VGFlicks: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Part 3)

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5

Snow and Knuckles

Yep, it's that part of the movie that's coming.
It's likely you already know what I mean.

Cut back to Rachel’s wedding. Tom gets humiliated at volleyball by Randall and his groomsmen, all shaped like they spend their lives at the gym. Randall calls them his squad. When the groom goes away, Maddie and Jojo show up; the latter, acting as ringbearer, shows the spouses’ rings to Tom. He pulls a little magic prank by making one of the rings disappear, then summoning it back. After the girl has left, he looks back at the “squad” and ponders on how his son doesn’t really have a team of friends like this.

Adorable as ever, always by his friend's side.

Sonic and Tails, meanwhile, fly across Siberian mountains and reach the secret temple of the owls. Can I quickly say that, among the major celebrities voicing characters in these films (Ben Schwartz, Idris Elba, Christopher Lloyd and Keanu Reeves), I’m glad they kept Colleen O’Shaughnessy for Tails? It feels like a consecration. Like a tacit admittance that nobody could voice Tails better than her. In an age where entirely too many animated movies (or animated characters in live-action films) use A-list celebs as voices to get butts in theaters, there are still times where career voice actors get their moment. Even better, I think Tails shines a lot more here (and in cartoons like Sonic Boom) than he gets to in most games, where he’s a side-character. Movie!Tails is very close to all other versions of himself, not deviating much when compared to Sonic and Robotnik; even the whole "bullied about his two tails" part is taken from the booklet of his first game appearance.

Wonder whether this thing is scanning for a hedgehog
specifically, or for anything that's NOT an echidna.

At the entrance, Tails reads a legend engraved on the walls, about the Echidnas using seven Chaos Emeralds to forge the Master Emerald, an item that can make its wielder manifest desires into reality. The Owls rose up, believing that no group should possess such power; they stole and hid it. Owls and Echidnas have fought ever since, with the Echidnas attempting to retrieve their artefact. Within the temple is a giant owl statue, which Sonic activates through a puzzle whose answer is on the map they were carrying. After detecting their presence, the statue gives Sonic a compass that indicates the location of the Emerald.

Sheesh, he just started and he's already a snowboarding
expert!

Their joy is short-lived, as they are targeted by an army of egg drones. Robotnik and Knuckles come down to steal the compass. Banter ensues, Robotnik fires a missile, Sonic tosses it back at the statue. He flees with Tails, destroying a drone on the way and using a piece of it as a snowboard. He goes down the slopes, while Tails flies off. Knuckles smashes another drone to get a board for himself, then gives chase. Sonic barely breaks a sweat against Eggman’s armada, no matter how many there are; but the echidna, that’s a whole other story.

Hey, a quick point of criticism: Sonic is even more intense in quoting pop culture this time around. Across roughly 30 minutes, he mentions Channing Tatum, Vin Diesel, The Rock, Professor X, Monopoly, the Winter Soldier… look, I like referential humor as much as any terminally online person who was around in the age of online reviewers, but it shouldn’t be so difficult to make jokes that don’t refer to other things! That’s not referential comedy, that’s regurgitation comedy!

    A nice day to start getting along. ...or...

The last words Knuckles' father told his son. No worries
though, apparently Knux can call forth his tribe's leader,
Pachacamac, as a spirit for guidance! But not his own dad,
apparently.

Sonic is outmatched and a punch from Knuckles lands, with Sonic falling off his board and dropping his rings down a ravine. He ought to stop losing those whenever he gets hurt. The two confront each other, with Sonic saying that echidnas keep showing up to ruin his life, and Knuckles replying that his life was ruined, too. The intro of the first movie? That was his tribe, chasing Longclaw to get the map and find the Emerald. A young Knuckles had been instructed by his father to stay behind and not join the fight – and no warrior from his tribe returned, not even his dad. For a moment, the two see eye to eye…

…which is cut short by Tails trapping Knuckles with his gadgets. Sonic tosses the compass to Tails to save it, but Eggman flies by and snatches it. And then, to add insult to injury, he badly wounds the fox with a missile. Sonic rushes towards a fainted Tails instead of chasing the compass, an act noted by Knuckles, who nonetheless leaves with Robotnik. Worse even, the scuffle has caused an avalanche.

It's so cool to see Eggman's sphere car in this film.
Too bad it's so hard to get a good picture of it.

A new(?) take on Knuckles

I discussed how the previous film completely reimagined Sonic and Ivo Robotnik to fit them within the new context of a live-action universe, and how Tails didn't change much. Tails, however, didn’t change much. So, what about Knuckles? I can’t say I ever cared about that character as much as I did for many others among Sonic’s friends. That said, the echidna warrior may be one of the characters who saw the most changes over time. The one constant is his immense physical strength.

Come on Knuckles, I barely understand baseball and
even I know how to hold the darn bat.

Intelligence-wise? He ranges from “not stupid but tends to think more with his fists than with his brain” all the way to “complete idiot” (see: Sonic Boom). He has that sense of duty in relation to his tribe, generally seen guarding the Master Emerald in the games (where it is MUCH larger), a task passed down for generations. He has a strong sense of honor and loyalty… but can’t really see past that. Unfortunately, while very loyal, he’s easy to manipulate; Eggman loves to pit the hotheaded echidna against the cool blue hedgehog. Knuckles also has… well, he seems to have gotten better with time (depending on the continuity), but he has close to zero social skills. The most social version of him was, again, Sonic Boom. Which is saying something.

"Dishonor!" yells Knuckles. "'Dis' is how I roll," replies
the Eggman. Knux has doubts, yet keeps tagging along.

The version of Knuckles in the film, voiced by Idris Elba, condenses these traits. He reminisces on his lost tribe and his desire to avenge them frequently. "Honor" and "loyalty" are both his favorite values and words. Having him spend much of the film manipulated by Robotnik is genius, and just as clever was having his smarts clash with those of the mad doc and his assistant. It’s only after a final betrayal from them (and seeing just how much more heroic Sonic is) that he finds out who really is to be trusted. Afterwards, he remains a meathead who thinks more with his fists, but he shows better sides of himself. Post-climax, we see him struggling to adapt to Earth concepts, reacting to them either with bewilderment (like not understanding how sports work) or weird warrior-like joy (like discovering ice cream; "I heard they have sprinkles!"). Part of his arc in the miniseries involves him learning to chill and enjoy life, which he does thanks to the adventure he goes on with Wade Whipple.

So, not very different from the other versions of the character, but a good balance was stricken among various takes on him to get the sweet spot that showcases Knux juuuust right.

The wedding

Yeah, this is the part with the wedding. Everyone who has seen the film knew this was coming.

"Tom, you better answer, or I swear, if I survive this..."

Rachel and Randall are on the altar. Maddie is by her sister’s side. Jojo brings the rings. The priest is about to conduct the ceremony. Nothing could go wrong. Then, Tom’s phone rings with insistence. He moves away for a video call, to see his hedgehog boy with a fox on his back and snowboarding down a mountain, chased by a frickin’ avalanche. Welp, day ruined. But Sonic has no rings and needs help fast, so he instructs Tom to imagine where he wants the portal to open and toss his spare one.

Oopsie.

Tom tosses the ring and… nothing. When he did the magic trick to Jojo, he gave back the wrong ring. What he tossed into the grass is an actual wedding ring. Uh oh, looks like he must ruin his sister-in-law’s marriage. Look, there’s no need to ruin anything. Grab the ring you just tossed, walk up, go: “Hey Rachel, sorry, just a sec; I did a trick for your daughter and accidentally mixed up the rings, here’s the one your hunk of a husband is supposed to put on your finger, Randall you can check it and confirm it's the correct one, now I’m gonna need this one, kthx bye I gotta save my alien son who keeps getting into trouble.”

Countdown to Tom punching some guy to rescue Sonic:
Three seconds... two seconds... one second...

But he’s not clever enough, so he doesn’t explain it right and things go horribly wrong. As in, “punches the groom” wrong. I get the urgency of the situation, but Tom, what the fuck? Sure, you’re two for two on punching someone to save Sonic, but dammit, you just picked up the wedding ring from the grass, you could literally give it to Randall and get the right one, but- Oh yeah, I know things happen that way for the sake of comedy, but God, I get annoyed so fast when things happen for the sake of a joke that’s not even that funny, and escalating wasn't necessary. Guess we needed the big dramatic toss of the portal ring from the altar, just in time for Sonic to crash through with several pounds of snow.

Things are about to get chilly.

To absolutely no one surprise, an organization named
G.U.N. has a "shoot first, ask later" policy.

Despite the panic everyone is in (and his parents' justified anger), Sonic manages to give the CliffsNotes on Robotnik’s return. When trying to help a still unconscious Tails, the hedgehog gets zapped by an electrified net. They’re surrounded by agents wielding weapons. Randall’s family, guests and “squad”? All agents. And so is Randall himself, coming clean when Commander Walters shows up. Rachel got honey-potted so that a new government agency tasked with protecting Earth from aliens could get close to Sonic, as the increasingly enraged bride learns.

Sonic and Tails are taken into custody, alongside Tom who tried to rescue them. Walters goes on to explain more about the birth of Guardian Units of Nations – an acronym (G.U.N.) that instantly annoys both Rachel and Maddie. The latter repeats what Sonic just said about the return of Doctor Robotnik. The commander, at least reasonable, sends out orders to have the doctor found and arrested. Meanwhile, Jojo comes up with a miniature backpack, saying Sonic’s friend dropped it. Inside are plenty of little gadgets. Maddie thinks of using them to rescue her husband and her son, while Rachel is planning ahead to murdering Randall.

Time to hit back, save some aliens (and Tom),
and perhaps punch a certain groom again.

If I may take a moment to point out an inconsistency: Walters says that G.U.N. was created after the events in San Francisco, but we’ve since had Sonic 3, showing that the organization already existed 50 years prior. So, was he lying? Well, the Knuckles miniseries explains that the secretive worldwide organization merely renamed itself G.U.N. as its former name had ties to the Robotnik family. After what happened in San Francisco, they preferred to distance themselves. Not even three movies in and they already have to retcon shit to make it consistent. The Sonic Cinematic Universe is landing in the same traps as the MCU. It shouldn’t be that hard, when writing a new film in this universe, to just rewatch the previous ones to get the facts right! It’s not like the SCU has 34 movies and half as many TV series yet!

Hell Hath No Fury

Maddie wants to do a stealth mission.
Rachel wants to attack everything on sight.

Maddie and Rachel devise a plan. If Maddie is trying to sneak in to find Tom and Sonic, who've been brought into the Four Seasons' basement, Rachel’s ploy boils down to brutal revenge on the men who lied to her all the way to a fake altar. Will say, her aggressivity and frequent anger are channeled into a much funnier form for this entire sequence. It certainly redeems her from the, ahem, terrible first impression she gave back in Sonic 1. It helps she has a very good reason to be mad this time!

The sisters are left to figure out on their own what the gadgets do. That little disc? Temporary anti-gravity field. Later, when Maddie is cornered by several guards, they’re all knocked out by a head-seeking boomerang (I guess?) tossed by Rachel, who didn't even know it could do that.

Oh God, she's lost her mind.

You know how it is with weddings, there's always a couple
people who just can't get along at the reception...

Moments later, she’s barreling down the wedding area on a kart at full throttle, threatening death on both the agent and his boss. Stepping down to confront her fake husband, she faces a Commander pointing a taser pointed in her direction. However, Randall jumps to protect her and takes the shock. Rachel retaliates by threatening the colonel with a tiny firearm… powerful enough to blast the wedding cake to smithereens. Walters folds instantly, terrified. Randall is fine, so Rachel asks him to tell the truth. He responds that though his job was to marry her as an undercover agent, he ended up falling in love with her for real. She forgives him, they kiss, guess that wedding was truer than she thought.

Loving newlyweds(?) kiss, with extra biplaneshadowing.

A light going up to the sky like this
rarely means something good...

Maddie rescues Sonic, Tails and Tom, and they come out of the hotel to see a pillar of green light hundreds of miles away. Robotnik found the temple of the Master Emerald. Sonic is mad at himself for putting Tails, who still hasn’t regained consciousness, in harm’s way, and that when he had to be a true hero, he failed miserably. Despite his parents’ insistence that he shouldn’t do this alone, he runs off. Just as Tails comes to.

That entire  sequence lasted roughly 10 minutes, from the interrupted ceremony to Sonic speeding away. Though it IS hilariously over-the-top and pushes the plot forward by bringing G.U.N. into the equation, much of it also feels as far removed from anything Sonic as could possibly be. As a result, these scenes are quite divisive among fans, with many thinking they should have been cut or implemented better. I will fully admit I don’t hate the whole wedding thing since it serves its purposes well, but it does feel out of place when you know what’s about to happen elsewhere.

I guess we’ll see about the Master Emerald in Part 4!