Sonic 3 Review

My 2nd movie of the year! The first was The Wild Robot which I didn’t write a formal review on, but I DID mention here.

 

FOR THE RECORD, I'm not really a Sonic head, that's Anna’s area of expertise. Stop reading this now and go read her review if you'd like something more informed and from the heart!!!

 

When I was a wyrmlet I played a bit of the original trilogy, and my cousin had Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Riders (The latter I vaguely remember REALLY liking lmao). More recently I’ve played The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog with Anna, and while I always enjoy myself, ultimately these have always just been games to play, I was never committed to the universe or lore beyond that. This is important cause I'm judging this objectively as an animation nerd and not based on any nostalgia or positive experiences with the franchise so apologies if it comes off overly critical. I promise I had fun!

 

I feel like it’s hard for me to score video game films on a metric of being Good or Bad because I’m not really coming into these kinds of movies for anything that’s going to keep me up at night, nor are the filmmakers looking to use beloved IP to say anything controversial or complex. So instead I’ll judge this movie on a scale of entertaining and not entertaining and I’ll give this one a 6/10 by that metric. Better than the first two I'll tell you that much. I will never forgive all the people who yapped their heads off about those movies but never once mentioned the “angry black woman” being the butt of the joke for majority of the runtime. It was literally even MORE egregious in the 2nd film so I'm not sure why everyone just pretended that wasn't a thing?!?! It was such a jump scare and soooo uncomfortable to sit through, and even in this movie they bizarrely couldn't let that “joke” go to the extent that they created a plot device to put her in the movie for 5 minutes just to be angry LMAO. 

 

Sorry, had to get that off my chest. For the most part, the filmmakers seemed to learn from their past mistakes and kept the cop family shenanigans out for a sizeable portion which did this one a lot of favors and I give them props for that!

 

The pacing left a bit to be desired imho, it moved fast! The beginning was especially jarring to me personally. So we're throwing a party for sonic annnd 5 min later G.U.N arrives on a helicopter to whisk him away and his family doesn't ask any questions or seem to mind, OK BYE!!! I GET THERE WAS A LOT OF GROUND TO COVER SO THEY HAD TO GET TO THE MEAT QUICK BUT? Idk maybe they could have cut out some of those awkwardly long Egg Men sequences to save some time- WHICH KIND OF BRINGS ME TO ANOTHER POINT. 

 

Don't get me wrong, I really like Eggman in these films! I'm deeply obsessed with whatever him and Agent Stone have going on because it’s funny. But (and this is a critique I have of all the films in this trilogy tbf) some of the jokes and...weirdness really took the bite out of some of the serious moments which is a shame. Gerald's plan was objectively horrifying and a glimpse into his hurting psyche that humanized him for a brief moment, but I never felt like it or him as a character were taken very seriously at all beyond that. I mean, just look at the silly way he died after everything. It would have been interesting if he’d been a bit more of serious character to contrast Ivo’s goofiness OR if we could have seen him and Maria interact at all to justify that “You’re no Maria” line (Ouch.)

 

I'm really happy the moment between Sonic and Shadow at the end was played straight...though after sitting on it, do have to wonder if it was earned. And again, that goes back to the pacing. Shadow could have benefited from having more interactions with Sonic to build a rapport / more situations to have his ideology challenged for that change of heart to feel more realistic after 50 years of reliving his memories of having his one source of happiness taken from him. I literally went back and rewatched the end of Sonic 2 for comparison so I’m not just blowing hot air, and the latter half of that movie is surprisngly better paced and more satisfying than I remember. The whole “I spared your life instead of killing you which makes you see my POV” thing sort of worked better for Knuckles as a character because well. He’s a pretty simple-minded guy and doesn’t already have a reason to chronically distrust others.

 

Wow ok I'm not sure how I got through a whole review without mentioning the titular character until now, but Shadow was really good in this film!!!! 

 

Like I said, I'm not a Sonic professional, but I do know the basics on Shadow and he was fuuuun come on. I have such a soft spot for traumatized characters that carry so much anger and bitterness towards those who hurt them...and their eventual decision to not allow those things to define them when they're shown some compassion. IT'S SO CATNIP TO ME EVERY TIME. NEVER GETS OLD. So yeah, I liked him and my alter really liked him, so that plants it firmly in “entertaining” in my book. 

 

There isn't really much more I have to say about this one! It was an fun movie that I enjoyed watching with my best friend! I couldn't really ask for much more than that 🐾