As a big-screen adaptation to a famous video game franchise, Sonic The Hedgehog 2 is fun enough as mindless entertainment meant to sell games and merchandise. Don't get me wrong, this movie is fine, and the last half is so jam-packed with action and impressive battles (including a showdown with a giant robot that looks like a cross between Marvel's Juggernaut and Iron Man's Hulk Buster Armor) that viewers may very well forget how empty things had been up until that point. Notably, my screening was indeed filled with pre-school age children. Sonic 2 feels marketed to children, leaving the parents and older fans out altogether. The first Sonic the Hedgehog movie felt very much like a family film, enjoyable for all ages. The target audience for this movie likely won't notice or care. Things pick up during the second half of the film, but many of our characters simply don't have enough to do. Set pieces and a dance-off take the place of plot momentum and do very little to advance the story. In fact, the first hour of this movie (which, by the way, surpasses two hours) feels like filler. One of the things I appreciate about the first movie is the way it weaves its human characters (specifically James Marsden and Tika Sumpter) into the plot, but Sonic the Hedgehog 2 removes those human characters from the story almost immediately and sets them aside for the entire first half of the film. There's even a giant light beam from the sky over the object! This is blockbuster by the numbers. Furthermore, this McGuffin sets our characters out upon what is essentially a fetch quest to be the first to get this object whoever succeeds will have the power to destroy the entire world. I know the Chaos Gems are from the game series, but their depiction here feels very derivative and Thanos-like. As it turns out, there are gems that can be brought together (just like Marvel's Infinity Stones) and they will grant the wielder unlimited, god-like powers. ![]() It gets worse: standing in for the sweet and gentle plot about finding a home is a cut-and-paste storyline that is overflowing with generic elements we've seen over and over again. ![]() It's a polished and well-crafted film.at least visually. The production team and the visual effects artists have no doubt been working around the clock these past two years to bring this to cinemas as quickly as possible, and for the most part, there are no cracks or seams in the CGI work, the presentation, or the overall look of the film. Sonic 2 was made almost completely during Covid lockdown, with work beginning just as the entire world was shutting down. It's bigger, louder, and longer, but it's not better. Now Sonic the Hedgehog 2 debuts in theaters a mere 27 months later. ![]() The film further impressed me with a strong story, likable characters, and its strong themes of family. Paramount pleased fans by fixing the issues before the movie hit screens, showing that they cared about pleasing the gaming community and thus differentiating themselves from the pack of generic CGI kid fare. ![]() After all, the film had been in the headlines because of fan backlash against the strange design of Sonic himself. Two years ago, I had very nice things to say about the first Sonic the Hedgehog film, a movie that surprised me by being more than a soulless cash-in on a classic video game property.
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