Directed by: Jeff Fowler
Release date: February 14th, 2020
Rating: 5/10
Sonic the Hedgehog is the first film adaptation of the famous Sega game. With Ben Schwartz as Sonic himself and Jim Carrey as his nemesis, Dr. Robotnik, it seemed as if this film was a home run from the beginning. However, once the first trailer was infamously released online, many fans were upset with the design choice for Sonic. If you haven't seen it, it essentially looked like a blue rat with human teeth. After much backlash from the fanbase, the studio and crew decided to do a full redesign of Sonic's character, which meant that the film was going to be delayed. Flash-forward to February 2020, you've got Sonic the Hedgehog.
Whenever you're making a video game movie, you run into the challenge of what to make the movie about. Video games, by nature, have much more substance, lore, and plot than a 2 hour movie can handle. In the case of Sonic, this game has been around for many years and has had many different animated cartoons. So needless to say there's a lot to pull from. What director Jeff Fowler chose to do was to have Sonic's rings act as portals between worlds. In the film, Sonic's ability to run fast is not normal for his world and he has to flee to Earth for his safety. Spending most of his time in hiding. Sonic must figure out how to avoid Dr. Robotnik, who also wants his power, while trying to retrieve the rings he loses so he can escape.
This movie is a little confused as to what it wants to be. Some of the jokes are quite funny with adult audiences as well as kids. But some of them are pretty dumb and are clearly targeting a much younger audience.
The plot is very generic as well. There's two unlikely friends that have to travel a great distance to get an item and battle enemies along the way. Aside from a few jokes that land, what you have is a film that isn't very funny with a predictable plot.
The few saving graces the movie has are Jim Carrey and Ben Schwartz as their characters. Specifically Carrey gives a performance similar to his mid to late 90s slate of films. Everyone else in the movie does an okay job. Not much in this movie is necessarily bad but just not great or as good as it could've been.
I will commend the VFX team for the redesign of Sonic. He looked awful before and now, even though the movie is so-so, the design is great.
Sonic the Hedgehog is a fine film for kids and a tolerable movie for adults. Adult fans of Sonic are likely to be disappointed at the films lack of originality and slight deviation from the normal character. Jim Carrey is a standout in a role that seems like it was written for him and Ben Schwartz does a great job at becoming Sonic. Not an entire waste of money, but don't get your hopes up that you'll be watching a masterpiece.