3 out of 5

Directed by: Jeff Fowler

Before I confirm that, yes, Sonic the Hedgehog is – considered as a franchise – the best adaptation of a video game to film to date, I want to highlight one thing I really appreciate about these movies so far: no subtitle! It’s just: Sonic the Hedgehog 2, or 3. Sure, that is likely sticking to the video game tradition mostly, but since these films are pulling from various post-Genesis Sonic games, the option of subtitling one of these “Shadow’s Fall” or something or other is there, and there’s just something about the upfront, no-nonsenseness of the title that is perfect. It aligns with why these movies largely work, even if, overall… they’re just okay movies! But they are REALLY, REALLY okay!

Let me do the rarity (for me) of going plot first, because it’s not that it’s irrelevant, but I have less to say about that as opposed to how the story is presented and told:

We’re pretty immediately post film two: things are great; Sonic Team and his human pals, Tom and Maddie (James Marsden, Tika Sumpter) are having a picnic. But elsewhere, a mysterious hedgehog-looking anthropomorph has woken up inside a sealed capsule in a secured room, and is mighty pissed about being sealed and secured – a status he “corrects” by kicking the butts of the soldiers dispatch to put him down, and doing some magic warpy thing out of there. This is Shadow (voiced by Keanu Reeves), and he is soon causing troubles elsewhere that has G.U.N. calling up Sonic and crew to deal with it. Shadow kicks their butts also, and cues a hunt for another MacGuffin – a keycard – and the return of a former foe in a new capacity. Get the keycard, save the day, learn some wholesome lessons. Nothing new, and just a rearrangement of previously used story beats, but told with level-headed clarity that doesn’t oversell it, while also setting some stakes that keeps the MacGuffin hunt worthwhile.

To add some shade, though this is surely a functional story – and I think having writers Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington carry over between movies has definitely been part of keeping the films on track – it’s also maudlin, slow, and kinda uncomfortably unfunny. Making the shade, like, denser: this is the type of writing that could be spit out by AI, to summarize game X and pitch it to age range whatever. It is safe. But there’s confidence in the characters’ voices – confidence in our actors to add flavor – and confidence that director Jeff Fowler can manage setups that could easily be overly glitzy CGI-fests, or hollowed out attempts at memes. Just like the subtitleless title, Casey, Miller, and Whittington get to the point, and aren’t bothering to dress things up any more than needed.

…Bringing us to the people who own this thing, and – finally – my point: between editor Al Levine, returning DP Brendan Trost, and director Jeff Fowler, it is the visual style and flow and tone managed by these three that is responsible for making a Sonic film even possible, much less enjoyable much less really, really okay. Style over substance, where the style adds substance.

To distill an example: I find Ben Schwartz, voice of Sonic, to be very unfunny. If we assume he was given some improv wiggle-room, his humor, to me – dating back to his earliest work – has often been saying the most predictable thing, but saying it in a way that sounds like a joke. Like, it convinces you it’s funny, even if there’s no actual joke. He (presumably with Fowler’s direction) has slowed his delivery a bit in this entry, removing some of that sounds-like which came from Sonic’s hyperactiveness, but the approach is still the same. I do not laugh at things he says. But: he’s like the perfect casting for this role. He does the same thing as the title – he does the job of being the goofy, 90s-rad mascot, and does it with a smirk, but in a kind of goofy way that isn’t distancing, or only-if-you-know-you-know exclusive.

Extend that to how the entire story is told and presented: it is the key to not having to over-lore Sonic, and let the blue blur pose for the camera in the middle of an action scene to replicate a video game cutscene, but also be able to treat its story with some gravitas. Fowler and team let the opening quarter or so of the movie be very slow and meditatively syrupy, but it syncs up with later events to make them matter more. Trost’s bright and shiny world is such that Marsden’s and Sumpter’s irrepressible cheer makes sense, but maintains enough of a foothold on reality such that Reeves’ take on Shadow can be a moody one and not be cheesy; where a giant robot crab can be a silly set piece, but a space-bound death weapon can be threatening.

This is all necessary to keep a project like this afloat. It arguably shouldn’t be any better than “okay,” lest it try to pull some meta try-hard shenanigans that would relegate its success to a narrower demographic – less likely guaranteeing sequels, which are a good thing to edge out candy-coated kid fare over this intelligence-respecting and fun version – or more likely a “better” movie would inadvertently draw attention to how silly the whole thing is. Like, a talking hedgehog that runs fast. Make a live action movie about it.

From the start, the audience-mandated redesign of Sonic’s design seemed like a red flag. And in some cases, it might be – a sign that a movie was too obviously made by committee. Instead, its proven to be a sign of Fowler’s commitment to the bit: he likes the hedgehog. He wants to get it right. And he has, now three times over.