Hello. Good day, good afternoon, and good evening to everyone out there. Justin here and welcome to the Otaku Mind. At the time of writing this blog I’m just returning from seeing Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and since I reviewed the first movie I thought it only seem fair to talk about the second movie. There was a lot of hype surrounding this movie as the first one managed to exceed everyone’s expectations. How did this movie fair? Well I’m happy to say that in my opinion this movie is better than the first one. It managed to build off the first movie, took everything that worked in that movie, and capitalized on it in the sequel. It’s not a perfect movie but it’s still a very entertaining movie so let’s dive right in.
Story
Alright, so the story this time around is that Robotnik is back on Earth and joining him is Knuckles voiced by Idris Elba the last of the Echidna who have come to get the Master Emerald. We find out that Sonic coming to our world wasn’t coincidence, it was all planned. Sonic’s caretaker and her people took the emerald from the Echidnas as they felt nobody should have that power and hid it in our world. Sonic was sent in our world to serve as the guardian of the emerald and keep it out of the hands of those who would use its power for evil. So the race is now on for Sonic and his new buddy Tails to find the Master Emerald before Robotnik and Knuckles. Once again a pretty basic and easy to follow story but with a few changes that are better in my opinion. First off, the movie does feel more like the games as Sonic and Tails are going on an adventure, battling Robotnik, Knuckles being deceived, there’s a dungeon (which reminds me of the Labyrinth Zone. Nightmares), and a big battle at the end which wraps everything up. Second, the human characters do take more of backseat this time around. While Tom, Maddie, and a few others make a return their roles this time around are minor and they don’t have nearly as much screentime as they did in the first movie. Tom and Maddie take on more of a father and mother role with Tom understanding Sonic wanting to go out into the world and help out as much as possible but knowing that he’s still not ready and has a lot to learn. There is however one brief moment in movie the where Sonic and Tails are off screen for like 15 minutes and we just focus on the human characters. While this does lead to a funny moment it didn’t need that long of time. Third, great interaction of the characters. There are a lot of great interactions between the characters that does get a good laugh out of me. Not all of them are funny but the ones that are funny are funny and it’s not just one character interacting with multiple characters its multiple characters interacting with multiple characters throughout the whole movie.
Characters
Pretty much everyone who was in the first makes a return here, but do they grow as characters? The answer is yes and no. Sonic is still a jokester who can be irresponsible at times but he has a good heart and as the movie goes on he does start to mature a little while still maintaining his comedic personality. This is thanks in large part to the newest character Tails. Just like they nailed Sonic in the first movie they nailed Tails. He is adorable, lovable, and smart. His relationship with Sonic is great as the two quickly develop a brotherly bond with each other that you swear they’ve been friends their whole lives and haven’t just known each other for a day. There’s this one cute scene I like where they’re sleeping side by side and Tails uses his tails as a blanket for Sonic who gave Tails a blanket before falling asleep himself. Tails sees Sonic as his hero and Sonic in response starts to mature a little as he wants to live up to the expectations of Tails and be a good role model for him. Our second new character is the one and only Knuckles. Just like Jim Carrey stole the show in the first movie, Knuckles steals the show every time he’s on screen. This was a character I was worried about as Knuckles is a character who has gone through the most changes out of all of the Sonic characters. From proud and serious warrior to idiotic but lovable musclehead. Thankfully, they go with the former and present Knuckles as a serious and proud warrior who fights with honor which is how I always imagined him being when I was a kid. Idris does a great job voicing Knuckles and he has a number of funny moments throughout the movie. You can tell they borrowed ideas from Drax from Guardians of the Galaxy in order to shape Knuckles’s personality and it works. Just like Sonic he too has a pretty sad backstory as he lost his clan and unlike Sonic who found new friends and family to help him through the hard times Knuckles had nobody. Jim Carrey returns as Robotnik and once again he kills it. This time around he shows off a more eccentric side to Robotnik as you can see being on that mushroom planet really messed with his sanity. Because of this he’s a little more over the top so in some scenes where he’ll be hilarious while in other scenes it seems like he’s trying too hard. Carrey has said he’s retiring from acting after this role which I hope isn’t true as I really want to see him return as Robotnik and does put the series in a tight spot, but if he does truly retire then he went out on a great performance.
Comedy, Easter Eggs, and Action
Like I said before we get some good laughs throughout the movie. In fact, the movie opens up on a good courtesy of Robotnik then another laugh courtesy of Sonic fighting crime as Blue Justice (trademark pending). Maddie’s sister Rachel has a wedding in Hawaii which leads to a funny twist which got a lot of laughs in my theater. If I had to name the funniest scene in the movie if would have to be Sonic and Tails going into this tough guy bar in Siberia where as soon as they enter and this place establishes how tough it is they do this one bit with a fish that seriously caught me off guard.
Easter eggs? Plenty in the movie. Sonic snowboards down a hill which is a reference to the Ice Cap stage in Sonic Adventures, there’s the Tornado, we get to see the Master Emerald which is surprisingly a lot smaller then I remember it being, G.U.N, Sonic consuming a bubble under water, the Death Egg, Knuckles saying his favorite food is grapes, Super Sonic and many more references that I may not have noticed. However, the biggest easter egg comes in the mid-credits as we to see Shadow the Hedgehog which sets up the next big fight for the third movie. By God, I did not think they were gonna bring Shadow in this early. I thought for sure they were gonna do Metal Sonic before him, but holy crap I am pumped for this. If they can get Knuckles right, they can get Shadow right.
We get more action this time around. We get a few fights between Sonic and Knuckles which are good, Sonic fighting against the Badniks is always fun to see and done a lot better this time around, and the final battle with the Death Egg sees all three of our furry characters get a time to shine. It may not be the epic action I would like to see in this movie but it was an improvement over the first movie and moving in the right direction. I do hope they can deliver on an epic battle in the next movie between Sonic and Shadow. You know that’s what they’re gonna be building up to and it better deliver.
Room for a sequel
Hell yeah! With that mid-credit scene there’s obviously going to be a third movie. The question is if Carrey doesn’t return what will they do about Robotnik and who else will appear in the movie? Amy? Cream? Rouge? Actually, I’m looking forward to seeing them bring her in. I’m curious how they’re going to design her character. Are they gonna give her the Lola Bunny treatment?
Final Score
My final score for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a 7/10. Even though I’m giving it the same score as the first movie I personally think this movie was better than the first and worth checking out if you liked the first movie. It’s another win for the videogame industry and I hope the team behind the Mario Bros. movie is taking notes on how to make a proper videogame movie. Did you see the movie? Which one did you like more? Let me know what you guys thought about the movie in the comments below. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.