Sonic the Hedgehog has been one of the more curious movies to come out in recent years. Originally set for a 2019 release, the film was pushed back after a severe negative reaction to the character design in the first trailer sent Sonic back to the drawing board. A newly designed character was revealed late last year, around the time the movie was supposed to be hitting theaters, and fans gave their stamp of approval. But now that the movie is here, was all that extra time and effort and money worth it? It looks like the answer might be yes, because Sonic the Hedgehog is actually a pretty good movie.
Reviews hit the internet last night and Sonic the Hedgehog has a solid 70% positive score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. CinemaBlend's own Mike Reyes gave the move 3.5 stars and says the film is fun for any audience, whether you grew up with the super fast hedgehog in the 90s or are just going along for the ride...
It doesn’t matter if you grew up with a Sega Genesis in your living room, or if you’ve never touched a console in your life, as Sonic The Hedgehog offers thrills, comedy, and some more nuanced emotional beats for all to enjoy.
The Sonic the Hedgehog game series is all about moving through creative and alien worlds at super speed, and while there's plenty of that fast paced action to be had, the movie plays things a little differently by putting Sonic on a modern Earth and paring him with a human partner, played by James Marsden. While the plot may be a departure from what fans of the games would know. Comicbook.com says it gets the spirit of the character and the games right, which is what really matters...
Sonic the Hedgehog succeeds where so many other video game adaptations fail because it captures the spirit of the games and the character. It doesn't matter that it's not a 1:1 adaptation of the games.
Sonic the Hedgehog is very much a product of 1990s culture, which makes the fact that the film co-stars a version of Jim Carry that feels ripped directly from that decade feel very intentional. For the most part, Carrey is getting strong marks from critics, like Total Film...
A relic of the '90s in more ways than one, Sonic offers frenetic fun for younger viewers, and in Jim Carrey's preposterous Robotnik an enjoyable shot of nostalgia for adults.
And as far as how Sonic looks. Yeah, that's a massive improvement. The CGI work of the blue blur main character gets praised by CNET, even if some of the lines that come out of the character don't.
It's a shame Sonic the Hedgehog's forgettable jokes don't live up to its visuals, but it's a decent cinematic start for the blue blur and leaves me with the hope of an even more adventurous sequel down the line.
The decision to redesign Sonic and delay the movie was a surprising one. While social media rarely holds back its opinion on something, even before seeing the final product, it rarely actually results in major action from the studio. However, what seems clear here now, is that the filmmakers likely truly believed they had a pretty solid movie here, and that the rest of the work would be overlooked due to the CGI that nobody liked, With that in mind, taking the time to rework Sonic makes sense.
Which is not to say that everybody thinks that Sonic the Hedgehog truly came out ahead. The AV Club holds the opinion, that a few other critics also hold, that the movie feels largely generic...
Yes, it's that kind of movie: a nattering chore of a "family" comedy that feels written by committee and directed by indifferent machine.
Overall, it seems that most critics were into Sonic the Hedgehog, and most of them were just as surprised as you are that they did. It works, it looks good, it's funny. It looks like fans who weren't quite sure about this one might wanna get to the theater as fast as they can.
