Keanu Reeves and two Jim Carreys kick Sonic The Hedgehog 3 into enjoyable overdrive
The threequel refreshes what's worked and improves what hasn’t, becoming the best film in the franchise yet.
Photo: Paramount Pictures
Aren’t video game adaptations supposed to be cursed? Tell that to Sonic The Hedgehog 3, the strongest showing yet from Paramount’s blue-blur franchise. Director Jeff Fowler comes full circle after working on animations for 2005’s Shadow The Hedgehog platformer, benefiting from existing connections to SEGA’s gun-happy bad-boy hedgehog. Writers Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington formulate Sonic’s latest adventure well, going all-in on the strangeness of these animalian aliens. The film is passionate about Sonic’s lore, as made evident by direct Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow The Hedgehog callbacks, but that doesn’t supersede its familial appeal. Sonic The Hedgehog 3 is an action-packed blast from start to finish that should please even the prickliest Green Hill Zone groupies.
Sonic The Hedgehog 2 concluded with a Shadow teaser, and that’s precisely where Paramount’s second sequel begins. Keanu Reeves’ tortured Shadow, a red-streaked hedgehog, escapes “Prison Island” in Tokyo. Sonic (Ben Schwartz), Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey), and Knuckles (Idris Elba) are called into action by the Director of the Guardian Units of Nations, Rockwell (Krysten Ritter), and asked to defeat Shadow. “Team Sonic” accepts G.U.N.’s mission but quickly realizes they’ll need extra support to defeat their super-strong and teleporting foe. That leads the trio to Sonic’s arch-nemesis, Dr. Ivo Robotnik (Jim Carrey), an unlikely ally—and, naturally, G.U.N.’s hiding something from Earth’s anthropomorphic defenders.
A hefty mountain of lore is plowed through in Sonic The Hedgehog 3, but Fowler excels at making everything digestible. Team Sonic’s quest to defeat Shadow is filled with obstacles that develop deeper friendships between the main animal crew, while Dr. Robotnik reunites with his diabolical grandpappy Gerald Robotnik (also Carrey). The performer is splendid in the dual role, single-handedly generating generational chemistry. Then there’s Shadow’s heartbreaking backstory as G.U.N.’s guinea pig, explaining his quest for revenge on behalf of the only Earthling he ever cared about, Maria Robotnik (Alyla Browne). All that, and Lee Majdoub still finds room to steal scenes as Robotnik’s underappreciated yet devoted assistant, or Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie Wachowski (Tika Sumpter) teaching Sonic valuable life lessons. It’s a lot of narrative to grapple, yet the film never feels overburdened or clumsily mapped.
Perhaps that’s because Sonic The Hedgehog 3 learns from the clunky Sonic The Hedgehog 2 and readjusts accordingly. There’s nothing unfamiliar here: Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles fight against another grumpy lookalike (Shadow) with the inevitable outcome already in sight. That’s what happened last time. But where Sonic The Hedgehog 2 favored interventions from the Wachowskis, Sonic The Hedgehog 3 lets its animated heroes shine. There’s less “live” in this impressively blended live-action movie, which is not a detriment.