SUPER SPEED - My Thoughts on Sonic 2

EYYYYYYYYYYY SONIC TIME BABYYYYY! So I went to see Sonic 2 with a friend a few days ago and OoOoOoOh My God! It was a lot of fun and much more enjoyable than the first one. SPOILERS AHEAD...duh.

 

For context, I wouldn't call myself a huuuge Sonic fan, but I do enjoy the character and his extended universe more casually. I've played a few of the games with my favourite one being Sonic Adventure 2. It has unironically the best level 1 of any game that I've played and kinda goes downhill from there depending on which path you take lol. Still, City Escape is an infinitely replayable level. I've also seen some episodes of Sonic X, with the final scene of Super Sonic and Super Shadow activating chaos control being my favourite. It's enjoyment factor is increased 100 times in the subbed version where Live and Learn plays. Highkey, Sonic has the best soundtrack of all gaming franchises, CHANGE MY MIND. So yeah, I saw the first film back in 2020 and although I liked it, the most memorable thing was a kid in back row puking in the middle of it, which was hilarious. Sonic 2 on the other hand, WOW.

 

In terms of visuals, the movie's gorgeous to look at especially when a character's eyes shine 👀. One thing you should know about me is I have this monkey brain which gets excited every time I see something shiny. Unsurprisingly, the Master Emerald had my eyes glued to the screen. The special effects were good too especially when Sonic and Knuckles fought. When it comes to the score tho, I still don't know why the vast Sonic ost wasn't used apart from a ringtone Easter egg. Missed opportunity right there.

 

One thing you'll probably notice everyone mention is how Knuckles was voiced by Idris Elba. On one hand, he does a phenomenal job with the character but on the other hand, I always imagine him as his character from The Office, who I despised. Remember how he would take off his glasses every time he wanted to make a point in there? That was so obnoxious it honestly made me hate him, which is a testament to the dude's acting skills. Great job! It was also interesting to see Knuckles slowly but surely realizing Sonic's not the bad guy as he sees him try to save Tails and ultimately ends up saving his life, thus solidifying him as a noble warrior in Knuckles' mind. An interesting and effective way to start building a bond of friendship between the main trio.

Source: SEGA, Paramount Pictures via Sonic The Hedgehog Movie

Tails was more of a supporting character, much like in the games so although he didn't stand out too much, it was satisfying to see him fly his signature red plane. Sonic's classic chilled out goofball personality is always enjoyable to watch, though he really shines (literally) when he gets serious. Loved when he uttered his famous "Gotta go fast" line followed by him running on water like Retsu Kaioh 😂. The true standout moment however, was him going Super Sayian, I mean Super Sonic. Seeing a character get a massive power up represented by a golden aura is a classic trope that never gets old. It was HYPE seeing him use what's essentially God mode to breezing through everything.

 

A weak point of the film is the amount of time we spend with the human characters in Hawaii. I'm a sucker for tropical settings but the whole marriage subplot was too long for my liking. Taking 5 to 10 minutes away from it and replacing it with showing off more cool moves by Sonic and Knuckles would have been more enjoyable. The first half up until the main dude (whose name I forgot) throws the ring and saves Sonic and Tails from the avalanche was fun, but everything after the reveal that the wedding was a setup dragged on way too much. I wanted to see more of the humanoid rats fighting lol.

Source: SEGA, Paramount Pictures via Sonic The Hedgehog Movie

To address an actually good human character, Dr Robotnik's back from the shiitake mushroom planet and is rocking a more game accurate design which is appreciated. Egg man is both goofier and more threatening than in Sonic 1, with my favourite line of the movie being when he catches the Master Emerald, zooms off into the horizon and yells "LATER HATERS". Genuinely had me laughing. Unfortunately, there's this rumour that Jim Carrey either wants to, plans to or is already retired since my guy is like 60 years old now which makes sense. The reason why I'm mentioning this is because of his send off in the movie where he falls down along with his giant mech and is shown to be missing afterwards. This is a pretty clever way to make his status unknown and open ended so they can easily bring him back in Sonic 3 or just introduce a new villain altogether.

 

Speaking of new villains...SHADOW'S BACK BABYYYYYYYYY! Easily the best Sonic character as far as I'm concerned made his debut in the post-credit scene, which can only mean one thing. We're gonna see SUPER SONIC vs SUPER SHADOW in the next movie, which is gonna be beyond HYPE considering it'll reference both Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic X (coincedentally the two Sonic properties I'm most familiar with). No joke, if they put some Crush 40 in there, it might just be one of the best scenes of all time 😎. Imagine Live and Learn playing while they're fighting on a space ship or in outer space. Sign me up RIGHT NOW!

 

In conclusion, coming out of the cinema I thought the movie was a solid 8/10. Now that I've had a few days to reflect on it, it's probably more of a high 7/10 but still very enjoyable nonetheless. I'm also interested to see the future implications of proving that gaming movies can be successful and Sonic 1 wasn't just a fluke. I can't wait for Sonic 3, the Mario movie and a potential shared universe/crossover between em to form some sort of MCU inspired gaming movie universe. Imagine if they revealed Robotnik was stranded in the Mushroom Kingdom all along. That would be straight up 🔥🔥🔥

 

Stay tuned for more movie reviews and I'll catch ya on the flip side. As Robotnik would say... LATER HATERS ✌ Follow me to get notified whenever I post!