Seriously, spoilers for Sonic the Hedgehog 3!

December 20th, 2024 babey!

The first thing to look forward to after the election. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 babey!

Going to see it with a friends!! A rare treat for me!! A perverted location where posting is prohibited!! A theatre!!

And none of my friends have played Sonic Adventure 2? Hoo boy!

In eager anticipation, I mock up a joke, a few days before release. A photoshopped screenshot of Rotten Tomatoes, suggesting it got a 97% review and was considered a masterpiece which pushed cinema forward. As a joke for my friends.

The joke was to suggest it to be absurd for the movie to be that well received!

Well, it has been! Sonic has a 98% fresh score, exceeding "absurdity"! I think it does at least one thing that is innovative. That's amazing buddy, because my honest expectations for you were very mediocre!

First: It was a videogame movie adaptation that actually was very good. It's not just an engine for fanservice (sure, it is filled with references, callbacks, and parallels, but it's got more heart than just that!) It's a full movie in itself. It improves from the original two by having the human scenes be sparse and high-quality, the movie has decent pacing and tension and comedy, and it delivers for their grown adult audience despite being constrained by the fact of being a kids movie. It's surprising how much of that classic Sonic personality can rub off on the movies.

Aside: I'm happy I saw this at launch in theaters on an off-hour. I don't do that often! There were some small kids in the theater who were genuinely and unreservedly having a great time, who exclaimed enough times to be cute but not so much that it was annoying.

It's a good movie! I can say that without reservations! It's a videogame movie adaptation sequel sequel for kids and it's still a good movie! That's significant!

But, it also executes a specific, technical part of the movie masterfully, better than I have ever seen it done. This is serious spoilers!

This movie does the best-executed "one actors plays two characters" bit I've ever seen. Jim Carrey has fantastic on-screen chemistry and physicality with himself. I almost didn't appreciate that, no, these aren't two Jim Carrey's interacting on a shared stage. It was that easy to get immersed in the illusion.

That's no small feat! I did not expect to see innovation in filmmaking in Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

And now... Regarding the fanservice? If you'd allow me to "geek out"? The movie is fanservicey, but the references, callbacks, and parallels resonate in a way that oozes a love for the series. It's dripping with appreciation of the source material. There were all these times where I was like, "Hey, Eggman moved his hand like from that one scene!" "Hey, Sonic exclaimed I don't lose!, which is a law enshrined in the Sonic Bible!*" "The final boss appears as a godzilla-like character in an old film!"

I would usually deride fanservice, but I liked this time, so it's high art, actually. It pays off.

At the start of the movie, early on, we're introduced to Shadow with a brief flashback to Maria, playing the guitar with him, to the tune of Live and Learn. It's brief and short enough to miss, but serves to promise the fans who recognize it, "Yes, this will be a Sonic Adventure 2 adaptation!" (This is also great for fans of diegetic music.)

Aside: I'm really happy with how they handled Maria's character. In Sonic Adventure 2, she served solely to be Shadow's love interest. Her SA2B character oozed a one-dimensional femininity, as if written by a man in an era where no women had existed for 100 years, and they only had books and articles abut women. Her whole being was just Shadow's girlfriend. But, if Sonic the Hedgehog: The Film allowed you to immerse yourself in the fantasy of being a middle aged man who is friends with Sonic, then Sonic the Hedgehog: The Film: 3 allowed you to immerse yourself in the fantasy of being a teenage girl who is friends with Shadow. She still exists for Shadow's backstory, but they managed to imbue her with enough character despite the shackles of canon.

Aside aside:* Because of John Wick, Keanu Reeves was a fantastic choice for Shadow.

We re-visit the flashback, where Maria is playing guitar to Shadow, near the end of the movie, in context. This is moments before Maria is killed. Live and Learn is Maria's song, and was the last thing she ever did with Shadow! Wow! It's diegetic and it adds emotional weight to the motif!

It almost makes me wish I were a bigger Sonic fan, because I am sure that would have been extra satisfying,.

TLDR Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a good movie. I'd like to point out three things:

1. Despite everything, it is good!

2. Carrey's "one actor two characters" was the best I've seen it ever done. Genuinely masterful.

3. The fanservice resonated rather than feeling cheap and uninspired, I mostly appreciate how they used Live and Learn in a diegetic way to deliver narrative weight.

All in all, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 scores 3 out of π stars. Good movie!