★
After discovering a small, blue, fast hedgehog, a small-town police officer must help it defeat an evil genius who wants to do experiments on it.
Classification: PG
Look it's Sonic the Hedgehog no one is expecting a cinematic outing that would knock our socks off and genuinely entertains through creative and compelling storytelling and visuals, although why not? In an age where we anxiously await Paddington 3, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2, the latest Lego movie instalments, or the latest Pixar outing, family-friendly entertainment is not a pass to go for the most generic, lazy and uninspired filmmaking. For a character synonymous with speed, quick wit and exciting adventures whether it be on interactive or animated, Jeff Fowler's vision for Sonic the Hedgehog is a tedious affair that lacks any genuine enthusiasm.
The whole thing is the most blanket, artificially constructed affair of middling humour, forced sentimentality and product placement which bears an unfortunate resemblance to other poor attempts to modernise classic animated characters such as Yogi Bear or The Smurfs. While hundreds of visual effects artists worked tireless overtime to redesign Sonic after online backlash from fans, a decision which does pay off as the more 'traditional' design to the character is more appealing to the senses, the main issues of the film cannot be airbrushed away. There is an attempt at an emotional story of Sonic, an alien refugee from another world with a bag magic teleporting rings hiding from danger on Earth seeking connection and friendship, upset by his isolation but it never finds its footing. This storyline manifests into a road trip structure which sees James Marsden's small-town cop Tom Wachowski team up with Sonic to get him to San Francisco, recover his bag of magic rings which were accidentally transported there and to avoid capture by the nefarious Dr Robotnik, Jim Carrey's extremely campy technologically inclined villain.
The heart of the story is just devoid of any real connection, everything just feels forced even the catalyst bringing Sonic and Tom together. While Marsden doesn't phone it in, with his typical earnest charisma making him a likeable lead but him putting his life, career and marriage on the line for a blue hedgehog alien just feels like a logic stretch screenwriters Pat Casey and Josh Miller didn't want to address. One of the themes of the film is friendship and a large part of the narrative is how Sonic and Tom learn and teach each other about what's important in their lives; Tom helping Sonic experience Earth's luxuries (mostly through a bucket list of inane activities in a rodeo themed biker bar) and Tom using Sonic as a chance to be a 'hero' after years of unsatisfying small-town police work. Nothing feels original, however, Fowler's direction mostly just going through the typical motions, very much like checklist direction, making sure the jokes and drama are all surface-level enough to entertain a child but never deep enough to stimulate an adult. The exuberant, fast-paced energy that defines Sonic is never captured on screen, the film just meanders from one set piece to the next taking on the most predictable mundane story structure.
There are minor references to a larger history within the Sonic universe, an opening prologue revealing the character's origins involving a warrior owl and an army of creatures trying to kidnap Sonic for his power. Plus visual teases to other characters and the future of the franchise (because after that opening weekend, we're getting a sequel) but the strangest references come from the blatant product placements of the Olive Garden. Fowler's direction has made this visually vibrant 8-bit world transform into our dull three dimensional one, stripping away any visual flair or when he does attempt something creative, it is clearly inspired by other films. Sonic, a character is known for great speed obviously needs scenes to display just how fast he really is, the beginning of the film using playful moments where he moves so fast it appears there are multiple versions of him moving and interacting with each other all at once. Reading comic books, playing ping pong, playing a full game of baseball as a pitcher, batter, umpire, outfielders all at the same time. Which is why it's aggravating that for the later action scenes Fowler and the production team just decided to blatantly copy the slow-motion Quicksilver sequences from the X-Men films, just showing there was never any real attempt to make Sonic's visuals be defined by its own iconography.
The performances have the energy to give Sonic life but they are let down by the lethargic script and absent direction as Marsden plays the straight man to a tee but Jim Carrey seems to have just been told to improve to his heart's content with no feasible direction to guide him. Carrey brings the fire that a film this mundane needs to feel something and his few hero-villain interactions against Sonic could tease for a more outlandish confrontation in the future but his energy feels aimless. I don't know anything about Sonic lore, don't care to, I've heard the rumours and I don't want that shit on my browser history so whether Carrey's performance is faithful to Robotnik doesn't matter to me, the problem is that in lieu of a character arc it's just Jim Carrey being Jim Carrey. It works some of the times, he does throw out some legitimate zingers, although some are just bizarre and Fowler seems to make no attempt of directing through the crazier elements of Carrey's comedy. The third act does let loose a little having Sonic and Robotnik do battle across various locals through transporting rings but there's no emotional grounding for either character just continuous jokes that do very little in terms of actual comedy or character development. Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic again brings a fun spirit (looking forward to the re-edit where we put every Jean-Ralphio line from Parks & Rec into every scene Sonic has) but without a strong script, nothing is going to jumpstart the heart of this cadaver of a film.
The emotion and drama isn't the main priority for this film making everything else feel hollow from the tiresome pop culture references to the action sequences seeing Sonic take on Robotnik and his army of transforming drones. Fowler's vision of the character and world is just pandering to the lowest common denominator of idea and audience, having no faith that the creativity that inspired the world and character could actually be represented on screen.
Director: #JeffFowler
Screenwriter: #PatCasey and #JoshMiller
Cast: #JamesMarsden, #BenSchwartz, #TikaSumpter, #JimCarrey
Release Date: February 14th 2020
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images and Synopsis from the Internet Movie Database
Comentarios