THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
It’s always a good thing to know you can’t be sure things don’t work until you try it. Paramount has had the best of luck with Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog that not only did it find financial success during the COVID-19 pandemic, each entry has proven to be generally entertaining. The proof comes to the point of it reaching a trilogy.
PLOT
2024’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3 the titular protagonist enjoy his life living with the married Wachowskis and his new friends, Tails the Fox and Knuckles the Echnidna. The trio are called to action by GUN (Guardian Units of Nation) to confront an attack occurring in Tokyo. There, they encounter a black furred hedgehog with red stripes. He is able to overpower Team Sonic with ease due to an extra set of abilities. Apart from super speed, he teleports and can hover with his boots. Once he escapes, the team is informed by Commander Walters (Tom Butler) that Shadow crash-landed on earth decades before Sonic did and was experimented on when picked up by the military. When he tried to escape, an explosion caused multiple casualties and he would be in suspended animation, deemed too dangerous to live freely. What he doesn’t tell them is that he was close with scientist Gerald Robotnik and his granddaughter Maria (Alyla Browne). Flashbacks confirm Gerald wanted to prevent the government taking the hedgehog away from him and GUN soldiers made the mistake in shooting at canisters of Shadow’s energy, resulting in Maria to die in the crossfire. Gerald was also imprisoned for what happened. As Walters also tells the aliens to be careful who to trust, he gives him a GUN keycard for later usage before dying in the result of egg drones that famously belonged to Ivo Robotnik, Gerard’s grandson. Team Sonic leaves with the card before GUN Director Rockwell could take it from them. They end up running into Agent Stone (Lee Majdoub) who confirms Eggman is still alive but has no involvement with the death of Walters, meaning someone stole the drones. This puts both sides to agree on working together and find out who is responsible. They trace the drones to an abandoned facility only to not be quickly swept by Shadow again, but meet Gerald as well who broke out the black hedgehog after breaking himself out and admits to have used the drones to lure his grandson to him. Ivo would be in such delight to meet his estranged grandpa that he and Stone would quickly join him on his intent to retrieve his weapon, Eclipse Cannon that has been powered by Shadow’s energy which can be activated with the same keycard Walters gave Sonic, as well as another that’s guarded in a GUN facility. Once they take it from him, the villains leave the protagonists for dead when Shadow summons a mini black hole marble to consume. Luckily, Tails summons one of their portal rings to escape. Taking them back home, the trio alerts Tom & Maddie of what they discovered and ask for their help to get the cards before both Eggmen do. Tom & Maddie do sneak into the facility under the disguise of the latter’s sister Rachel (Natasha Rothwell) and her husband Randall (Shamar Moore) who is a fellow agent, but the Robotniks reach the vault first. However when both parties get there, Rockwell intercepts them with a variable gravity remoted room. Sonic breaks everyone with the help of Knuckles breaking through the walls of the room. Tom is then able to take the other keycard from Rockwell under the disguise of Walters. When Shadow arrives, he buys the disguise as well and knocks the Donut Lord unconscious as he takes it from him, blaming him for what happened to Maria when he in fact tried to prevent it. Sonic would be in distraught that his adopted father got hurt that he would take the Master Emerald from Wade Whipple (Adam Pally) who had it for safekeeping on behalf of Knuckles. Sonic then uses its power to confront Shadow, but it’s unintentionally lead to him gaining half of the emeralds and half of its power. Nevertheless, the blue hedgehog is still strong enough to overpower him but stops himself from killing him, knowing Tom wouldn’t want him to do that. Ivo then rebels against his grandpa when the latter reveals his intent to use the cannon to destroy the cannon, as an act of revenge for Maria. As both men have their fisticuffs, Shadow would be so moved it Sonic’s heart that he’d join his side in steering the cannon from Earth. It does work enough to the point that Sonic would fall unconscious after using the majority of his power to steer it away from the planet but inadvertently hit the moon. Tails & Knuckles are able to save him when using their last portal ring to take him to safety. Ivo then kills Gerald by knocking him into the reactor core. With the command console damaged, Ivo and Shadow sacrifice themselves as they steer the cannon further away from Earth before it explodes. As Sonic finds reconciliation with his family for letting his emotions get the best of him, he shares another race his friends before encountering a pink furred hedgehog that saves him from robots designed after him. The film ends in a post credit cliffhanger confirming Shadow to have survived the explosion.
THOUGHTS
At this point, you can’t be hating on Jeff Fowler being able to impress Sega fans and treat each film like a new level of satisfaction because somehow, this entry basically became the crème of the crop of video game adaptations. This is another case where everything you saw before improves significantly and then some. You know the extraterrestrial characters are gonna look as great as they looked in the games, so expect nothing less when Shadow kicks ass. I did not expect Shadow to have a Super form in his first outing, yet it pays off so well. The Tokyo standoff was indeed pregame for the space climax and both deliver in epic fashion. What I like the most of this film is expressing the maturity Sonic goes through ever since this arc began. Ben Schwartz has really held it down in expressing the lead’s dilemma in finding solace with oneself when taking the path of forgiveness. He found that when he lost Longclaw, but had to go through it again when Tom was in danger. He loves the bond he’s made with everyone since Idris Elba nails it in maintaining Knuckles to be honorable in between being playful (even though he can get scared of watching Casper in hysterical fashion), whereas Colleen O’Shaughnessey still succeeds in showing Tails to be the brains not for the gadgets but for being self aware not everything can be done alone. He does the right thing in stopping himself to kill Shadow because he quickly understood none of their actions can be undone no matter how hard one would try. In an obvious but reasonable perspective, Keanu Reeves shows Shadow to be Sonic’s polar opposite because he is easily the aggressive due to never finding the chance to grieve over his loss. Maria meant everything to him because she didn’t judge him for being different and did everything she could to make him feel uncomfortable being himself. Losing her made him feel like he could never be accepted, thus letting the anger consume him. Sadly, he wasn’t the only one to have felt such a feeling. You know you’re gonna have fun when Jim Carrey returns as Eggman, but him also playing Gerald was just a double batch of comedy gold because the bond both characters have is hilarious. From having a VR montage to dancing their way to a vault is something I never thought to have seen yet it delivers for the ridiculousness that is embraced. Surprisingly, there was a big difference between both men because while Ivo clarifies his egotistical attitude originate from his loneliness that filled with his friendship with Stone, Gerald was straight up nihilistic due to his own heartbreak that he didn’t care what happened to everyone else. The worst part, he lets said grief take such a toll that he doesn’t love Ivo enough to accept he’s going overboard. While this led to us respecting Eggman for his sacrifice, it does suck he had to kill what was left of his family to save the world. With Shadow still alive though, you can say it wasn’t in vein because it gives the black hedgehog a chance to be accepted by the world once it comes his way. And with Amy, the purple hedgehog, now part of the fold, there’s no telling what kind of adventures we’ll see as of writing this. Now we know James Marsden & Tika Sumpter made great mentors/parental figures that Sonic needed, but that does not mean they’re the only people that have good intentions. Krysten Ritter spiced things up in making Rockwell a strict authoritarian figure because she’s acting in what she believed Walters would do in the environment they’re living in. Does she overreact? Not really because she was prepared for the worst, but I do hope she’s more lenient by the next film. Now I don’t kid when I say I enjoyed this movie very much, but there were still a few things I couldn’t help scratch my head about. For starters, how has Sonic not gotten a birthday before? I mean I feel like Tom should’ve gotten that done wya before he met Tails & Knuckles and that surprises me more than the fact Sonic never showed him his original cave before. Also, it’s kinda odd Rockwell doesn’t debrief with Team Sonic about how dangerous Shadow is. It would’ve not been a bad thing for her to give the first batch of exposition before Walter’s gives the main one. And honestly, it was so odd for Walters to agree to meet with the team of Chao Gardenw when that place is far from subtle. I then wonder how come no one saw Gerald have Shadow’s quill on him? That thing glows, so a guard should’ve noticed. I then feel like Walters should’ve destroyed the cannon way before Gerald broke out because if he did that, he would’ve not had a backup plan to get revenge. That tripped me out more than the fact recent photos of Eggman were used on the news when he’s been in hiding. Lastly, why would Knuckles pick Wade to protect the Master Emerald? I know they had a bond on their spinoff show, but he’s clearly not strong enough to keep it from Sonic. Ignore this, then you’re gonna enjoy this as much as I did. In conclusion, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a blast of a film for succeeding in surpassing all the expectations that are put to video game adaptations, being a grounded story that respects the material and still fun. If you’re a fan of these movies and the games they’re based off of, see this as soon as you can.
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