Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)

Rating: 4/10

I don’t know how many of you remember this beloved video game character but for those who don’t let me refresh your memory. 

Sonic is a blue hedgehog that runs really fast and collects rings. In various landscapes, he encounters many different obstacles that he can overcome with his speed and in the end, he always has to defeat the main villain, Doctor Robotnik.

Now you might ask yourself: How can a running blue hedgehog make a compelling movie? The answer is simple: he can’t!

Sonic the Hedgehog is a drag. The movie gives fans a disappointing version of the character that has not much to offer. 

Sonic learns early in the movie that his rings can get him to any destination he can think of. So when he gets to earth he quickly gets in trouble and gets shot by Sheriff Tom Wachowski (James Marsden). In surprise, Sonic drops his rings on a skyscraper in San Francisco because that happens to be the building on Tom’s shirt. Now as coincidence has it, Tom just got offered a job in San Francisco and so the two make for the city together. 

Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) is basically a child with superpowers and gets in trouble in almost every scene. But what was most infuriating for me was not only the awful acting by the leads but also the nativity and childishness of the adults. Sonic provokes trouble everywhere he goes and the adults go along with it. 

Tom, who’s supposed to be a father figure to Sonic, is often acting like a child himself and goes along with the dumbest ideas. Marsden is a good actor, but not good enough to carry let alone save a movie like this. 

Jim Carrey, however, is a different caliber. He has proven often enough that he can be funny and smart at the same time. Alas, this time he just falls flat. His over the top performance is funny at first but soon becomes annoying. He is yelling a lot and isn’t so much acting as he is just having a fit. It gets so annoying at some point that I just wanted to leave the theatre. 

All this could have been forgiven if the movie at least had a little heart and excitement but then a running hedgehog isn’t that exciting, to begin with. 

Sonic runs a lot in the movie and most of the time it’s pointless. He runs and runs and ends up getting into trouble that he get out of by pure luck. I don’t know who thought it would be a good idea to use slow-motion shots for the running sequences but frankly, they make the movie even more of a drag. 

Things like Sonic starting a bucket list and then ticking off the quests one by one is really not helping the story along. 

I know it’s supposed to be a movie for children but honestly, your child is better off just playing the video game than watching this awful mess. At least then they get to control Sonic. 

I am someone who appreciates animated and kids movies very much. Movies like Toy Story and Monsters Inc. were part of my childhood, too. But those movies always wanted us to learn a lesson. Often it was about friendship and family and sometimes about life. That’s what a kids movie should do. Give the children a good time and give them a small outlook into the future as well. 

Sonic does neither. The form of entertainment here is outdated jokes that most kids might not even get and adults behaving like children that I worry kids might try to walk all over their parents when they get home. 

So if you have children who are familiar with the titular character, don’t take them to see this movie and if you have kids who aren’t familiar with Sonic, buy them the video game. They will have a lot more playing it than seeing this movie.