SONIC THE HEDGEHOG (2020)
The vast number of movies that were supposed to come out in 2020, ended up being postponed till 2021. The shut down for a large part of the year, for most of the nation’s theaters, means there are a limited amount of “new movie” offerings for 2020. This is one of these movies that snuck under the “shut down” bell, and is currently in theaters as of August 2020. I am not going to spend a ton of time on why this all happened (if you are reading this in 2030 or something)…if you want to look it up – go ahead. I for one am going to continue to write reviews as if the world intends to spin on, and for as long as God lets the air go in and out of my lungs.
Based on the SEGA video-game franchise (this is one I actually played on SEGA in the 90’s) SONIC THE HEDGEHOG is about a hedgehog, who has had to escape his own planet due to power hungry enemies. Sonic has a lot of power…so he just had to skip town. Sadly on earth he doesn’t have any friends and mostly stays out of sight. Seemingly, only 1 old dude in town has seen him, and calls him the “Blue Devil”. Sonic unwittingly meets Tom (James Marsden) who is a cop in the small town of Green Hills, Montana. If I ever get a second home, I would want to move to a place like Montana, South Dakota or a rural part of Minnesota, or just some place, like the town in this movie. Sonic gets upset one night and lets out of burst of power that shuts down all electricity for miles. Because of this, the government unleashes an evil genius named Dr. Robotnik (played by Jim Carrey). I am guessing that the government hasn’t figured out that Dr. Robotnik’s main goal is global domination via “machines”. Or maybe they did know and just don’t care because after all…it’s the government.
Sonic is definitely a kids movie, but it was written to appeal to a wide audience. Sonic himself is voiced by Ben Schwartz who is likable in the roll. If you don’t know who Ben Schwartz is, he’s the big jerk on “Parks And Recreation” named Jean-Ralphio. Overall I can’t stand this dude, but he’s good in as Sonic’s voice in this. Regardless of what is going on with Jim Carrey at any given time, he’s really good as Dr. Robotnik here. His character is given some really interesting quarks, like being into groovy music while he’s hunting Sonic, and being given a bit of a sense of goofiness. He actually personifies what you would expect if a video game character came to life. James Marsden (who was Scott Summers from the X-MEN series) is pretty good in this as Tom, and he plays opposite of Sonic pretty well. Another stand out in this movie who kinda completes the picture and makes us care about the other characters even more is Tika Sumpter, who plays Maddie.
The effects and camera work in this movie are pretty amazing. There isn’t much about the effects that I had any issue with. There are even a few scenes of a “Sonic is so fast everything else is slow” that really were probably perfected in X-MEN DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, but work really well here. Story wise this movie isn’t blowing minds, and it’s probably not a movie I will buy in absence of a sequel, but SONIC THE HEDGEHOG gets a solid 5 out of 7 from me. I love the fact that the effects team changed the eyes and look of Sonic himself after the first trailers came out. We ended up getting a lot better character look, truer to the game itself. However, that wasn’t all we got here. SONIC THE HEDGEHOG is massively enjoyable and did a great job of catering to a wide audience. If your theaters are showing this, it’s worth the price of admission.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF PARAMOUNT PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
Please check out the link below by clicking on the picture. Because no one should die buttonless. Until next time.
Comments
Post a Comment