The Sonic the Hedgehog films started about as strong as a massive, studio-backed blockbuster adaptation of a cartoonish video game series could have. Across its first two entries, this new franchise mostly understood that bringing Sonic to Earth and enabling his use of pop culture references would make for good teenager characterization, and the early Team Sonic dynamics were sturdy enough. Jim Carrey, meanwhile, reliably did Jim Carrey things.
Then Sonic the Hedgehog 3 came along and shot its merits right through the foot before blasting off each individual toe to boot. The worst part? An 85 percent critic approval, a 95% audience rating, and a $478 million global box office haul suggest that it managed to fool everyone into thinking this was a worthwhile route to take. Of course, any route is worthwhile in studios’ eyes so long as it makes money, and viewers probably would have eaten this one up on Paramount Plus either way.
Per FlixPatrol, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 has sped directly to the top of the Paramount Plus film charts in the United States at the time of writing, leaving its much more nutritious predecessors — Sonic the Hedgehog (fourth place) and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (eighth place) — in the dust. Also on its heels is Yellowjackets, courtesy of the streamer’s overall rankings, where Sonic the Hedgehog 3 sits in second place and the fan-favorite survival-thriller thriller series buzzes about in fifth place.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 follows the latest plight of Sonic (Ben Schwartz) and his best buddies Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) and Knuckles (Idris Elba), who take it upon themselves to go up against Dr. Ivo Robotnik and his deadly new ally Shadow the Hedgehog (Keanu Reeves), lest the world get destroyed (because of course the fate of the world is at stake).
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is best viewed as a reminder that just because you’re destined to be regarded as a movie for children that will not be treated even somewhat seriously, in no way does that mean you should collapse on your laurels and commit to unimaginative audience winks. Indeed, it’s always sad to see a franchise go down the sugary meme culture path when it doesn’t have to.
A word of advice: having Sonic make a joke about “hate-watching Green Lantern from 2011″ grossly crosses the line between Sonic embodying a teenager and the film indulging in pop cynicism for cheap laughs. Having Jim Carrey look at the camera and say he’s playing a character in a movie is a demoralizing downgrade from the genuine eccentricity with which he’s defined this character up until now.
Sonic 3 is a film that screams a lack of pride in one’s work, and that’s hard to watch. It might be true that the world would spin no differently if this film actually was great, but it would be a development most charming if Sonic 3 — a film within a franchise that nobody expects anything from — went out of its way to indulge in smart storytelling all while preserving the spirit of these timeless characters. Indeed, just because this is a paycheck film, doesn’t mean it needs to be treated as such.
