sonic the hedgehog 3 (film)
wow they actually did Live and Learn how to make a better film
currently playing: live and learn (instrumental) - crush 40 (sonic adventure 2)
this movie takes all of the issues that i have with the prior two in the series (as well as the knuckles series) and throws them to the wayside. the involvement with the human characters (except the robotniks) is minimal, and what little there is - well, hey, always an opportunity to grab snacks, right?
the larger focus on our actual characters that we came to the sonic movie for wholly serves it for the better. i came into this movie expecting the same sort of fare that happened in the two prior; some cool elements, largely bogged down by an interpretation of sonic that i am not awfully fond of, combined with an unneeded human sideplot.
i could not have been more incorrect.
this movie feels like a loveletter to the sonic franchise at large, with constant sprinklings of cute little references (is maria's sweater seriously a reference to the girl from sonic universe?), as well as bigger ones to be more obviously called out. i am seriously so much of a sonic fan (i.e. unwashed loser) that when live and learn started playing i got goosebumps. it's so peak vro
the missing .5 star is for a somewhat weak opening? i think that everything on prison island with shadow is so amazingly good at setting up the movie, the darker tone, the clearer character focus on the hedgehogs, and all of the backstory and family messages that are sprinkled throughout. i love literally every time shadow is on-screen!
however, basically any time spent with the humans, as i alluded to prior.. eh, it's not like it's as egregious as it was in the prior movies? i just wish i was seeing more of shadow, or sonic fighting, or hell, even the two robotniks.
speaking of which; holy shit, jim carrey slayed it again. he genuinely fucking elevates this movie's first half-hour so much after i was somewhat feeling down on a few elements of it, only for him to show up and get me invested again as he chewed the fuck out of the scenery. and the movie really hits its stride at this point, with hands-down the best action scenes in this movie series so far, and genuinely so many cool fucking character moments.
the moments where sonic and shadow are together are genuinely so amazingly good. i watched this movie with my wife, and she would attest to me constantly pausing and yelling about how kino it was. as much as i absolutely, truly loathe the humans in the first two movies, having tom be a device through which to have sonic become more serious, and to have a similar motive to shadow, to take revenge over a family member, and for the two of them to fight and then talk it out, having that point of relation and discussing what their families meant to them, and the pain of loss; that's so tough. there are few and far between moments wherein sonic and shadow have true heart-to-heart relations in the games, even the comics, so seeing that exploration of these two characters, even if they are different iterations of them, is so deeply intriguing and fascinating to me.
further, having sonic be the one who falls first in trying to stop the eclipse cannon is such a fucking crazy cool spin on that event, and then also partially incorporating a spin on the ending of shadow the hedgehog (the game) with the moving of it and then it obliterating shit in a huge explosion. on top of that, the moon being in half being explained as a gag of part of that is honestly kinda cute, just to integrate it into the plot - let's see if the movie series goes just as hog-wild with remembering the moon as the games do!
all in all, i enjoyed this film more, both as a movie and as an absolutely diehard, obsessed sonic fanatic. hands-down beats out both of the films and the knuckles series.
