Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is the snappy, fun-for-everyone film that the first live-action Sonic film should have been. It’s loyal to the source games and comics without getting hamstrung by reverence. Its best laughs are earned. Its cheesiest laughs are easy to shrug off. And while Jim Carrey returns with an enjoyably madcap turn as the villain, the rest of the production has stepped up to pump life into the non-Carrey moments.
In some ways, Sonic 2 is better than Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, my previous favorite live-action game adaptation. The character of Sonic finally has a dynamic ensemble cast to bounce off of. Ultimately, those two films are neck-and-neck on a game-film quality basis, which is fine. Sonic 2 is a better family-friendly movie option than, say, any of the Despicable Me films, even if it’s not a cinematic triumph.
Finally, Sonic has his gaming move set
Paramount / Sega
The first film devoted too much time to Sonic’s backstory, which connected our heroic hedgehog to a race of magical owls on a planet far from Earth. Sonic 2 has clearly learned from this. Carrey opens the movie with his own backstory and explains the new film’s basic plot (Robotnik was previously defeated by Sonic, is trapped on a faraway planet, and now wants revenge) in a way that never requires viewers to visit Wikipedia. Carrey reminds us why his ’60s-film-villain lunacy is the best thing to ever happen to the Dr. Robotnik character.
Paramount / Sega
In terms of slapstick and sight gags, Robotnik’s silly escape-the-planet sequence sets the film’s real-life-cartoon tone. Robotnik’s escape concludes when he meets his match: a Sonic-like CGI echidna named Knuckles (Idris Elba). Knuckles is on his own urgent mission to find the same gotta-go-fast hedgehog as Robotnik. They strike a tenuous deal to track down Sonic. (When he remarks on Earthly matters like a confused alien, this version of Knuckles reminds me of the cartoon series’ take on the character.)
Paramount / Sega
Meanwhile, we’re reintroduced to Sonic as he’s trying to foil a robbery but actually causing more problems than he solves. Instead of running like The Flash, which is what he did too often in the first film, this version of Sonic uses a blue-blur superspeed reminiscent of the video games. Stop-and-charge spin dashes, runs along corkscrew paths, smashes through walls, snowboard-aided descents, and seek-launch attacks when jumping on mid-air foes—all are put to use. Sonic’s video game abilities have always been fun to look at, and this sequel makes up for the first film missing those stunts.
Ben Schwartz’s amped-teenager turn as Sonic’s voice is easier to like this time around, and that’s largely because the plot takes him far from his Everyman human handler Tom (James Marsden, Westworld). In the first film, this relationship was serviceable at best, but the two characters are a lot more fun when they’re separated.
