top of page
Post: Blog2_Post
  • Writer's pictureRoman Arbisi

Review: Sonic the Hedgehog


Breezy, funny, and creative enough with it’s action to continue trying to buck the curse of video game movies despite it’s glaring shortcomings.

 

Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog speeds into theaters this weekend with months of complications and ethically frustrating stages of post-production involving the VFX team. En route to a film that checks every box, but maintains it’s adoration for the speedy hedgehog through clever humor and exciting action.


What started as a campaign that had Sonic looking like he’d gone through a few stages of crisis, the overwhelming backlash and disgust for one of the most renowned characters ever pushed Paramount to remodel the character. On one hand, this overworked the VFX team that originally created their vision for Sonic because we all got upset on the Internet, but it also greatly enhanced the film. The team that did end up losing their jobs shortly after touching up the final model, delivered an excellent looking Sonic and should be acclaimed for their efforts. That’s what is on the other hand. Throughout the film you simply could not imagine how much worse scenes would be with a nearly unrecognizable character. Trying to piece together the initial creation and placing him here is stark in contrast. Once again, the VFX team did a mighty fine job here.

As for Ben Schwartz’s voice work as Sonic, what else needs to be said other than the fact that he was great? His lightning quick dialogue is snappy, if not exhausting, but the emotional moments actually work. Partly due to James Marsden doing James Marsden things. Being a serviceable leading man that makes his conflict believable. The writing isn’t particularly special and the choices he has to make are ripped straight from a Nickelodeon TV show, but Marsden sells it. At the core of the movie is friendship and growth, and it’s touched up as decent as you’d expect from a movie made for families across the globe. Touching when it needs to be, heartfelt when it wants to be, and funny as it should be. Jim Carrey’s crazed and loony turn as the evil Dr. Robotnik is a Jim Carrey dream matchup. Lifted straight out of the mid-90s, Carrey’s physical and downright hysterical delivery of dialogue gives this movie the right amount of cheese it needs. He is not only completely convincing as a self-empowering madman, but he just owns the screen whenever he’s on it. Coming a week after Ewan McGregor’s turn as Roman Sionis in Birds of Prey, I'm all for more movies taking Hall of Fame actors and letting them ham it up.


Negatively, the script doesn’t do much lifting. Not even heavy lifting, but virtually no lifting at all. As mentioned previously, the themes of friendship and growth are there, but it’s not given the service it needs to make this family friendly affair a movie with much to get out of it. Not that all movies should be a window into addressing the psychological consequences of living isolated, distant, and without friends for example, but more attention to something that is briefly there would have catapulted Sonic into something quite special.


Sonic the Hedgehog’s charm is a massive surprise, and a welcoming entry into this early slate of 2020 features. After all of the memes, the hard work the VFX team put in, and the delay to a usually cataclysmic month for movies, Sonic is a breezy getaway from a rough 2020 thus far. The roots of the character, the legacy of him, and the world around him is given just enough attention to create an exciting origin story with just enough meat on the bones to say, “That wasn’t so bad.” Between this, Detective Pikachu, and a so-so Tomb Raider, we’re *that* much closer to a new age of movie-going where video games become the new blockbuster wave, and I’m here to ride it and hang ten.

18 views0 comments
bottom of page