Dearly beloved, I realized as I sat down to write my finale to the Unity experience that I had erred. In light of a recent game I had started playing earlier this past week, I made the fatal mistake of forgetting about my Sonic review. To make amends, this post will be dropping about twelve hours before the Unity conclusion so that there is a touch of wiggle room betwixt the two. Enjoy :)
My First Sonic
I have almost never interacted with a Sonic game prior to watching these movies. I know how to play Sonic, I have - in fact - picked up a videogame within the past forty years. But I hardly paid attention to what I was playing, in large part owed to me simply not caring enough for whatever reason or another. I had bigger Pokemon to fry, if you catch my meaning. So, with little to no clue about the nature of Sonic's story or his friends or his history aside from the most surface level, merchandisable stuff, I decided to watch both the Sonic movies from Paramount in anticipation for the third film's introduction of Johnny Silverh- I mean Keanu Reeves into the cast. And, to my pleasant surprise, I had a really fun time.
Everyone saw the horrific Sonic render back in 2019, right? The humanly-proportioned crime against nature that was immediately pulled back and tuned up for an entire year? I saw that, and despite the movie eventually coming out to stellar reviews and hearing great things from friends of mine, I never bothered to see the movie because (as mentioned above) I had zero interest in the Sonic franchise. The fact that I came into this movie expecting a mildly entertaining romp, and stuck around due to the surprisingly heartfelt buddy cop / parental guardian drama speaks to how well this movie landed the strange premise that it came out the gate with. A teenage Sonic being essentially adopted by this Montana sheriff is a tough sell in my opinion, but the film gave me a reason to drop my guard and roll with it a bit. And once I let those walls down, it sucked me in and gave me something to laugh about.
Now, it's not the best movie in this genre that I've ever seen: I've been in love with the movie Real Steel since it came out in 2011, and Sonic just doesn't reach that level of commitment for me. But I liked it. I liked it more than I ever expected to, and that's a win in my book. My only quarrel with the first movie is that Jim Carrey's Robotnik didn't click with me until the end. The black suit, government payroll and manservant with an Agent tag just felt odd when mixed all together. It wasn't until his red suit came out in the finale that I started to see the money, mania and disturbed sense of flair merge into a cohesive vision of Eggman coming into his own. The human drama didn't overstay it's welcome, but also didn't disappear into the background for no apparent reason; Sonic and his journey remains the throughline, with updates on other characters threading the needle when necessary. It does feel just a bit weird that Sonic is both best friends with this human, and also...kinda his son? What kind of relationship are the writers and filmmakers aiming for? This issue doesn't become prevalent until the second movie, where it becomes super strange at times and makes me question what exactly the movie is trying to tell me.
And, I guess this makes it a good time to talk about the sequel.
The Knucklesandwich
Sonic 2 takes a lot of what I liked in the first one and amps it up. It adds Knuckles and Tails as part of the story to great effect, it sees the return of Doctor Robotnik with another level of his videogame crazy implemented in the body of Jim Carrey, and it fumbles the bag with the human element. It essentially separates the film into two halves up until the end; one where the humans are all going to a wedding far away that removes them from the immediate plot, and another where Sonic is traveling the planet on an epic mission to find an artifact before Eggman does. The plots tie together about half an hour before the finale, but it feels as if something could have been done better with this. I just can't say what that is, exactly.
When it comes to good stuff, I think that this movie has interesting arcs for Sonic, Tails and Knuckles. Robotnik gets crazier after a year in an alternate dimension, the sheriff stays largely static aside from learning to trust Sonic more (I suppose?) and the other characters undergo a handful of minor changes or whatnot. Knuckles learns not to think of things as so black and white, understanding nuance a bit more and gaining a touch of discernment in the process after Eggman betrays him. Tails grows a backbone, learning how to be an active participant rather than a passive observer. And Sonic learns how to use his powers responsibly, watching out for the wellbeing of others over his own. It's a nice path for him when paired with the prior film, in which he made the decision to stop running from his problems and face them head-on.
This is a random side-note, but I loved the evolution of Doctor Robotnik as he officially loses it. He has his iconic mustache, his red suit, his advanced villain tech (including the glider), and an actual Eggman mech suit in the movie's finale. It was that moment when the giant robot was unveiled, with the cartoonish Eggman logo all over it and the actual mechanized mustache in action that I realized that the studio had finally achieved the crazy videogame stuff that I was waiting for. Heck, one of the sets prior to the ending was just a Sonic level - traps, breaking through barriers, avoiding near misses with super speed. It's cool to see a film studio that is willing to lean really deep into the source material when they know it'll be well-received, because moments like that just work so well in this movie.
My Overalls
Having watched the two movies back to back nearly a week ago, I've had a bit of time to consider whether I would watch them again. That's one way to gauge a film's worth, right? Whether you would give it another whirl?
I think I would. I liked the movies enough that despite some parts missing the mark for me, like the Robotnik setup in the original and the human family dynamic in the sequel, I think that Sonic and Sonic 2 are worth my time. I'm debating the merits of getting a Paramount+ free trial to watch the Knuckles show, but we'll have to see if I like Sonic that much. That about wraps this one up, though; I like these movies, and I hope you liked reading my thoughts on them. Post your own thoughts in the comments down below, and I'll see you all in the next one!
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