Sonic the Hedgehog 3: Film Review
Our favourite blue hedgehog Sonic is back for more hijinks with Tails and Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
The third instalment, once again directed by Jeff Fowler, sees Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) form a crime-fighting team with his new pals Miles ‘Tails’ Prower (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) and Knuckles (Idris Elba). When faced with a mysterious and powerful new adversary, Shadow the Hedgehog (Keanu Reeves), they form an unlikely alliance with their enemy Dr Robotnik (Jim Carrey). However, their truce is scuppered by the arrival of his long-lost grandfather Gerald (also Carrey), who is harbouring a sinister plan.
Although it was nice to see Sonic, Tails and Knuckles team up, I didn’t care for the overall storyline because it was predictable and messy. However, there were so many brilliant individual scenes and hilarious moments that I still had a great time. You can almost (but not quite) forgive the haphazard plotting when there are so many fun moments to enjoy and jokes to make you chuckle. My personal standout was a dance sequence featuring Carrey busting a move with himself (as two different characters). It is genius.
Carrey hit headlines recently for saying that he did Sonic 3 for the money but he was certainly not phoning it in on set. He gave his all not once but twice. It’s a dual role that Carrey was born to play, complete with ridiculously OTT facial expressions, hilarious physical comedy and unique line deliveries that only he can come up with.
On the voice acting team, I particularly enjoyed Elba’s Knuckles. He cracked me up by saying everything with so much seriousness and gravitas even when the situation didn’t call for it (“I’ve dishonoured my marshmallow”). Reeves brought the appropriate John Wick revenge energy to his portrayal of Shadow and Tails was adorable. On the live-action side of things, James Marsden and Tika Sumpter returned as Sonic’s ‘parents’ alongside Krysten Ritter as a one-note government agent and Alyla Browne as Shadow’s sweet friend inside a Stranger Things-style lab.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is not perfect but it’s a fun family-friendly film with extraordinary visual effects and a great sense of humour.
In cinemas from Saturday 21st December
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
