Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Film)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

It’s amazing how much of a difference one change can make. Where I once felt disgusted by the earliest trailer for the first Sonic the Hedgehog movie, thanks entirely to “Ugly Sonic”, I later felt hyped for a third film based entirely on the mid-credits scene from Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Based on how the film series had turned out so far, I felt confident that they could pull a hat trick with a third film, especially after learning that director Jeff Fowler had an early connection with one of the new characters, Shadow the Hedgehog, having worked on the pre-rendered cutscenes for the Shadow the Hedgehog game. I even went through the effort of playing Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 for the first time in anticipation of how the film would adapt the latter. After about two years of waiting, and watching the film on opening day, to an unthinkable Rotten Tomatoes score in the high 80s no less, I found it worth the wait and more.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Film)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Sonic the Hedgehog (Film).

Over two years ago, we watched the first live-action Sonic the Hedgehog film in a theater. Little did we know that would be the final film we would watch the traditional way before the world shut down as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the time since, we adapted to streaming as a way of keeping up with major film releases, even after theaters started opening back up again. With Sonic the Hedgehog 2 around the corner, however, we felt enough hype for the film that we decided we’d finally try going back into the theater in as safe an environment as possible. Fortunately, the end result was worth taking the risk.

Sonic the Hedgehog (Film)

As we’ve mentioned previously on this blog, the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise has gone through its ups and downs, but still remained popular. This popularity led to a film deal that went through its own form of development hell for decades before finally landing on the version that just recently hit theaters. Following a disastrous initial trailer and a far superior second trailer, I remained cautiously optimistic going in, but now I can confidently say that the movie won me over in the end. Like Pokémon Detective Pikachu before it, Sonic the Hedgehog has broken the video game movie curse.