Review: Sonic The Hedgehog

I was never a regular player of the Sonic video games, as I never had a Sega. I was always a Nintendo purchaser.

But I certainly played a bit of it, and watched enough of the 90's animated series to understand the world and its characters.

I was certainly up for seeing a film. But when the initial trailer came out, I was certainly part of the large group that was not impressed by the look of Sonic.
So fair play to the film-makers, who answered our call and worked their backsides off, to get the Sonic we deserve. It was much more pleasing, and as close as you can get the actual look of Sonic.

So I felt at the very least, it was only natural to pay good money and check this out, as a way of thanks for the amendments from their visual effects team.

It ended up to be quite a blast. Even though you could see where this film was heading, it was making me laugh pretty consistently, it was moving along at a solid pace, the action was exciting and the characters were very engaging.

The cast did a solid job and fitted the tone really well. Ben Schwartz voicework as Sonic really showed his characters playfulness and brought a great amount of energy throughout.
James Marsden to continues to show how good of an actor he is. He helped carry the film, had strong chemistry with Sonic and played to his strengths as his presence always works with family films.
Jim Carrey did as Jim Carrey does, and that is never under-playing role and having an absolute blast playing the villain. It felt like vintage Carrey. Wonderful execution of the gags, having all the best lines, and giving an easy villain to hate whilst also finding him hugely entertaining. So much so, that he easily steals the show away from the lovable hedgehog.

I think what I think is its biggest positive, is how I feel it can work with the fans as well as the non-fans. It helps give you an understanding on the character, his world and the vibe it gives you when seeing a Sonic adventure.

Were the changes worth it? Absolutely. It put me at ease, and just gave me more time to enjoy the story and have fun with the characters.
Having no real expectations helped, as I found it to be a surprisingly fun time. Yes, the story is pretty simple and nothing we've seen before. But the enjoyable characters, the rampant pacing, funny gags and the way they played around with Sonic's abilities made this worth my time and give it strong rewatchability.
It made me want more, and we could get more, as I must mention that there is mid-credit scene that will please the Sonic fans in particular. It certainly made me excited for where they are going with this, if indeed there is a sequel. Fingers crossed we can finally a video game film franchise that we deserve.

Rating: 7/10