Movie Review: Sonic The Hedgehog 3 (2024)
A fun time at the movies with the blue blur!
Preface
Sonic The Hedgehog 3 might be the best video game movie that I have seen and is an absolute blast to watch due to how satisfying is both as a love letter to fans of the franchise AND as a movie in general.
The Sonic The Hedgehog Balancing Act
Right off the bat, I give a huge amount of credit to the screenwriting for this film by Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington. There are a ton of characters that are a part of this film’s story and I think that the writers do a good enough job having all of their arcs tie into the themes and message that is being conveyed. For a kid’s movie, Sonic The Hedgehog 3 does manage to deliver a beautiful message all about making the right decisions in life and learning how to love yourself for who you are. This results in a story where you do end up caring about what is going on along with containing many likable characters to keep it all afloat. All three characters of the Sonic trio are as fun as they were in the previous films and I really enjoyed their interactions with one another, but the highlights of the film for me were whenever Shadow (voiced by Keanu Reeves) and/or Dr. Robotnik (played by Jim Carrey) were on-screen. Shadow is handled extremely well in this film and I thought that they did his backstory with Maria justice injecting it with quite a bit of emotional depth even if they could have gone a little bit further with it. Plus, Robotnik has a really fun subplot involving him bonding with his grandfather Gerald (also played by Carrey) and it results in not only a simultaneously wholesome & hilarious side plot, but one that also grants Robotnik with one of the most fleshed out characters arcs out of the entire cast of characters here. Aside from Shadow feeling a little sidelined in the middle act of the movie and some scenes that could have been cut out as a result, I was very pleased with the way this film was written and found it to work very well in terms of story/plot, character, themes, and dialogue (even if some lines were a little too cheesy).
A Love Letter To A Franchise Done Right
Next, I would have to say that I was impressed with Jeff Fowler’s direction for this film. While it took a while for him to find his footing with the first movie (less so with the second one), he did step us his game with this third film and you can tell that he is highly passionate about this franchise. Every time that Fowler incorporates lines of dialogue/references from the video games, it never feels cheap and they actually feel organic to the story & characters. They also manage to enhance the humor for this film, which I found to be consistently effective & funny due to the great chemistry between the characters and the excellent comedic timing. On top of this, Fowler’s approach to storytelling and presentation through his vision have been improved by a lot here. All of the action scenes in this film are presented extremely well because of how great the color scheme is throughout the majority of them along with the help of solid camerawork and visual effects (for the most part). There are times where Fowler also does a good job in letting the visuals tell the story without the need for any dialogue, particularly in moments featuring the backstory of Shadow & Maria. The scene where they first meet is especially notable not only because of how lovable & endearing it is, but also due to how much the visuals say so much with so little (huge kudos the characters’ emotions themselves for this well). In general, Jeff Fowler’s directing feels at its most improved with Sonic The Hedgehog and it has me excited for what he will do with the fourth film coming up soon.
A Quill With Flaws
In terms of problems I had with the film, one of the only ones I had (which I mentioned earlier) is that some of the visual effects did look a little wonky. The CGI on the non-human characters looks insanely impressive, but there were some green screen effects that looked rough and definitely could have used some polishing. The only other flaw I have with the film is that the performances were a mixed bag altogether. The MVPs of the cast are definitely Keanu Reeves & Jim Carrey, who do the best job in embodying their characters in their own unique ways between the amount of gravitas that Reeves brings to his portrayal of Shadow and Carrey bringing a double dose of endearing energy to his performances as Robotnik & Gerald. Besides them however (and really fun vocal performances from Idris Elba as Knuckles & Ben Schwartz as Sonic), there was not many members of the cast that stood out to me. The human actors do the best that they can (most notably Lee Majdoub as Agent Stone), but this is yet another case in which I didn’t find myself all that invested in them that much (aside from Stone & the two Robotniks). I found Alyla Browne, in particular, to be rather bland & wooden in her scenes as Maria. She doesn’t give the worst performance ever or anything (and the chemistry between her and Shadow is cute), but her line deliveries & emotions could have been tweaked more to make her scenes more emotionally impactful.
Conclusion
Aside from these flaws, Sonic The Hedgehog 3 is an absolute fun time at the movies! It features all the lovable humor, action, and great character interactions that you want in a film like this while also telling a heartfelt story that wins you over by the end. Move as fast as the speed of sound to your nearest movie theater and check out all the enjoyable chaos for yourself!
Sonic The Hedgehog 3 is currently out in theaters now!
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