Posted by Sega computer game characters try to overcome an over-the-top actor. Are we back in the 90s?
I wasn’t part of the Sega vs Nintendo console-war. Not because I wasn’t into gaming, I loved going to friends houses and playing on their new consoles. But while the world was fighting between Sonic and Mario, I was sat playing on my brother’s Sinclair Spectrum. Winding up those cassette games and then taking up half a keyboard each to play multi-player games. Money was tight in the OddFather family back then so it meant I was slightly out of touch when it came to the latest tech.
So, I wasn’t a hardcore Sonic the Hedgehog fan, and that meant I wasn’t overly desperate to watch the first Sonic movie or this sequel. However, I have to start making use of this unlimited cinema card or else I’ll never get treated by Mrs Oddfather again. I watched the first Sonic movie a few days ago. It was ok, nothing special, bit boring at times but it kept my attention long enough.
Did Sonic the Hedgehog 2 improve on the original? I can’t say it did to be honest. This was equally as boring – only it was unnecessarily longer too.
I do wonder what the target audience of this movie is. Most fans of Sonic would have been from the 1990s right? So they would surely be in their 30s or 40s now? I even noticed people of that age group in the screening without bringing along any children. But this is a full on kids movie. Sitting through some of the ‘jokes’ was truly tedious. Maybe there’s a new generation of Sonic fans I’m unaware of.
As it’s a children’s movie, there’s very little logic to anything. Everything just seemed a bit random without any real explanation. Like a dance-off scene for no apparent reason… and even more of an issue for me was the fact that Sonic could have gotten out of most of the predicaments he found himself in by simply using his super speed! Honestly, that dance sequence was super cringey. Maybe they were trying to recreate the amazing dance-off from Guardians of the Galaxy. They failed.
Speaking of Guardians of the Galaxy, it seems like Sonic 2 tried to mimic the character of Drax – introducing Knuckles as a muscle character who didn’t understand humour, and thus tried to play it out for laughs. It didn’t work for me either. Which is a shame because I was a fan of the knuckles character design from the games. Mainly because he was red and white and I’m an Arsenal fan. Simple things.
A lot happened in this movie. They sidelined most of the human characters for most of the story, so when it did come round to them it felt like a completely different movie. Like there’s this wedding sequence which once again made very little sense. However, as it came in the middle of the movie it very much felt like it was an intermission or something. Saying it was out of place would be an understatement.
The highlight for me, as was the case for the first movie, was Jim Carrey as Eggman. This role reminds me a lot of his work in the 90s – being over the top and in your face. Some would probably hate Carrey in this movie – it comes down to how you viewed Carrey in the 90s. I loved him, but I can also see how some would find him super annoying. With talk of his retirement from acting, I do hope this isn’t his last acting role.
Verdict
This isn’t a bad movie really, but it’s not exactly good either. Maybe it’s my age, or the fact I wasn’t a huge Sonic fan. I just found Sonic the Hedgehog 2 too boring, too long, and too childish.