I don’t get Sonic The Hedgehog. No, I’m not talking
about the ravenous fanbase, or even having a dig at the games themselves
(although it must be said that the Sonic games aren’t the kind to do things
small; when they’re bad, they’re really bad); I’m talking strictly in
terms of the character himself. He’s a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog who can
run faster than anything else, and he has a really cocky attitude. That’s
pretty much it. I don’t claim to be the biggest Sonic afficionado out there,
but I’ve gone through enough Let’s Play osmosis to have seen the games and,
even considering the competition, this has to be one of the trickiest games to
give the big-screen treatment. A trick that these filmmakers just didn’t seem
to get right.
Ben Schwarz in the title role does well enough with the
character, but again, there really isn’t that much character to work with in
the first place. Sonic has always been attitude over personality, and save for
maybe Sonic SatAM, there isn’t much evidence that he works as anything other
than brand icon on his own terms. All of the humans around him, especially
James Marsden, seem unable to keep their head above water, and they end up
rather bland as a result.
There is a major exception to that, though, and that’s Jim
Carrey as Dr. Robotnik. Even keeping my own admiration for the man’s work out
of the equation, it is quite astounding how effortlessly he steals the entire
show. Part of that is definitely due to his charisma on-screen, as he makes for
a very fun villain, but there’s also the writing around him as well. From his
worldview to his personality to his origins, right down to his personal quips,
everything about this guy outshines pretty much everything else here by miles.
I almost wish that this film was just a Robotnik origin story, given how
lopsided the writing is regarding characterisation.
Even with the blank slate they had to work with in mind,
Sonic really doesn’t leave much of an impression when all is said and
done. His dialogue is peppered with pop culture references, only reinforcing
how much assistance the character needs to make a mark, and they aren’t
particularly good. Not that they’re downright awful or anything; just that they
don’t really… click.
Which is a real shame because this film really comes across
like it’s being propped up by the IP to be worth showing, and yet it doesn’t
even do anything with it. If anything, given the film’s conclusion and
mid-credits scene, this feels like a proof-of-concept for another Sonic
movie, one that would actually feature all the other memorable characters Sonic
is associated with and, hell, maybe even get into the environmentalism that has
been a mainstay of the franchise since the beginning.
It helps explain how lacklustre the actual ‘plot’ of this
thing is, as it’s basically just a road trip movie with Sonic and Marsden’s
sheriff going to San Francisco. And even that is overselling the
progression of the story. Part of me wants to point out the obvious as far as
putting a guy who can run faster-than-light in a car, but that would only
distract from how this is a road trip with barely any pit stops. It tries to
make a point about Sonic’s social isolation and lack of friends (which, knowing
the existence of Tails, Knuckles and Amy beforehand, feels particularly
forced), but for every moment that Carrey isn’t on-screen, it’s just so plain
that it barely even registers a reaction.
I honestly wanted to give this film a chance, not just as
another video-game adaptation but also considering the production crunch MPC
Vancouver went through for the redesign (which, admittedly, is a marked
improvement over the initial reveal). But that only ends up making this whole
thing an even more bitter pill to swallow, since it doesn’t really hold up as a
big-screen depiction of the IP or as its own standalone movie. Again,
I’m saying this as an outsider of the fandom, and I genuinely hope that the
die-hards get something worthwhile out of this. But for me, this just feels
like a step backward for what video game movies have grown into over the last few
years.
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