Sonic the Hedgehog
Year: 2020
Rating: PG
Length: 99 minutes / 1.65 hours
As someone who grew up with the original Sonic video games, I was highly skeptical of this film adaptation. There’s not much plot behind a game that’s basically: move right as fast as possible and defeat a robot-making madman. Granted, Sonic has developed a little more depth to its lore over the years…but not much. The appeal of the character in the ’90s was his attitude, and I have to admit that his movie does capture that attitude quite well.
For a video game adaptation, Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) isn’t terrible, which is saying something. I can only imagine the nightmare-inducing original design for Sonic, though. However, it’s still not the greatest movie ever for the genre of video game adaptations. I did appreciate the little “slow-motion” moments, as well as the practical use of the rings as teleportation devices. Jim Carrey’s Dr. Robotnik was passable, if not a little too goofy/sinister at times. This movie probably won’t age well, though, as there are plenty of cultural references included in it—not all of which are directly linked to the source material.
What really gets me about this film was how generic it felt. All the major plot points, characters, and jokes felt like the same tropes I’d expect of any other “an alien coming to Earth and learning to live with/save its inhabitants” plotline. For my money, I’d probably watch Bumblebee (2018) again instead. Of course, many of these problems stem from the “origin story” trope that all these franchises feel they need to produce to get those who aren’t “in the know” to understand their franchise moving forward.
A standard origin story with generic characters and jokes, I give Sonic the Hedgehog 3.0 stars out of 5.
