Let’s once again end a run of “Game to Live Action Movies” with a Sonic movie funnily enough as we take a look at Sonic The Hedgehog 2, a sequel to one of those extremely rare things known as a good game adaptation (and a great game in its own right!). Thankfully Sonic 2 manages to keep the momentum going and deliver another fun film with more Jim Carrey insanity, the debut of Tails and Knuckles and even more original MegaDrive Sonic references for me to smirk at. Let’s take a look!
As a film still squarely aimed at children the core story is focused on Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) going through a journey of discovery as he finds what it means to be a hero. He starts the film trying to act like a superhero but actually doing more damage than the people he’s trying to capture so gets a lecture from his human father-figure Tom Wachowski (James Marsden) about being patient and waiting for a time when his powers are needed and that “he’ll know” when that time is. This is followed by Sonic being left home alone and all the crazy hijinks that come with that but that leads into the arrival of Doctor Robotnik (Jim Carrey) who escaped his imprisonment on the nameless mushroom planet with the help of Knuckles (Idris Elba), who attacks Sonic and has him on the ropes until Tails arrives (still voiced by Colleen O’Shaughnessey from the games, not sure why she’s the exception in terms of keeping voice actors but whatever!) and saves him.
Once again the highlight of the film is the bit of casting that originally made me scratch my head in confusion!
The middle chunk of the film turns into something of a game of cat and mouse as Robotnik and Knuckles try to find the coveted Master Emerald, which the latter’s tribe always protected (and Knuckles naively thinks Robotnik is here to help him) while Sonic and Tails bond as they travel across the planet. In a change from the game’s canon (which shouldn’t be a surprise given how much has also changed!) Tails is a fan of Sonic after viewing him from afar and travelled to Earth in order to warn him about Knuckles. His story is one of having a lack of self confidence only to find it alongside the more outgoing Hedgehog, including a weird dance-off scene! Knuckles meanwhile is the opposite as he’s exactly like the games in that he’s introduced as an antagonist being used by Robotnik for his plans. It’s all good fun, including a snowboarding scene right out of the Ice Cap Zone from Sonic 3.
Oh good… the human characters. Yay. Well, non-Robotnik human characters, I should say.
Sadly there is a downside to the movie and wouldn’t you know it’s once again the human characters. You see Tom and his wife Maddie (Tika Sumpter) are at the wedding of the latter’s sister Rachel (Natasha Rothwell) and it starts off as just a couple of cut-backs to them but eventually Sonic and Tails literally crash into the wedding ceremony via his teleporting rings and it’s revealed that Rachel’s would-be husband Randall (Shemar Moore) is actually a government agent who only got close to her so he and his fellow agents (also dressed as wedding guests) could capture Sonic, as well as Tails and even Tom while they’re at it. Then we get a painful set of scenes with Maddie and Rachel breaking them all out and then a terrible and way overlong sequence focusing on Rachel getting revenge on Randall and the two eventually reconciling. It used really poorly written humour (even for a kids film) and completely killed the pace of the movie dead.
Thankfully things do eventually get back on track as Robotnik and Knuckles once again take out Sonic and Tails before heading off towards where the Master Emerald is being kept, with Sonic seeing a knocked out Tails as him “failing to be a hero” and going after the antagonistic duo in a fit of rage…
Overall Thoughts:
Knuckles casually blocks Sonic’s Spin-Dash! This screenshot would’ve blown me away a few… decades ago.
Ignoring the terrible wedding scenes the film has some fun set pieces, good CG and good performances all round, with Jim Carrey once again stealing the show with his 90s heyday level over-the-top performance. Throw in some fun game references for me to point at and I really enjoyed my time with the film. That’s two-for-two now, let’s hope they can keep up the momentum, though admittedly they’re out of material that speaks to my child self and are heading towards the Adventure era of the game series, so it won’t quite be the same but hopefully will still maintain the fun mix of child adventure film and the odd good gag for older viewers too.
Robotnik, Knuckles and Sonic all explore an underwater temple (now THAT’s Sonic in a nutshell… well, frustrating Sonic in a nutshell anyway…) and our antagonists discover the Emerald first but much to Knuckles’ surprise and no-one else’s Robotnik betrays Knuckles and takes the power of the Emerald for himself, becoming all powerful, taking out both Sonic and Knuckles before heading back to Green Hill. Despite all that’s happened Sonic rescues Knuckles and the two reunite with Tails and Tom and they all head for a final confrontation (including Tails using his classic red “Tornado” plane!).
… Yep, this looks like Sonic 2 to me!
The battle comes in the form of Robotnik’s mech suit from Sonic 2 the game (only 100x larger) and our three anthropomorphic heroes learn to work together as a team to take down the large mech, with the finale coming in the form of Sonic becoming Super Sonic by combining with the Emerald himself. Sonic has become the hero he always wanted and made two new friends to boot, so we’re shown a scene of all of them playing baseball with Tom and family for a happy ending. Oh and we get a tease for Shadow the Hedgehog appearing in Sonic 3, which is probably really cool for those of a certain age and lower, for me it’s a reference to the last 3D Sonic game I played before checking out of the series… Well, until Sonic Mania anyway…
Hogan Reviews 