My ramblings

The Sonic movie

Alright, I promised to talk about this movie, and so I will.

To start things off, I didn't have high expectations for this movie when the first trailer dropped. One reason being that oh so infamous design for Sonic, which goes without saying. The second reason was the potentially more infamous video game movie adaptation curse. Pretty much any attempt at making a movie adaptation of a game fail. Everywhere from bland, mediocre, terrible or in one case, just a straight up copy of the game. Looking at you, Tomb Raider. I don't count Detective Pikachu in this. That is less of a movie adaptation of a game, and more of a movie based on the world of Pokémon in my opinion. So while being a good movie, not a video game movie.

So I was a bit afraid that they would ruin Sonic. Because the first game I ever played was a Sonic game on the good old Nintendo DS, the Sonic franchise does have a special place in my heart. Luckily, they decided to redo the design so some of my worries disappeared. But I still remained mildly sceptical. And then, the movie came out, and I heard good things. There were various reactions, from a decent movie all the way to some of the best movie adaptations period. This made me mildly optimistic.

Then I watched it, and it was good. I liked it. Not a fantastic masterpiece like some others, but it did what it did well. It was fun, enjoyable, and above all, it broke the curse. Finally, a movie adaptation of a video game that did it well. It's a movie you can see a more than once. And with the news of a sequel, I'm excited. I hope the sequel will be just as good if not better.

Anyways, let's actually talk about what was in the movie. First off, the story. Well, it's basically just a light hearted road trip movie. And for that, it does its' job well, while also managing to implement some deeper themes such as Sonic's loneliness and friendship. Not much more to say about that really. Well, except one thing. When I watched it, it was just at the ending that I realised that the name of the town, "Green hills" was a direct reference to the in-game level. And the only reason I realised that was because they play the green hills theme at the end, which then made it click. I then spent the next ten minutes going over how stupid I was.

Anyways, the characters. Which I think they did very well. They more or less nailed Sonic in my opinion. His character is true to the games and he manages to bring out a laugh in most scenes he is in. Though the floss dance was unnecessary. The other main character, Tom Wachowski, also worked really well in the movie. The slightly more concerned personality really played into Sonic's more carefree attitude. And together they can really make funny scenes, while also making the more serious ones work. As for Robotnik, well, I'll save him for later.

The thing in the movie that came as a very pleasant surprise was the humour. Before I watched it I had heard that the jokes were a bit hit or miss. However, I couldn't help but laugh as I watched the movie. Sonic running with a turtle, the sanic reference, the entire bar scene and especially the quicksilver parody, the woman they tied up who I can't remember the name of and of course, every scene with Robotnik. Well, except the last stand off, that was more serious than anything. But even all the other action sequences worked well with the humour.

Now, time to talk about my favourite part, or rather, character of the whole movie. Dr. Robotnik. Because I have to say, Jim Carrey works perfectly in this role. Him playing a psychotic supervillain works just too well. Every scene he is in was just pure gold. From the moment he steps out of his truck and makes fun of that major and to him throwing a rock while shouting "RockConnaissance" and all his witty remarks. Everything is just perfect. And I really hope that he is in the sequel.

In the end, there isn't really anything I dislike about the movie. Maybe the introduction to Sonic was a bit rushed, but I've definitely seen worse. Everything else was well executed. Note revolutionary, but still nothing to scoff at. So yeah, I liked it and if you haven't seen it. Do it, it's worth it.