Founded by Sega at the start of the 1990s, the speedy blue hairball, Sonic the Hedgehog, is now officially over the hill and picking up speed on the big screen. 

“Sonic the Hedgehog 2” was released on April 8th, by Paramount Pictures and Sega Sammy Group. It’s a fast-moving feature film praised for the action sequences, performances, and humor, but criticized for its screenplay, runtime, and pacing. 

The franchise began in 2020 and was one of the last box office hits before COVID-19. A sequel was quickly put into development and made during the pandemic, allowing the film to come out just two years later.

The film has grossed over $290.1 million worldwide, making it the fifth-highest grossing film of 2022. Sonic beat “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” on Easter Monday. Its record-breaking box office performance is a testament to the newly born franchise’s qualities and potential.

This movie is phenomenal – the fight scenes, the action, the adventure, the dialogue, and the humor, might as well throw in the background for how great this movie is. There were a lot of references to the video games and I loved how well integrated all the elements of the movie were with the secondary characters’ storyline. This is also way better than the first one because even though it was good, it was lacking in some categories of things. I felt that the pacing for Sonic 2 was slow, needed more time to develop the new characters, and the script felt forced and choppy too. Although they’re both amazing, the sequel was even better than I thought it would be.

I’m fresh off of seeing it, but I can imagine it going both ways. Some may not like it because it’s really silly, but I can see a lot of people enjoying it too. I enjoyed it. It’s just a big, dumb, fun explosive popcorn movie. The plot is the same type of thing as every other action fantasy film – one or more heroes are thrust into a series of challenges that typically include physical feats, extended fight scenes, violence, and frenetic chases. Although as much as I love it with its more action-packed stuff, I felt like the road trip plot of the first film still hits home and was a great way to develop Sonic’s character for the better.

“Sonic the Hedgehog 2” picks up a few years after Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) succeeded in foiling Dr. Ivo Robotnik’s (Jim Carrey) quest to take over the world in the first movie. While the town sheriff/Sonic’s guardians Tom Wachowski (James Marsden) and Maddie (Tika Sumpter) are on vacation, Dr. Robotnik returns to seek revenge with new partner Knuckles the Echidna (voiced by Idris Elba). Their goal is to locate the powerful Master Emerald and conquer Earth. To save his new home, Sonic and his new sidekick Tails (voiced by Colleen O’Shaughnessy) will have to race to find the gem first.

Surprisingly, the human characters made the movie that much more enjoyable, which says a lot considering that I campaigned for the human characters to slowly be removed from the franchise – or at least downsized significantly. I’m not saying I want more human presence, but I did enjoy what they brought to the table this time around.

For the most part, the animation is as stellar as the first film, especially with the flashbacks, and the end credits with its much more improved pixel art. Fight scenes with Sonic and Knuckles are very cinematic, and the composition between their fights from Alaska to the Labyrinth was fluid. There were some parts of the animation where it felt a bit rushed or cheap, but they were overshadowed by the positive aspects.

I have to say; “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” outdoes the first film in almost every way possible. Sonic again proves to be one of the best video game-to-movie adaptations I’ve ever seen. Adding Tails and Knuckles to the movie are great additions. The superhero fights were awesome and the ending will make every Sonic fan crazy! (just like me) The crazy post-credits scene sets up Sonic 3. 

Overall, a really good film, I’d rate this a 10/10. If you want to see this film, you should. If you’re a Sonic fan, you NEED to watch this.