Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Review: families will flock to see this over the holidays

PLOT: Sonic, Tails and Knuckles are tasked with stopping a powerful and mysterious new adversary, Shadow the Hedgehog, by teaming with the former enemy, Dr. Robotnik.

REVIEW: It may have taken well over 30 years, but it’s starting to feel like video game adaptations are finally taken seriously, or at least in the case of the Sonic franchise, well received.

When the first Sonic the Hedgehog movie graced the screens JUST before the pandemic started, we were followed up with great adaptations like The Last of Us, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and, of course, most recently, Fallout.  Thank the cinema gods, Paramount Pictures, and Sega did us right when we all complained about Sonic’s awful design in that first trailer. Now Sonic and pals have returned for a third outing, with Jeff Fowler returning behind the camera, with all the cast and voice cast returning once again for Sonic the Hedgehog 3.  

And I say without a doubt, the Sonic franchise not only dodged the typical threequel curse, but this movie is easily the best of three.  What makes this the best of the three?  That would be Keanu Reeves making his franchise debut as the fan favorite Shadow the Hedgehog.  Keanu’s performance as Shadow is dark, brooding, and sympathetic.  He is the perfect contrast to our three main heroes, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles and an absolute show stealer.

Not only this film has that typical family-friendly humour that we have grown familiar with since the first film, but Sonic The Hedgehog 3 also follows the lore of the games closer than the other two films did, getting Shadow’s backstory accurate with Maria and Gerald Robotnik.  Speaking of Gerald Robotnik, Jim Carrey not only returns for this film as we had hoped for but also plays two roles, Ivo and Gerald Robotnik, once again carrying this franchise further (no pun intended) with his zany performances.

One area where the film falls a little short is we do get a little less from Sonic’s adapted family, Tom and Maddie played once again by James Marsden and Tika Sumpter. I may be a little biased here since Knuckles is my all-time favourite Sonic character, but I wish Idris Elba’s Knuckles had a little bit more to do in this movie.  Maybe that is why he was given a spinoff series on Paramount Plus.  With the growing cast of characters in the Sonic universe, you can’t really fault the film too much.

But just like how the fan reactions have been saying, what makes this movie really stand out are the fierce battles between Shadow and Sonic that feel like they ripped a page off of the Kryptonian battle in Man of Steel or in DragonBall Z.

With that said, the film has good balance of family fun and over-the-top action that you can bring your friends to or bring your kids to! No spoilers, but be sure to stick around for the mid-credits scene and the post-credit scene. If you’re a die-hard Sonic fan, you will be very excited to see what is to come next.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3

GOOD

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