Sonic The Hedgehog 3, directed by Jeff Fowler continues the franchise of Sega’s live-action interpretations of its most beloved game series. While continuing the trend of its predecessors in being cheesy and mostly made for kids, this movie does an excellent job of translating its source material into a highly entertaining action-packed film for everyone.
Arguably, the most important part of this franchise is the visuals. As a CGI-dependent film, this movie has a lot of big set pieces and colorful characters that, if done incorrectly, could ruin the film. That being said, this movie excels in visually interpreting the games, comics, and cartoons that it’s based on. These movies have only become more visually stunning with each iteration, and we have come very far from the original “ugly sonic” design that shocked the internet when the original film’s first trailer dropped.
Similar to how the original design of Sonic was changed because of the fan reaction, the structure of this movie was altered based on criticisms of the second movie. The last movie had a lot of unnecessary focus on the human characters and it took a lot away from what was otherwise a good adaptation. This movie course corrects and focuses more screentime on the emotions of its protagonist and antagonist. Especially in the story of Shadow, this movie’s villain, there are a lot of really successful emotional beats in his backstory. It’s because of this and the dynamic it builds with the other characters, that makes it the stand-out film of the trilogy.
The action in this movie is done amazingly well. Seeing the clash between Shadow and Sonic in different ways throughout the movie, and the balance of Shadow’s black and red lighting against Sonic’s blue is so fun to watch on screen. There were multiple moments in this movie where my theater cheered loudly, purely based on moments of fan service or awesome fight scenes. I would say this movie has the best fight scenes in the franchise, by far, and does a great job of continuing to escalate from its previous installments.
This movie also features the return of Jim Carrey as an actor. Some might recall that Carrey announced his retirement from acting after the second film, but he has seemingly made a comeback. While he originally thought retirement was the move, he has discussed in recent interviews that he wanted to come back because acting is a true passion of his. And it’s clear he had a lot of fun making this movie. While this role is, by no means, his best role, the two characters he plays in this movie are super funny and he brings his classic “over-the-top” energy to both.
Despite all of the good that this movie does for Sonic fans, there are still some big flaws. These movies are made for kids, and there’s a lot of cheesiness that seeps through most scenes in the film. Using the term “for kids” is no longer a valid excuse for lazy writing or poor production in movies as we’ve seen movies (like Into the Spider-verse or this year’s Wild Robot) that are also “kid’s movies” but are also excellent films for all audiences. This movie feels very rushed at points and features a lot of unnecessary jokes that can at some points take away from the content of the scene. While this movie does a good job of learning from the mistakes of the previous films there’s still a lot to learn for future installments. This is my favorite in the Sonic franchise, but it is certainly not cracking the top movies of this year.
All in all, I would rate this movie a 3 out of 5. It’s a movie that is more for the pre-existing Sonic fans, but there’s still something in this story that will be entertaining for everyone. The movie itself isn’t too long, and the rushed pacing makes it go by fast. There is a lot to love about this movie but it has its flaws. In the end, if you’re looking for something to watch this winter break this movie will be a fun time that should keep you engaged throughout!
