Video game movies are extremely hard to get right. Stray too far from the source material, fans get mad. Stick too close to the games, then what’s the point? But 2020’sSonic the Hedgehogseemed to find a way around this, by taking the primary components of the game—the hero Sonic (voiced byBen Schwartz) and the villain Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey)—and bringing them to the real world. There were cute nods to the game, but directorJeff Fowleressentially took the core of the game and told an entirely new story with the world’s most popular hedgehog.
But after the setup of the first film,Sonic the Hedgehog 2continues this idea by bringing in more characters and more references from the games, fully embracing the wild amount of lore from a series that was originally about a blue mammal running really fast. Yet while the firstSonicmostly worked because it focused on the bond between Sonic and Tom Wachowski (James Marsden), the sheriff of Green Hills, this dynamic is mostly sidelined to introduce more details from the game into the world. The result is a mixed bag that doesn’t quite know how to balance the story of Sonic finding his family on Earth, while bringing in fan-favorite characters and sly references.
Since the events of the first film, Sonic is now living with Tom and his wife Maddie (Tika Sumpter), but at night, Sonic tries to be a superhero with mixed results. We see as his persona “Blue Justice” foils a crime, but destroys a city block in doing so. Meanwhile, Dr. Robotnik has escaped the mushroom planet he was marooned on at the end of the first film, thanks to the help of the red echidna warrior Knuckles (voiced byIdris Elba). While Robotnik heads after Sonic with this new sidekick, Sonic gets his own in the form of Tails (voiced byColleen O’Shaughnessey), a two-tailed fox who has a bit of a Sonic obsession.
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IfSonic the Hedgehogstuck to the basics of the game,Sonic the Hedgehog 2takes the polar opposite approach and goes all-in on incorporating elements from the games—particularly from the latter Sega Genesis titles likeSonic the Hedgehog 3andSonic & Knuckles. Sonic is attempting to find and protect the Master Emerald, while Robotnik wants to get his hands on the emerald to achieve greater power, and of course, bring an end to Sonic.
For what it’s worth, Fowler and writersPat Casey,Josh Miller, andJohn Whittington, do a fine job of bringing in different details from the games and assimilating them into this real-world story. While there are overt references, like Sonic recreating the snowboarding level fromSonic 3, Robotnik manning a giant machine, and Tails flying in his red plane, there are great little details included throughout, like a coffee shop named the “Mean Bean.”Sonic the Hedgehog 2is at its most clever when it’s throwing in these clever nods that will appeal to fans who have waited to see this world come to life on the screen in this way with these characters.
Unfortunately, the script itself is lacking that same level of joy. With especially Robotnik and Sonic, the dialogue is jam-packed with as many quips and non-stop references as humanly possible. They’re not even particularly witty, they’re just overwhelming in both mundanity and sheer volume that the viewer just has to accept their mediocrity and let these “jokes” fade into the background. At a certain point, to enjoySonic the Hedgehog 2, one just has to ignore that Robotnik is quoting Trump, or Sonic calling Knuckles “the Winter Soldier,” and just let this wave of inane humor wash over you.
Thankfully, more time spent with the supporting cast helps alleviate this issue. Elba is a great choice for Knuckles, playing the echidna almost the same wayDave Bautistaplayed Drax in theGuardians of the Galaxyfilms: dumb, but lovable and without any sense of irony. Meanwhile,Natasha Rothwell, who plays Maddie’s older sister Rachel, gets more to do here, as Tom and Maddie travel to her Hawaii wedding. Rothwell also gets stuck with many of these same lame one-liners, yet she knows how to make them work.
But while the relationship between Tom and Sonic was integral to the first film, the splitting up of these two causesSonic the Hedgehog 2to feel like two different films that don’t necessarily go together, leaving behind a bloated and overlong mess. Like the first film,Sonic the Hedgehog 2is about the blue blur trying to find his own family, and this attempt to tell a story about making one’s own family is hitting many of the same notes as the original film. Tom and Maddie’s wedding vacation story and Sonic’s Master Emerald hunt are fine on their own, but whenSonic 2tries to pull these two stories together, it feels clumsy and without much to tie these two stories together.
However, it isSonic the Hedgehog 2’s embrace of the video game that makes this film work. At one point, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Robotnik are traipsing around a temple full of booby-traps, and it truly feels like the games come to life. Bringing the Sonic universe to live-action effectively isn’t an easy job, but whenSonic 2focuses on Sonic and his new friends and enemies, it does feel like Fowler has truly pulled off a solid video game adaptation.
It’s truly impressive that Fowler has found a way to integrate the wild world and characters of theSonic the Hedgehoggames into the real world in a way that actually works, but it’s a shame that it comes at the expense of the story of friendship that made the firstSonic the Hedgehogfilm so charming. Yet with all the core pieces of theSonicuniverse now on the table, it will be interesting to see if the eventualSonic the Hedgehog 3film will meld these two ideas more effectively.
