Sonic 3 arrives in theaters on December 19 (watch out for the leaked post-credits reveal) and seems like what you’d expect from a star-studded, blockbuster adaptation of a classic gaming franchise that straddles the divide between traditional family movie and faithful blue blur fanservice. It’s the biggest movie yet in the trilogy, and potentially the most unwieldy. But most reviewers say its still plenty of fun.
Starring Ben Schwartz as Sonic, Colleen O’Shaughnessey as Tails, Idris Elba as Knuckles, and Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik, the CGI furries must navigate new threats and new alliances when a military industrial complex experiment named Shadow, played by Keanu Reeves, decides to try to destroy the planet. If that wasn’t enough, Shadow was actually created by Robotnik’s grandfather, also played by Carrey, with classic Carrey hijinks ensuing.
“Sonic 3 feels authentic to the games, then, and as a result, the human characters from the previous two films are mostly sidelined,” writes Eurogamer’s Ed Nightingale, who adds that the movie prioritizes slick action over absurd comedy. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman lauds the movie as at once a fun spectacle and sendup of comic book movie excess. “It’s like a late Marvel extravaganza that never loses sight of the fact that it’s preposterous,” he writes, attributing the success to director Jeff Fowler’s film making, “which is deft enough to revel in blockbuster overkill and skewer it at the same time.”
Gamesradar’s Jack Shepherd, meanwhile, was underwhelmed with Reeve’s performance in the movie as Shadow, the movie’s big bad as well as its newest recruit. He writes that, outside of a John Wick-like set piece and emotive flashback, the black hedgehog basically just repeats Knuckle’s arc from the second movie. “Considering Shadow has been front-and-center of the marketing, as well as being a key character in the games, it’s a somewhat disappointing turn,” Shepherd explains.
Carrey, on the other hand, sounds like he’s only managed to top his contributions to the first two movies. The Guardian’s Andrew Pulver, which calls Sonic 3 “a not unenjoyable experience,” argues that the film essentially rests on the ‘90s comedy icon’s shoulders. “Carrey, though, is very good value, getting off a couple of lines that might actually make grownups laugh, and generally putting himself about to decent effect,” he writes, calling the other casting matchups a “chemistry free zone.” Without [Carrey], this film could have been a lot, lot worse.”
Polygon’s Jesse Hassenger concludes that Sonic 3 ultimately succeeds despite being a “speedrun through the franchise scrapyard.” “The series may actually be subject to a bizarre formula: The looser and more disparate the parts of a Sonic movie are, the better the whole somehow holds together,” he writes. “At least that would explain why Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is, improbably, the best of the lot so far.” Slashfilm’s BJ Colangelo was even more blown away, writing that the movie caters to both grown Sonic fans and yet-to-be-Sonic-pilled kids in a sequel “that’s is bigger, bolder, and better than ever.”
But not everyone was so impressed. IndieWire’s Christian Zilko, an admitted hater of the first two Sonic movies as well, writes that “the trilogy ends on a low note by doubling down on everything that had already failed twice before.” He continues,
Carrey seems admirably game for all of the asininity that the script throws at him, but watching him do bits with himself in front of unconvincing CGI backdrops feels like something closer to brain-rotting children’s TikTok content than anything worth projecting on the big screen. Whether he’s torching his own birthday cake with a flamethrower or dancing with himself through a field of lasers, it’s never easy to shake the sense that the movie was more focused on achieving GIF-able moments than telling any kind of coherent story.
In the end, Zilko’s assessment is that Sonic 3 might be fun for young kids and diehard fans, but it can’t end soon enough for everyone else. He might be right. But as the perfect mark for a Sega nostalgia cash-in with Sonic-loving kids of his own, I’m ready to revel in the franchise brain rot no matter what.
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