A LOVE LETTER TO SONIC FANS

Making a video game movie is hard.

Ya gotta appeal to fans who already have expectations on what makes the games cool to them while being entertaining (and make sense) to the general public.

Sonic the Hedgehog juggles all this with a smile and a wink. Its charming, has a confident direction, and fun personality.

The movie takes elements from the various sources such as the games, comics and TV series and makes it’s own origin story for how Sonic ended up on our Earth.

Sonic is from another world and is hiding in ours in order to keep his power a secret.

Sonic (Ben Schwatrz) gets careless one day, and soon after a cat and mouse game begins between the speedy hedgehog versus one super genius mad scientist Dr. Ivo Robotnik (Jim Carrey) who wants to capture and study him.

Aiding Sonic in his journey is good hearted Sheriff Tom (James Marsden) who yearns  moving to a bigger city and prove his worth as an officer of the law.

When these two are on screen, their chemistry works well, going from quick banter to having real emotional talk about life and purpose.

Robotnik serves as the bad baddie and alternate source of energy. It kinda feels Sonic and him are not just trying to outwit each other, but see who can net the most laughs in the cinema.

Jim Carrey takes his previous roles as Ace Ventura plus the Mask, and gives us a villain reminiscent to early 90’s Saturday morning cartoon days, complete with overzealous body language, vocals, and dance choreography.  Good stuff!

Major props to Director Jeff Fowler and his team for managing to get that sense of speed of the character and delivering it with finesse.

When Sonic uses his power, you get that sense of adrenaline rushing through you from the clever camera angles and purposeful editing.

There aren’t many slow motion moments and or slapping coloured dots on the map and have it zip about all over.

Watching a blue flurry hedgehog has never been so fun!

Other than the fun spirit and speed of Sonic, the team also manage to show the contrast between Sonic and Robotnik, and gave their rivalry some depth.

Sonic values nature, freedom, having fun, and yearns for genuine connection with people.

Robotnik values technology, precision, being in control and pushes people away or mocks the heck out of them.

Looking forward to seeing more of their rivalry if a sequel is in the works.

CONCLUSION

Sonic the Hedgehog feels a solid game level – it’s simple but has layers of depth underneath, the pacing is fast yet satisfyingly comfortable and the visuals are spectacular!

The movie totally serves as a fantastic love letter to the fans of the series, old and new. Give a round of applause for the Fastest Thing Alive!

Sonic the Hedgehog blasts through with a High “Dinner Conversation” from me.

Definitely bringing up this up at dinner with buddies when I meet them and discuss it at length… Then diss Mario’s first movie for the next hour.

If ya curious about the tone of the movie, check out the trailer:

Thanks for reading, see you next week! And have a Happy Valentine’s Day!

Next review: 21 Feb 2020, The Call of the Wild

Personal Expression:

From the bottom of my heart I really hope this movie is a financial success and serves as an example of how video game movies can be fun AND profitable.

If it bombs, the notion that video game movies aren’t worth making will continue, and that’s sad to me.

EDIT (19 Feb 2020)
It seems to be doing well, fingers crossed the momentum keep going strong!