Most action franchises targeted towards children tend to have diminishing returns as they age. Each entry is progressively worse than the next as the IP is milked to a point of creative bankruptcy. With a franchise like Sonic, which already started off on the wrong foot and sank even worse with its second entry, disaster seemed inevitable for a third film.
Yet somehow, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 defies expectations and turns out to be the best of the franchise. While perhaps overly lauded, the addition of Shadow brings a degree of character depth that had been missing from the franchise. Set up as the main villain of the film next to Jim Carrey returning as both Dr. Eggman and Eggman’s long lost grandfather, Shadow’s backstory manages to pull the heartstrings and allow the film’s central theme of properly dealing with grief and anger to resonate. Keanu Reeves‘s vocal performance won’t knock your socks off, but he brings a suitable grativas.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 still suffers from the same issues that have plagued the franchise. The plot mechanics are nonsensical and convoluted and embrace an unnecessary stupidity, seemingly due to lowered expectations for children’s cinema. The film’s hazy timeline and underwritten motivations for Team Sonic and GUN, a new paramilitary organization, result in highly confused plotting. A sudden conflict between Team Sonic and GUN is poorly explained. A central heist sequence in the film makes little sense.
Despite the bad structural writing, the series has built out a fun cast of characters in Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. The performances of Ben Schwartz, Idris Elba, and Colleen O’Shaughnessey are affable and they have a fun interplay with each other. The jokes are not exactly high-brow comedy, but they are serviceable enough. Sonic’s small arc about learning to manage his own anger and pride is under-baked, but it is still a welcome parallel to Shadow’s own story.
The real star of the film is ultimately Jim Carrey. Allowing him to play two villains and riff off himself was a smart move. He is the most continually funny part of the film and supports scenes that would otherwise fall apart. This does sideline Lee Majdoub as Robotnik’s assistant, but he was an average character at best.
While the continual plot contrivances and issues hold this film back, the strong villains and genuinely tragic backstory for Shadow help elevate this to the top of the franchise. Given the money these films rake in, a fourth film is already inevitable. One hopes that the team learns its lessons and can keep improving and tidying up their scripts. For now, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 apparently more than satisfies fans of the franchise.
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