win. It was only after I stepped out of the cinema that I realized I’d very rarely felt that way about a villain before. It was either they were badly played and I hated them as I was meant to or they were played well I liked them so much I kinda wanted them to win. Very rarely have I seen a bad guy played so well that I hated them and still wanted them to lose.
This of course wouldn’t be the case without the wonderful voice work of Ben Schwartz. Ben genuinely makes Sonic come to life. I completely forgot he was some CGI character and started selling up at the sad parts. You can hear the pain in Sonic’s voice when he has small arguments with Tom, it’s amazing acting and I have to commend Ben for it. Voice acting is tough and he did an amazing job!
There is one more actor I wanted to commend for their extraordinary work but including them would be a spoiler so I’ll just say this. For those who know: they did amazingly, for those who don’t you’re in for an amazing surprise!
Closing thoughts
Quite frankly there’s not alot more to say about Sonic. It’s well acted, directed, the soundtrack is solid. It’s a family movie but it never feels like it’s talking down to it’s audience, which is a huge plus.
It has it’s eye-roll moments, when it tries to reference dead memes and the obvious product placement but they are so few and far between they’re easily ignored.
I was worried that a movie like this would rely heavily on nostalgia and inside knowledge to do alot of the heavy lifting for it so I brought my mum to the screening with me (who is not the biggest Sonic fan.) And she absolutely adored it. She didn’t catch any of the references but she still loved it so that was that worry put to bed.
Also, I want to give a big shout out and thank you to the VFX team and everyone working on the movie. Who actually listened to the fans when they openly showed their dislike for Sonic’s original design. It seems to be a trend for huge companies to not only ignore the fans when they say they don’t like or agree with something but some have even taken to attacking them. Paramount didn’t do that. They saw what the fans had to say, took a look. And listened.
If you’ve not seen this movie yet, I reccomend seeing it as soon as humanly possible. It’s so much fun!
