Cody Collins

This is a kids movie and a movie for people in their 20’s and 30’s who grew up with this character and these games. The amount of references in this film, without feeling forced or ham-fisted, is uncanny. I was trying to count them when the film started, but got so engrossed in the movie, that I quickly forgot to keep up with that. Considering video game movies have a habit of being the visual equivalent of a liquid nitrogen enema, I’d say me forgetting to count the references is actually a positive. Sonic looks great. As a character, he looks exactly as he should. But…unless you’re Harvey Weinstein, looks aren’t everything. So, how’s his character? It’s great. It’s different, but great. And different in a good way. Sonic games, always have Sonic as positive, happy, and “cool.” In this, while he does have a lot of those attributes, without character development, you hardly have a character. And they do that…They give Sonic an arc. In fact, the whole film follows this arc exactly how it should be followed. Yeah, he’s partnered with a human, but throughout the whole film it always feels like a Sonic movie. There’s some legitimate emotional moments in this film, and because of the chemistry between the cast, it really works. Ben Schwartz, playing Sonic, nails the dialogue delivery, along with the mocap facial expressions, that allow James Marsden’s character to react in a completely believable and realistic way. This really is a buddy cop film…just…with a cop and a hyperactive blue, fast talking, indestructible, alien furry with the ability to break the sound barrier, instead of two cops. The movie does have some issues, sure, but they’re “issues” that more or less get a pass when you remember, this IS a kids movie. It’s very formulaic. The jokes are very obvious, low hanging fruit jokes that you do see coming, and it isn’t entirely “Original” in terms of the story. It’s just a road trip movie. But I don’t necessarily see a lot of that as a problem? Just because it’s not a brand new, over the top experience, doesn’t make it bad. In fact, there’s a sort of comfort in the “Family Friendly Adventure for All Ages” that doesn’t need to do anything new or groundbreaking, as long as they honor the character they’re portraying. Which they do perfectly. So as long as you’re prepared to see the punchlines and story beats coming, you’re gonna enjoy yourself. I was worried this was gonna be one of those cases where they trailers showed you all the best parts, and sometimes that was true. But they did a very good job of holding back and not giving too much away. A lot of the dialogue from the trailers, actually appears in different sections of the film, as if they were intentionally trying to throw us off to make the jokes funnier by having us expect one line from the trailer, then give us a completely different one. I mean…It didn’t WORK, but it was definitely a nice effort. Last but not least…Jim Carrey. People can say whatever they want about Sonic’s design, and video game movies, and denying the holocaust, and making it a live action/CGI hybrid, but THIS was my biggest worry. Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik. And let me tell you, I couldn’t have beenmore wrong. Eggman has always been a bit…Over the top and eccentric. And boy does Jim Carrey give us exactly what we want. Hell, I’d say he actually makes the character of Eggman a bit deeper than the games ever did. Sure, he’s not fat. And that’s annoying. But that’s really my only complaint. Between this film and Detective Pikachu, Hollywood may have ACTUALLY cracked the code on Video Game adaptations…I must say I’m very impressed over all. 5/5