REVIEW | Sonic the Hedgehog Movie - a fun and competent family movie

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, February 17, 2020 - After all the hype and last year's delay (due to a literal $5 million facelift), Sonic the Hedgehog Movie is finally here and while it's a fun film for kids, adult viewers may have to lower their expectation to fully enjoy the film.

The plot of the movie follows like an origin film. Sonic was forced to flee from his previous home world and upon arriving on Earth, kept a low profile for a decade while he observes the life of a small town.

From there, the plot meanders around the other characters which includes Sheriff Tom Wachowski (James Marsden), whom Sonic spend most of this road trip movie with, Tom's wife, Maddie played by Tika Sumpter and Jim Carrey taking the role of Dr Robotnik.

First off, Jim Carrey's portrayal of Eggman is great. It's like seeing our favourite rubberface man back in his element now as an evil Ace Ventura with Spike replaced with deadly drones. James Marsden does a great everyman in his journey to find his place and plays off great with Sonic. While Tika Sumpter's character was sadly underutilised and only pivotal in a few scenes just to keep the plot moving.

Sonic's journey and character development is another story. While he does display his usual attitude, the film decides to add a bit of doubt and insecurities into the character due to the story focus on themee of lonliness and the desperate need to make friends. Voice actor Ben Schwartz did an excellent job in keeping with the tone bring Sonic's voice to life, delivering a genuine and good balance between the animated series Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Boom.

Overall, the story, though simple and easy to follow for kids, the jokes would sometimes comes off as awkwardly delivered while others just fall flat with a pity chuckle. The film does a great job showing off Sonic's abilities and how it would translate in real life. The action set pieces were absolutely fun to watch.

The movie has done an admirable job bringing Sonic to the big screen, but the movie is playing it safe, as you won't find any reference of Chaos Emeralds or any other 30 years worth of Sonic lore to draw from. Much like any first film of the super hero genre, it feels like an intro to a much larger world, setting itself up for an overarching series, if the movie proves itself in the box office.

Sonic first outing in the sliverscreen is competent at best. While the movie doesn't hit all the notes when it comes to fan service or enough to renew interest to go back and re-watch all the animated series and play the games, with managed expectation, Sonic the Hedgehog Movie is an enjoyable family movie to watch.

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