A Movie for Kids at the Core and That’s Okay
Read Time:3 Minute, 26 Second
MOVIE REVIEW
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
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Genre: Animation, Action, Adventure
Year Released: 2022
Runtime: 2h 2m
Director(s): Jeff Fowler
Writer(s): Pat Casey, Josh Miller, John Whittington
Cast: James Marsden, Jim Carrey, Ben Schwartz, Tika Sumpter, Idris Elba
Where To Watch: In theaters nationwide now
What we have here is, well, I’m not entirely sure; it was all over the place, and I don’t quite know how I feel about it. First and foremost, 2020’s SONIC THE HEDGEHOG was the last movie I saw in theaters before the big COVID shut down, so it has an odd place in the zeitgeist that is my heart. I remember having heard about COVID before but only as something to keep an eye out for. Little did I know that I wouldn’t be stepping foot in a theater for some time after that. Thankfully, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2 wasn’t my first film back, but it still had that connection.
A direct continuation of the first film, we see the continuing adventures of the blue hedgehog (I don’t think Sega knew what a hedgehog looked like when they created Sonic.) I feel like some of the story had to be adjusted to have the core cast return; I won’t go into details, but some things just felt convenient. The film's most interesting aspect is that it may be the last feature acting role of Jim Carrey’s (while I don’t believe this to be true, he did say he’s contemplating retirement.)
I feel like the studio didn’t have a lot of hope for a third film when writing this; they not only went for broke by bringing back Carrey but also introduced Sonic’s pal Tails and his anti-hero nemesis Knuckles all in the same film. I know that the world of Sonic is pretty vast in the games and animated series, but these are easily the two most recognizable characters of the franchise after Sonic. It just felt like a slower role out would have shown more confidence. I could be wrong; maybe they just wanted to risk everything and share the entire universe as quickly as possible.
Ultimately, the story felt a little “small”; it didn’t seem like anything was ever really at stake here, while that’s not bad in a typical film. It felt a little out of place in a 2hr kid's movie; they usually have more significant events.
I will say that I still believe that the original trailer for the first film was a marketing gimmick by Paramount. If you don’t know what I’m referencing, definitely google it (something straight from your nightmares.). At the same time, the truth may never actually come out; the continued beautiful animation in this film makes me think that they were testing the waters with something almost like a joke that backfired originally.
Make sure that you stick around for the mid-credit scene (more below.)
SPOILERS:
After the fun stylized credits, we get a teaser of what’s to come (maybe?). We get to see a tease of Shadow the Hedgehog; while I’m not very familiar with his backstory, I do know that he’s one of Sonic’s big bad. Interestingly, they added him in while ultimately leaving Carrey’s fate unknown. I don’t know if they knew about his possible retirement or if that’s just how the cards fell. Either way, this would open the door for a continuation regardless.
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Idris Elba is a major reason for me, loving this movie on top of Jim Carrey’s performance, as Eggman.
They keep doing these Sonic movies right. If these came out on VHS when I was a kid I would of runined the tape from watching them so many times