Gotta Go Fast
The Dreamcast was one of my favorite consoles
Sonic Adventures 2 was Sega’s swan song for their icon, the last flagship game they released for a first party console. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the game was being adapted for the screen. A lot of kids grew up on Super Mario Bros, and I played those games too. But when the blast processor came knocking, I opened the door.
Sega games spoke to me, they were always a little different. Aggressive, edgy and they never took themselves too seriously. Nintendo, on the other hand, seemed to find ways to iterate on the wheel. If you love one of their series, you’ll probably love them all. Nintendo certainly won the war on the small screen, they are still beloved and one of the biggest gaming companies in the world. Sega makes cult hits and is out of the console game completely.
The trend carried over to the big screen with Nintendo’s foray making over a billion dollars, the Sonic live action franchise just passed that threshold with their third film. Box office results, much like video game revenue, does not define quality and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 continues the franchise’s underhog success story.
A cold open fills us in on Shadow (Keanu Reeves) tragic backstory, losing a close friend in a tragedy at the facility where he was studied. The exposition dump is handled well, it gives you enough kernels without monologuing or dragging the pace to halt and features a surprise cameo from Jorma Taccone. We know Shadow is dangerous and the officials at G.U.N. are terrified that someone broke him out of his holding cell.
Over to Team Sonic, where Tails (Colleen O'Shaughnessey) and Knuckles (Idris Elba) challenge the Blue Blur (Ben Schwartz) to a race. Surprise, it was all a trick to celebrate his B-Earth-Day, arranged by Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie (Tika Sumpter). The celebration is interrupted because Director Rockwell (Krysten Ritter) and G.U.N. needs his help.
Much of the first act is by the books kid’s movie stuff, talking directly to troubled kids about their pain and how to not let it control you. In these moments, the movie is at its worst. A shame, as both Marsden and Sumpter are capable of more. If the filmmakers treated children with the same respect that they did the source material, this could have been a classic.
Once the after school special foundation is laid, the movie takes off. Much like its predecessor, Sonic 3 is better when it digs into what made the games unique. Jeff Fowler drew heavily on the game’s anime inspiration and it pays huge dividends. This is the closest to a live action Dragon Ball Z film I’ve ever seen.
The movie dazzles, going from a Chao Garden meeting that goes explosively wrong to a slovenly and depressed Dr Robotnik’s (Jim Carrey) lair, we’re never allowed to catch our breath or think too much about plot contrivances. Carrey puts on his best performance yet, pulling double duty this time as the Mean Bean Machine and his grandfather.
While the introduction might have been childish, by the conclusion the story has grown darker and more real. There are actual stakes in this film and consequences that must be addressed. I found myself giddy at moments, like when Sonic and Shadow were blasting through space and ping ponging off robots. Combat that was too fast for the human eye was pulled straight from DBZ, which has always been a huge influence on the franchise.
Reeves channels John Wick for Shadow, both in his level of cool and his results. He also gets one of the best Akira slides in cinema history. It makes me wonder how good the films could be if they took the handcuffs off and let them work, but I know there are certain audiences who would complain ad nauseum were that the case.
Overall, this was a better movie and less successful than its Nintendo counterpart. Two end credits scenes set up a continuation of the series, which seems likely due to box office success and critical acclaim. I’m glad I saw it, but I do think they’ve pushed their formula to the limit. When the inevitable Sonic 4 comes out, I hope some changes are made to keep it fresh. It does give me hope for a live action Shonen not being awful though.