THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic briefly shut down theaters, 2020’s Sonic the Hedgehog was lucky enough to be an entertaining box office success. As it gave the audience comfort before and during such trying times, a sequel was well deserved.
PLOT
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 follows the titular super fast creature 243 days after banishing his foe Ivo Robotnik aka Eggman into a planet filled with mushrooms. Still having the quill, he uses its energy to revive his damaged ship. Instead, its energy pulse spread so far into space that it attracts scavengers from another planet who visit the Mushroom Planet via Ring portal. When Eggman incapacitates the scavengers in his hopes to escape, he encounters Knuckles the Echidna, who has energy within that grants super strength, speed and durability. When recognizing Sonic's quill, he aligns with him to go to Earth and go after the hedgehog he has a vendetta for. On Earth, Sonic prepares to have the house for himself and dog sit Ozzy the whole weekend his foster parents Tom and Maddie Wachowski attend Rachel marrying her new fiance Randall (Shemar Moore) in Hawaii. Just when finding comfort, Eggman returns with Knuckles who believes the hedgehog knows the location of the mythical Master Emerald, one that grant users immense power to change reality to their will. Luckily, Sonic is aided by Miles 'Tails' Prower, an anthropomorphic two tailed fox from another planet who idolizes him and came to Earth to warn him of Knuckles. After briefly getting away from the Echidna, both the fox and hedgehog agree to team up to find the Emerald first. As that happens, Eggman & Knuckles agree to do the same. Thanks to a clue on a map by the late mentor Longclaw (Donna Jay Funks), Sonic & Tails find a compass within an old temple in Siberia. Eggman & Knuckles are able to catch up and chase them down a mountain. During the conflict, Knuckles shares with Sonic that he lost his tribe including his father as a result of war echidnas had been a part of against the owl warriors Longclaw was part of as well. This happened the same day Sonic lost her. Eggman takes advantage of stealing the compass and ditches his foes as an avalanche emerges. Out of rings, Sonic calls Tom to summon a ring portal, which inadvertently happens during the wedding. However, Sonic, Tails and Tom get apprehended by Commander Walters (Tom Butler) of GUN (Guardian Units of Nations), who staged Randall's relationship with Rachel to get close to Sonic. In a short period of time, Maddie uses Tails' gadgets to free him and her family. On the other hand, Rachel attends to act vengeful towards Randall, but stops herself when he admits that he really loved her, resulting in them to quickly make amends. As that happens, Eggman & Knuckles find the underwater temple to the Master Emerald. Blaming himself for Tails getting concussed during the avalanche, Sonic pursues the Emerald alone. He fights Knuckles to prevent him from taking it, but this becomes Eggman's opportunity to take it for himself. Once he fuses himself with it, he leaves Knuckles for dead, but he and Sonic work together to escape with their lives. Back at Green Hills, Officer Wade Whipple (Adam Pally) notices Robotnik's accomplice Agent Stone (Lee Majdoub) using the local coffee shop as a lair. He interrogates him until a super powered Eggman returns and makes him surrender. When reinforcements from GUN appear along with Tom and Maddie, Eggman chooses to display dominance by assembling a giant robot that resembles himself. Sonic, Tails & Knuckles return as well, and all agree to team up to stop him from further damage. As Sonic & Tails distract him, Knuckles punches him hard enough to separate the emerald from Eggman. Once he wields it, Sonic uses the power of the emerald to destroy the robot, causing Robotnik to fall to his death. Rather than being corrupted, he surrenders the power and allows Knuckles to reassemble it from previous damage. As Knuckles and Tails join Sonic's family, the film ends with a mid credit scene where a surviving Stone overhears GUN re-discovering the coordinates to an abandoned experiment called 'Project Shadow' when discussing of Robotnik being removed from their databases.
THOUGHTS
Due to mixed feelings of video games being adapted into films, I was surprised on how much I enjoyed the first film and from that satisfaction, I was highly open minded for this sequel to come about. So I have no regrets when I say I enjoy this one a little more. Jeff Fowler returns to the directors chair to provide another entertaining sci fi adventure for families to watch together. The first film held back on the lore to be grounded, which gave this film the advantage to explore just that, which excels the excitement. Only 2 years apart from each other, and the visual effects are already improving. Particularly, they went all out on making the Emerald's Temple and Eggman's giant robot looking surrealI, while also making the furry characters more realistic than they appeared in the games. When you're not laughing that childish antics the protagonists create in this adventure, like having a dance fight or trashing a house with a bubble bath, you still feel the same amount of heart as last time. Besides acceptance, we are reminded of the big strength of companionship. When we focus on the perspective of the fun loving Sonic, still portrayed excellently by the voice of Ben Schwartz, we know that he is someone who enjoys helping others, but has to learn that having allies minimizes recklessness. He ignored that from Tom a lot, but when Tails entered the picture, the message clicked from him. He saw himself in Tails and chose to be by his side as much as he could. It was very cool that he briefly the golden Super Sonic, but I admire his selflessness to give it up once Eggman was defeated because he knew he wasn't carry that burden. Speaking of which, it was definitely a treat for Colleen O'Shaughnessey for being part of the film franchise after voicing Tails many times in the prior games. She made him a likable character for expressing him as very plucky and puts good use of his intelligence. Originally, he was insecure of having two tails, but discovering Sonic encouraged him to embrace his quirks. If I had two tails that allowed me to fly, I would embrace them everyday. So it was cool to see him to come out of his shell like so. Friends do come from unexpected places, which can make it surprising when friend starts out as an adversary. Since I never was a big fan of the games, I didn't put too much thought on who would play Knuckles onscreen, but the decision was a good choice indeed. From the voice alone, he pulls off portraying him as a determined warrior who does his best to act meticulous. This was a guy who lived the past 10 years as a lone wolf and Eggman took advantage of that to manipulate him for his own gain. He did blame Sonic for his loss, but he quickly grew to accept him as an ally as they both understood the feeling of personal loss, also accepting that the hedgehog was not at fault. Seeing him get betrayed only to gain a better friend in the end reminded me to be careful who to trust. Now that Knuckles actually has people to trust, it's nice to see how quick he began to fit in. And seeing him fight alongside Sonic & Tails made the climactic fight all the more better, so I do hope these three are on the same page when Shadow makes his mark. I still enjoyed James Marsden's Tom & Tika Sumpter's Maddie who continue to be the best foster parents Sonic could ask for. Without them expressing nothing but love and motivation, he would be very lost with the morals that define him today. I need to get this out of the way when I say I actually enjoyed Natasha Rothwell's return as Rachel for just being understandably chaotic when things aren't her way. The wedding subplot should've not worked, yet she made it so. I do have a hard time believing Randall really liking her after what he did, but if he is, then it is a relief for Rachel to regain happiness. Last but not least, you know I would've not checked this out had it not been for Jim Carrey's infamous return as Eggman. He carried the film last time with this chaotic energy, and he dials it up here which suits the character. Every time he does so, you continue noticing how much of a ball the actor is having. Here, Eggman is at his most evil due to his isolation increasing his malevolence. He was mad with power once he had the quill and it only made him so power hungry, he didn't hesitate taking the emerald for himself. Seeing him get overpowered was sweet relief because it could've been worse if his reign of terror lasted longer than it did. If this is Carrey's last performance, due to announcing to retire in 2022, then I believe he went out swinging. Although Eggman appears to be out of the picture, it's clear that Sonic and company gotta be ready for the impact Shadow will make once he's free. If Stone breaks him out, then expect hell to break loose. I admit that I had a really good time watching this, but that ain’t gonna mean I didn’t have issues with it throughout. Like for instance, how did Eggman get the quill back into his hand when he used it to activate his own portal with the jumper cables? Either that fell into his hand conveniently or he briefly had super speed and I’m irritated for trying to figure out an answer. If I gotta go any further picking on the villain, I gotta admit he and Knuckles could've flew over the maze with the drones. It's not like there are traps above the maze because if that were true, Sonic likely would've taken a little longer for Eggman to get the emerald without a fuss. The opening chase Sonic spoils was funny, but it’s pretty crazy that the woman crossing the street didn’t even have the right of way. The story wants to blame Sonic for the property damage, but that bystander should’ve paid attention. Just off of that, I can forget that Sonic could’ve easily moved fast enough to remove the concussed robber from blocking the brake. I know Sonic is a child and he makes mistakes, which is why I would defend him on sneaking out. So if he really wanted to fool Tom that he was bedrest, he should’ve went for the flu instead of stomach ache. I guess hearing advice from his foster father was inevitable, but he could’ve dodged it for another day if he really wanted to. I also didn't mind that he wasn't too curious about the emerald, but I don't believe it that he never connected the dots between the symbol on the map and the bedtime story. I am 100% sure Tails would've figured it out faster in his shoes. That decision to be oblivious is more confusing than the message from the map going off without even saying a magic word. It’s a dope sequence when Knuckles first fights Sonic, but how the hell is no one in the neighborhood freaking out of the commotion. Someone other than Wade had to be curious considering that Tom’s dog Ozzy turns out fine throughout. I don't want to pick on Tails, but his courageousness confuses me when he's fine to jump off a cliff and fly only to be nervous about it later. I even want to support how he looks up to Sonic for being different, but you're definitely crossing boundaries when watching someone take bubble paths. Stone was smart to close up the coffee shop when Eggman revealed his return to Earth, but he could've gotten caught revealing the lair when he didn't even shut the blinds yet. I want to laugh that Tom gets his ass kicked in volleyball, but he should be pissed that his team didn't even try to help him. I don't care if even they were in on the operation or not like Randall, they should've been good sports about it. I admit that I giggled over the dance fight, but Sonic could've avoided that by using his powers to steal back the map and move on. Even in the snow, I'm sure he could've found the emerald's location sooner by using another ring portal. That would've saved them from a whole lot of trouble. It's clever shenanigans to have Tom (unintentionally) mess up the wedding like Rachel worried, but he could've saved his image by saying he grabbed the wrong ring. It was a big pretty big stretch for the government to pursue Tom's family. I mean even they could've saved some trouble by camping outside his house where Sonic was living instead of manipulating a relationship with Rachel. I want to respect Maddie for rescuing her family, but it was a bad idea to wing it. She didn't know Tails beforehand and has no idea how his gadgets work. Rachel is only in on it because she's pissed for what happened to her. I don't know if you know this, but I really hate continuity errors. So you bet your ass how sore my eyes felt when noticing one shot Tails has his backpack only for another shot to not be the case. There is even a shot where the scoreboard appears fixed when Knuckles just damaged it on accident. Also, I know Knuckles isn't the brightest in comparison to Sonic, but I'm baffled that he didn't hear Eggman call him useless that sets up his intent to betray him. I get that we need an excuse for Eggman to build his robot for the final boss battle, but who told the government he was heading to Green Hills. Wade was interrogating Stone for a couple hours until Eggman came back and it didn't seem like he radio it in in between. And lastly, I understand there has to be a face reveal to let the audience know Stone survived the climax, but why would he do it in an area where he could get spotted? You're ruining your last laugh moment by risking to be made. Other than that, this is still fun for what it is. In short, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a solid sequel for putting the best use of its source material and puts enough smiles as last time. If you're a Sonic fan that enjoyed the first film, I'm sure you'll enjoy this upgrade.
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