Zarius wrote:I saw the movie a few hours ago...it's absolutely brilliant. Bring the kids, they'll love it. Sonic is charming, and upstages even Jim Carrey (who's best scenes were already in the trailers), what's more is he shows real emotional range, a trait rare in interpretations of the character, but are necessary for a convincing film.
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Loads of action when it's required, but the core of the movie is a budding road trip bromance that remarkably holds people's attention even if a lot of it are the characters taking a break from the pressures, while still causing mischief.
The only flaw I would raise is when Tom becomes a wanted man, there is potential for more consequential drama and it just isn't taken...but in some respects this works for the film too. Here, Tom's wife supports him (except for his sister-in-law, who's dealt with very quickly) and she and her niece help Sonic out.
There's nothing woke about this film at all. It's a strong heterosexual pairing that work as a cohesive unit to help a strange creature out of trouble and stand valiantly against an obnoxious bully (who ironically vents about all the other bullies in his own life and how he dealt with them).
The easter eggs are also great...from echidna tribesmen, to the Mushroom Hill Zone, to the inclusion of the Sanic meme, and the post-credit cameo from Tails setting up the sequel. This movie has something for everyone, and can be enjoyed by everyone who is a child at heart.
Everything that you just said, I'm in absolute agreement of. Whilst it didn't absolutely blow my mind if anything, it was just so much fun. I was worried that the movie wasn't going to understand Sonic as a character, and just use the college hipster 30 year old 'down with the cool kids' personality that he has been having since 2010. And Baby Sonic in the trailers worried me. But my concerns were mostly gone when I just watched the film. It wasn't a laugh out loud kind of movie, I do think that the 2 mentions about Olive Garden were unnecessary, and the Floss dance did make me roll my eyes, but the rest of the jokes got at least a smirk out of me. The best element was obviously Sonic himself. After the utter bastardisation of most of the characters since Colours, it's so refreshing to see a more charming and expressive Sonic. He's cocky, arrogant and a bit of a blabbermouth in this movie, but he can also be human, down-to-earth and charming, traits that I haven't seen for ages, and harkens back to his characterisation in Secret Rings, Unleashed and Black Knight, the three games that I thought excelled in characterisation. Special mention to Ben Schwartz for doing these traits, he may be now my new favourite voice for Sonic tied with Jason Griffith. Jim Carrey is also just so much fun as Eggman. It's not my favourite role of his, but in between Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and this, he never really brought his A game. But he can simultaneously be over-the-top and intimidating all at once. He clearly just loves to wing it in this movie. The humans are surprisingly great as well, which I was worried about at first considering similar movies about anthropomorphic animals interacting with humans but Tom is surprisingly likeable as well as his wife, who has good chemistry with both Tom and Sonic.
That said, you can tell that this movie is going to play a bigger part in something bigger. There was surprisingly a lack of mention about The Chaos Emeralds, the Echidna Tribesmen are only in for a minute in the beginning, Mushroom Hill Zone and Tails appearing post-credits. My guess is that this movie is an origin story and future movies will be more streamlined retellings of past games stories. Which I'd be excited about, I'd love to see a B-movie action thriller in the style of Adventure 2, or a global odyssey like Unleashed.
Shame about the generic music though. I loved the inclusion of Hyper Potions' Friends in the beginning, and the orchestral stuff is decent enough, but I don't know. Sonic games are usually universally praised for its music, so I was hoping for some Pop Funk like CD or Mania, or Jimi Hendrix Rock-esque music like in the style of Adventure 1, Heroes or 06.
Still, despite all that, I had a pleasant experience. It was nice to see a theater just packed with people to see this, and I'd probably see it again. 8/10