Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Review

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is an action-adventure comedy movie based on the Sonic video game franchise and is the third installment of the film series. Paramount Pictures, Sega Sammy Group, Original Film, Marza Animation Planet, and Blur Studio did production with Paramount Pictures also distributing. Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington wrote the story, with Jeff Fowler once again directing.

The story is, Sonic and his family were celebrating the anniversary of when he first came to Earth, this moment of peace is interrupted when the organization G.U.N. ask for their help. Things aren't going to be easy as Shadow proves himself as not only powerful, but determined to get his revenge.

Initial Reaction

Now having seeing and enjoying both movies I obviously wanted to see the third. Even more so because my boy Shadow was finally gonna make his big screen debut.

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

Now the gray area stems from the story. Now, don't get me wrong, it's still very good. If you ever played the games that influenced this, those being Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog, then you'll likely love the story. For me, they did kinda rush somethings primarily Shadow's resolve during the final battle. Although maybe that's because this is a movie where sometimes they don't have runtimes that go over two hours, where as video games you can have be as long as you want. Oh, speaking of story, stay for the credit scenes. Especially the mid-credit scene. It gives you tiny clue of the fourth movie and a fan favorite makes an appearance.

Pros

Alright now let's get to the good stuff. First let's get through some of my more quicker praises because some of them will be the same things as my praises for the previous entries. One being the CGI. Once again the VFX team does a tremendous job. They continue to have a winning streak. Whether it'd be the films or the Knuckles miniseries, the CGI is great. Then there's the humor. Now some jokes didn't really work, but me and the audience I saw this with we were laughing and having a good time. We especially laughed at the Robotniks and whatever antics they did. Which now brings me to the action. Whatever action you saw in the trailers, it's there and it's really exciting to see on the big screen, but those trailers only touched on the first act and a tiny portions of the second and third. Speaking of the third act, oh boy, did fans both old and young loved what happened. You guys know me, I don't give spoilers, but if any of played Sonic Adventure 2, they there's 99.99% chance you know what I'm talking about, and yes, it did look awesome in live-action. Now onto performances. Once again Ben Schwartz is awesome as Sonic, he continues to kill it. Along with the regular cast we've come to love since the first movie. Or in the case of Idris Elba since the second, but I digress. And of course Jim Carrey knocked it out of the park. Whether you love or hate these movies, Jim's performance remains consistently great. But what about Keanu Reeves as Shadow? Well, whatever positive reviews who've heard about his performance, I'm here to say it's all true. He was amazing and he was great as Shadow. I had a big grin on my face whenever he was on screen, and I hope we get more of him. Then there's the tone. This is slightly more darker than the previous films. It's nothing too extreme but there quite a lot of intense moments. Which makes sense when you bring in Shadow and you heavily focus on his backstory. The last thing I'll credit is Jeff Fowler's directing. I have liked what he's done as a director for this series before, but here he really stepped up his game. This is probably the most style he's ever put and I loved it.

Surprisingly we now have three, THREE good live-action Sonic movies. Never in a million years did I ever think that would happen but here we are.

My final rating is, Good.

Okay, that's all for now. Come back on Monday, Dec 23rd, for my Underrated Films review of The Ref. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.