I’m glad to be almost done with these two reviews. I’m due to talk about something else. Alright, let’s end this!
Three Versus A Giant
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Just in case you need to envision the sheer scale
of what they're going up against. |
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Tails is very strong, but apparently, Knuckles is extra
heavy due to all the muscle. |
Team Sonic has an attack plan. Sonic will be the target of Eggman’s attacks, leaving Tails and Knuckles free to make their way in and disrupt his control – of the robot, and of the Master Emerald. All it takes is some light taunting and Sonic has the Death Egg Robot on his trail, which is just enough to let his two allies (it’s too early to call the echidna a friend proper, no?) sneak onto the mecha. Meanwhile, Tom and Maddie coordinate the efforts to clear the streets of Green Hills of any people, but choose to “borrow” a jeep to look for their son.
Man, people love to “borrow” in these movies.
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| What? Already tired? |
Sonic stops in the wood to mock Robotnik, who admits to already be looking beyond world domination. The universe? The multiverse, even! Why stop at just one universe, right? I can’t help but see that specific line as a joke at the tendency for franchises to do multiverse stuff these past few years. We'll see about that the day they decide to add Blaze to this Cinematic Universe. To be fair, we've already had Sonic Prime, which played with the concept. I haven’t seen it, though.
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For such a genius, it took Robotnik way too long to think
of shooting all the holographic foxes at once. |
That shot. That shot is great. You know Sonic’s about to suffer, but nobody could have expected a “Snot Rocket” of all things. It wrecks the bridge, sending Sonic tumbling down. The doc still has enough spatial awareness to spot Tails cutting through the robot’s top to make his way in. Well, not just one Tails. Dozens of him. Remember when he created holographic copies of himself during the dance battle? He’s using the same trick here. (I still think the Siberian bar scene is too much a reheat of the Piston Pit, but hey, it had its purposes, which includes setting up that one Chekov’s Gun.)
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Knuckles being able to knock the Super Form out of
someone is taken from the games; he does it to Super
Sonic in Sonic 3. |
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He might no longer have access to many of the features
the Death Egg Robot had, but a 2,000-foot robot
doesn't need all of them to be super-dangerous. |
Tails distracts Robotnik from all angles, but the mad scientist quickly zaps all the copies to delete them, also hurting the real Tails in the process. But that was just a distraction, the fox claims. He bought just enough time for Knuckles to come in and smack Robotnik right in the groin, also magically knocking the Master Emerald out of him. Now without its supernatural power source, the Death Egg Robot falls over, with the fox, the echidna and the Emerald tossed out. The game hasn’t been won, though, as when designing this humongous mecha, Robotnik had set up a backup power source as well as a control panel that comes up on his verbal command. God, I still love that aspect of the character. Plans upon plans and backups as well. Carrey spends so much time making the character silly that we forget how much of a mental powerhouse he’s supposed to be.
Super
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Once again, the film brings its A-game in having the CGI
characters physically interacting with humans. I didn't have
much to add on this, I already made my point with Sonic 1. |
Sonic sees the Master Emerald in the distance, where it landed. However, he just had a nasty fall and is too weak to run to it. The robot rises again behind him. Who arrives in a jeep to help? Tom and Maddie, of course! Sonic gets to the Emerald just in time to pick it up, and his parents arrive just in time to pick him up, moments before all three would have gotten crushed under the mecha’s foot. They aren’t so lucky when the machine punches their jeep and topples it over. Oh, they’re lucky to have survived that.
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| Wachowskis stick together, especially in dire times. |
Sonic tries to figure out how to use the Master Emerald, but it shatters between his fingers, with seven smaller emeralds among the pieces. Yeah, you know where that’s going. The Robot traps the family within a ring of fire, then moves to crush them with its foot. Sonic tries to tell them to leave him there, but they refuse. They profess their love to each other, which is enough to trigger the power of the emeralds, which go into Sonic just as the three get stepped on.
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You can tell Eggman's behavior went from confidence to
"Oh crap, I'm gonna die" REAL fast when the golden
hedgehog showed up. |
Robotnik celebrates, but too early. A beam of light emits from under the foot, and so is revealed Super Sonic, who lifted the foot above his family with herculean strength. The super-powered hedgehog breaks through and slices the robot's head clean off. The genius tries to bargain for his freedom, but Sonic sees right through him and stops, without any effort, the giant punch he was about to be hit with. He then blasts that robotic arm, and the second, like they were nothing. Super Sonic is so impressive, I’m glad he was kept for the sequel; it would have been unwise to play too many good cards in the first film. The Sonic Cinematic Universe could involve enough characters and elements of the franchise over time to justify introducing only a few at a time – though this film does a lot of the heavy lifting to set up many of the most important elements to pave the way for the wider Sonic world to join in.
Super Sonic tears the machine apart from all sides, then topples it with just a tap. Robotnik falls from several stories high. There’s no way he could have survived that, right? (Well, we know he’s in Sonic 3; that answers the question.) Sonic descends from the skies, but Knuckles prevents Tom and Maddie from approaching him, as the Super form would burn them. He claims this is not the Sonic they know.
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| Yeah, Knuckles should be seen in both these shots. |
These movies have been pretty good so far at making us think the animated characters really are there with the actors, but this specific scene has an editing issue where Knuckles is close to the two humans as he’s holding them back, yet he’s literally not in the next shots, in which he should be since the angle is the same and the camera is still too far to not include him. The kind of issue that should have been spotted during editing, since I suspect the faulty shot is from a reshoot.
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| Super Chilidogs; they're supernaturally good. |
Sonic seems to use his powers to summon a storm, but… what he conjures is perfect chilidogs to chew on. He then liberates the Chaos Emeralds from his body, sending them around the planet so they can’t be used for evil again. Sure, he had the ultimate power… but Sonic has enough wisdom to know he’s still got some growing up to do first, and he’s happy to do it with his family and newfound friends.
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| Power bump! |
Knuckles fixes the Master Emerald, which seems to have kept its immense powers despite no longer containing the seven Chaos Emeralds. His new friends convince him to stay on Earth and guard the Emerald there, which he agrees to, considering them a new tribe. They settle that accord with a power bump.
(The Knuckles miniseries would later show that Tom and Maddie basically also adopted Tails and Knuckles, making all three of them brothers now in this continuity. It’s also weird to say, but at the same time, it’s so sweet to think about. Sonic Wachowski. I can get used to that; Tails Wachowski and Knuckles Wachowski, that'll take me longer.)
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"Sonic! I have been told they have sprinkles!"
Man, Knux doesn't know just how much of a dork he is. |
Cut to sometime later, where the newly formed family gets together to play baseball. Knuckles struggles to grasp the concept of a sport. Tails throws, and Knuckles punches the ball so hard it goes through the scoreboard. Tom and Maddie are happy that Sonic has friends (well, brothers) now. They invite their kids for ice cream, and the warrior is yet again intrigued. Man, I like that aspect of Knux where, despite his stern demeanor, he can’t help having a sense of wonderment to new discoveries about Earth. Just like an alien learning a different culture’s customs. Hear him get excited for ice cream with sprinkles, he’s giddy. Sonic makes sure not to forget the Master Emerald behind in their cooler on the field before they leave.
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Stone is gonna find Robotnik first. As to whether the mad
doc will still be alive, well... (hey, Sonic 3 has come out,
we already know the answer to that.) |
This movie wouldn’t be complete without a mid-credits scene hinting at what comes next. (You probably already know what was revealed in
Sonic 3’s credits, but I won’t spoil that here.) G.U.N. has cordoned off the area where the Death Egg Robot has fallen, and is looking for Robotnik’s body, assuming he died from the fall. They’re not aware of Agent Stone, who HAS survived, and is patrolling the area disguised as a guard. Another agent comes up to Commander Walters with worrisome news: When scrubbing their databases of any information they still had about Robotnik, they found a file about a lab hidden away and containing something that had been kept secret for 50 years. Walters instantly identifies that secret as Project Shadow…
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We also know how THAT plays out, now. Haven't seen
Sonic 3? Go for it! I ain't gonna spoil it here! |
I knew there was a reason Maddie was wearing that black vest over a red top earlier!
Final thoughts
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Sonic's interactions with his adoptive parents (and, later,
his adopted brothers) is, and always will be, one of the
highlights of this movie franchise. |
I still love these films, but I won’t lie, I’m glad to be done discussing them.
Sonic The Hedgehog 2 improves on its predecessor in every way, dipping deeper into the franchise and incorporating significant elements of it. Part of the enjoyment is seeing this Cinematic Universe grow. This one having much more to do with the games elevates it higher than its predecessor. And yet, part of its strength as a video game film AND family film is that it goes for universal themes. The importance of family and friends. Sonic’s grief for Longclaw is a recurring thread across all three films, but this one also touches on what it means to be a hero.
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I am almost disappointed that the "Do I look like I need
YOUR power?" line wasn't at this precise moment, as the
trailer would have let us believe. |
Sonic’s growth is a thing of beauty, both how his model “grew” physically and how he went from having extreme ADHD to being a lot more in control of it, a result of having support in his life. Tails is as adorable as ever, and the same as he is in the games; why change what's already perfect? I love that he’s still voiced by Colleen O’Shaughnessy. Idris Elba is great as Knuckles, and the character is a great mashup of traits we know from the echidna across multiple versions. He works perfectly as a foil to Sonic, a comically serious type who's not a bad guy, just misguided and easy to fool. I appreciate the greater focus on secondary characters, with Wade, Agent Stone and Rachel having great moments. Stone in particular, now that he’s barely trying to hide his crush on his boss; no wonder the fanbase treats him as one of the best parts of the franchise.
And of course – Jim Carrey kills it as Robotnik, now effectively a nutty, bald, mega-mustachioed mad genius. He plays it so silly that you almost forget about the genuine threat he is, but he balances it out fine still.
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| He's a delight. |
There’s a lot of great here; but fair is fair, and I must point out the issues as well. For starters, all the missing info that could have helped the film’s internal logic and explained plot points, but got thrown out from the deleted scenes, or any details we could only get from supplementary material (the Pre-Quill comic series). We’re already starting to see lore inconsistencies between entries.
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Though, if you make me choose between featuring a
screenshot of the Siberian bar and the wedding?
Siberian bar it is. |
This film is 20 minutes longer than the first, which could be justified by the more epic story and inclusion of many new characters and story elements. Then again, the film spends 10 minutes at a wedding, with the characters we came to see barely present in it. Sure, I think the scene is fun, but it causes the actual plot to grind to a halt. Similarly, I feel that Jeff Fowler loved the Piston Pit scene so much he tried to do its silliness again here, and yeah, the new version has its own purposes plot-wise, but it feels like attempting to recapture a previous spark.
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I have even fewer moments I can think of in this film where
interactions between live-action and CGI aren't
believable; I think the use of puppets helped a lot in making
it feel like they really were there. |
Other minor things I’ve picked up on: Whenever a character is secondary yet important to a part of the plot, they tend to not be heard of once their big moment has passed. We don’t hear from Agent Stone in
1 after his Austrian goat milk lattes scene; here, it’s Rachel and Randall who are forgotten about once the wedding scenes are over. Not even a mention in the epilogue. Yep, the trend continues in
Sonic 3 with yet another character, won’t say who. As for Sonic’s constant joking? Yeah, it’s in-character for him to do so. He did do pop culture references in the previous movie, but in this one, he does way too many, to the point where it gets annoying rather than enjoyable. And yeah, there's still a couple more places where the CGI effects aren't believable - yet ironically, it tends to be in scenes not involving our CGI characters. That ice cream scoop that practically jumps off a cone during the scene in Seattle? That's just one example.
Great movie? Yeah. An improvement in many ways. It gave hope that the franchise would keep getting better – and, judging by reception to the third film, released last December, those hopes were justified. Hopefully the fourth film, releasing in April 2027, continues the trend. It’s gonna have [REDACTED] in it, so it better be good!
Maybe I can do another Sonic Movie-Verse Month in three years. If so, that will include the third entry in the franchise, as well as the miniseries from Paramount+. I could call that month…. Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
See you in March for another themed month!
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