Sonic 2 film review: This year’s Super Mario film has a new bar to clear

[Karlston]

Speed, style, laughs, and surprises: Sonic holds on to all his golden rings this time.

Knuckles and Sonic.

Paramount / Sega

 

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is the snappy, fun-for-everyone film that the first live-action Sonic film should have been. It's loyal to the source games and comics without getting hamstrung by reverence. Its best laughs are earned. Its cheesiest laughs are easy to shrug off. And while Jim Carrey returns with an enjoyably madcap turn as the villain, the rest of the production has stepped up to pump life into the non-Carrey moments.

 

In some ways, Sonic 2 is better than Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, my previous favorite live-action game adaptation. The character of Sonic finally has a dynamic ensemble cast to bounce off of. Ultimately, those two films are neck-and-neck on a game-film quality basis, which is fine. Sonic 2 is a better family-friendly movie option than, say, any of the Despicable Me films, even if it's not a cinematic triumph.

Finally, Sonic has his gaming move set

Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik, seen here sipping the te—er, sipping the latte.

Paramount / Sega

 

The first film devoted too much time to Sonic's backstory, which connected our heroic hedgehog to a race of magical owls on a planet far from Earth. Sonic 2 has clearly learned from this. Carrey opens the movie with his own backstory and explains the new film's basic plot (Robotnik was previously defeated by Sonic, is trapped on a faraway planet, and now wants revenge) in a way that never requires viewers to visit Wikipedia. Carrey reminds us why his '60s-film-villain lunacy is the best thing to ever happen to the Dr. Robotnik character.

 

If you've played the video games, watched the cartoons, or read the comics, then you can probably guess how the partnership between Robotnik and Knuckles ultimately plays out.

Paramount / Sega

 

In terms of slapstick and sight gags, Robotnik's silly escape-the-planet sequence sets the film's real-life-cartoon tone. Robotnik's escape concludes when he meets his match: a Sonic-like CGI echidna named Knuckles (Idris Elba). Knuckles is on his own urgent mission to find the same gotta-go-fast hedgehog as Robotnik. They strike a tenuous deal to track down Sonic. (When he remarks on Earthly matters like a confused alien, this version of Knuckles reminds me of the cartoon series' take on the character.)

 

Tails doing his usual biplane thing. Sonic doing his usual "stand unsafely on top of a biplane's wings" thing.

Paramount / Sega

 

Meanwhile, we're reintroduced to Sonic as he's trying to foil a robbery but actually causing more problems than he solves. Instead of running like The Flash, which is what he did too often in the first film, this version of Sonic uses a blue-blur superspeed reminiscent of the video games. Stop-and-charge spin dashes, runs along corkscrew paths, smashes through walls, snowboard-aided descents, and seek-launch attacks when jumping on mid-air foes—all are put to use. Sonic's video game abilities have always been fun to look at, and this sequel makes up for the first film missing those stunts.

 

Ben Schwartz's amped-teenager turn as Sonic's voice is easier to like this time around, and that's largely because the plot takes him far from his Everyman human handler Tom (James Marsden, Westworld). In the first film, this relationship was serviceable at best, but the two characters are a lot more fun when they're separated.

Best friends, better when apart

Sonic and Tails don't take long to establish a cute, fun-to-watch rapport.

Paramount / Sega

 

Sonic's caffeinated-yet-insecure nature lands him in a tug-of-war between two different personalities. On the one hand is the syrupy-sweet doting of his new friend and assistant, Tails (Colleen O'Shaughnessey, Tails' long-time voice in games and cartoons). On the other hand, there's Knuckles, grizzled and formidable. Eventually, Knuckles and Sonic find excuses to talk at length, and there's something sweet about how they bring the humanity out of each other, like when two preteens chat in a schoolyard.

 

A subplot in Hawaii, minus any CGI characters, turns out way better than Sonic fans might expect.

Paramount / Sega

 

Even more surprising, Tom is punted to a subplot about a wedding in Hawaii—and despite having nothing to do with Sonic lore, it's pretty solid. Sonic comes up as a conversation topic often enough to give the sequence a logical reason for being in the movie, and the Hawaii scenes have enough personality and comic relief to serve as a foil to Sonic saving the world. Think of this content as a very good episode of something like Saved by the Bell that just happens to include a couple of payoffs for anyone who saw the first film.

 

Knuckles' cartoonishly large hands somehow fit into the mix of real-life and CGI characters in Sonic 2.

Paramount / Sega

 

Sonic 2's action sequences and special effects deliver, and "Robotnik's army of drones" looks more series-authentic this time around. And the fur and eye rendering on Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles make them easier to watch and invest in this time around—all a far cry from how bad it nearly looked in the first film.

Sonic does what Mario don’t?

Again, don't get your hopes up that Sonic 2 will reinvent the game-to-film genre. This is still a goofy movie made for kids and families—a lengthy "Uptown Funk" dance sequence hammers that point home—though Carrey and Schwartz each have memorable, surprising jokes for the adults in the room. While I never need to see Sonic 1 again as long as I live, I'd happily rewatch Sonic 2 with young family members who have yet to see it.

 

That's a high bar for the upcoming Super Mario film to clear later this year. I hope the folks at Illumination, who are behind the Mario movie, are taking notes on what Sonic 2 gets right. We don't want to have to wait for Super Mario 2 for them to get things right.

 

Final Sonic 2 trailer.

 

 

Sonic 2 film review: This year’s Super Mario film has a new bar to clear