The omens were not good heading into "Sonic the Hedgehog". First and foremost, the project had been in a kind of developmental Hell for the best part of a quarter of a century - an entire generation, in other words; the sort of scenario which flies in the face of everything the art-form of cinema is supposed to be: the bringing to life of projects that are visions or ideas a particular director has and then executes. The failure to launch such a thing, monetary issues besides, particularly over 25 years, is usually a pretty good indicator of what the idea is worth. Secondly, and as anyone the world over could point out, it has been adapted from a video-game; a canon of especially poor efforts not limited to the likes of "Mortal Kombat"; "Street Fighter" and "Super Mario Bros.", with vast improvements in gameplay and graphics as the millennium arrived merely giving way to similar shoddy adaptations as "Tomb Raider" and "Resident Evil".
Lastly, the film had a demographical quandary: whom should it be for? Undercutting it for adults, the thirty-somethings who grew up on the very first games when they were brand-new in the 1990's, would be alienating and pointless and would incur the wrath of such a group; ignoring the infant demographic altogether by making something too complicated would lose out on serious revenue. It is a minor-miracle, then, that the film is as good as it is - I sat there watching it, waiting for the wheels to come off, but was pleasantly surprised that, though they creak and rattle and threaten to do so, they remain on.
Beginning on what I assume to be Mobius, in what I assume is the Emerald Hill Zone, an infant Sonic whizzes around at top speed; living life as completely as possible under the tutelage of a large Owl-like mentor in a lush Utopia of greenery and sunshine. But danger is afoot - tremendous ability draws tremendous danger, and a local tribe of nasties (whom bear a striking resemble to Knuckles' Echidna race from the video-games) are attracted to the idea of hunting and hurting Sonic (what, just because he's quick!?); something which causes Sonic's mentor to send him away through a portal to another habitable planet in the known universe by way of magical gold rings Sonic must consequently guard with his life.
Eventually, Sonic ends up on our Earth and in a sleepy Montana town named Green Hill (Zone) which is kept on the straight-and-narrow by the local sheriff Tom Wachowski (James Marsden), who lives with his wife Maddie (Tika Sumpter) though dreams of greater civil responsibilities in the big city. In bumming around, Sonic eventually draws yet more attention to himself, and after one of the more excruciatingly unrealistic depictions of a Pentagon emergency meeting, the US government hit upon the idea of deploying Jim Carrey's Doctor Robotnik, a brilliant misanthropic with five PHDs and a penchant for the music of The Poppy Family, to investigate.
The film brings to life the character of the famous blue hedgehog in a fashion which I think is perfectly respectable, particularly for the sort of film director Jeff Fowler is making. As a young boy, I remember reading and loving the fortnightly 'Sonic the Comic', which spawned over a hundred issues over several years; Sonic, a freedom fighter and leader of a guerrilla faction in a war against Robotnik and his army of machines, for no organic being could possibly be mad enough to follow him, was in my envisaging a mature and fearless character who spoke his mind and confronted danger. The film takes things down a different direction; Sonic's tale here is more of an origin story, though one which curiously involves our own planet and people; Sonic is wet-behind- the-ears; he runs away from conflict and just wants to fit in; live like a normal American, watching Hollywood movies and playing baseball.
The film is not without ambition, but there was enough material in the film for things to sit uneasily with me: Toyota get their plug as a company capable of making near-indestructible automobiles, as too do Amazon and Fitbit, though less amusingly, and it was odd to see Sonic partnered up with another person, rather than, say, Tails, while Robotnik is slimmer; less bald and less moustachioed - he does not have the deep, booming voice of an authoritarian or the air of a maniac, necessarily, and his machines are not really Badniks - those ingenious inventions of death made to resemble creatures of Mobius. However, the film cheekily addresses much of this by its culmination.
Furthermore, its depiction of Tom and Sonic essentially beginning the films as the villains in the wrong, and Robotnik on the side of the establishment, before inverting this, was impressive, even though much of what Sherriff Wachowski ultimately decides to do as a person in a predicament lacks motivation and realism. This is different to, say, Steven Spielberg's "ET", from which this film briefly borrows (even going so far as to depict Sonic disguise himself in a closet-like space in an attempt to blend in), where that film's child lead had a reason to keep his newfound alien friend a secret through loneliness and his own sense of alienation.
"Sonic the Hedgehog" was a generation in the making and it was hard to see what else it may have consisted of save depicting a Mobius-set all-out-war, using quite possibly the technology of "The Polar Express" to create new worlds; adventures; characters and such ala "Avatar". The film is what it is - a buddy comedy; a voyage down nostalgia avenue, the casting of Jim Carrey of which contributes to such a thing. We sense there are things at stake; we like the characters, with Marsden playing Wachowski well enough to keep him from being the wrong side of annoying, and hope they succeed. Many will not enjoy it, but I kind of did...
Lastly, the film had a demographical quandary: whom should it be for? Undercutting it for adults, the thirty-somethings who grew up on the very first games when they were brand-new in the 1990's, would be alienating and pointless and would incur the wrath of such a group; ignoring the infant demographic altogether by making something too complicated would lose out on serious revenue. It is a minor-miracle, then, that the film is as good as it is - I sat there watching it, waiting for the wheels to come off, but was pleasantly surprised that, though they creak and rattle and threaten to do so, they remain on.
Beginning on what I assume to be Mobius, in what I assume is the Emerald Hill Zone, an infant Sonic whizzes around at top speed; living life as completely as possible under the tutelage of a large Owl-like mentor in a lush Utopia of greenery and sunshine. But danger is afoot - tremendous ability draws tremendous danger, and a local tribe of nasties (whom bear a striking resemble to Knuckles' Echidna race from the video-games) are attracted to the idea of hunting and hurting Sonic (what, just because he's quick!?); something which causes Sonic's mentor to send him away through a portal to another habitable planet in the known universe by way of magical gold rings Sonic must consequently guard with his life.
Eventually, Sonic ends up on our Earth and in a sleepy Montana town named Green Hill (Zone) which is kept on the straight-and-narrow by the local sheriff Tom Wachowski (James Marsden), who lives with his wife Maddie (Tika Sumpter) though dreams of greater civil responsibilities in the big city. In bumming around, Sonic eventually draws yet more attention to himself, and after one of the more excruciatingly unrealistic depictions of a Pentagon emergency meeting, the US government hit upon the idea of deploying Jim Carrey's Doctor Robotnik, a brilliant misanthropic with five PHDs and a penchant for the music of The Poppy Family, to investigate.
The film brings to life the character of the famous blue hedgehog in a fashion which I think is perfectly respectable, particularly for the sort of film director Jeff Fowler is making. As a young boy, I remember reading and loving the fortnightly 'Sonic the Comic', which spawned over a hundred issues over several years; Sonic, a freedom fighter and leader of a guerrilla faction in a war against Robotnik and his army of machines, for no organic being could possibly be mad enough to follow him, was in my envisaging a mature and fearless character who spoke his mind and confronted danger. The film takes things down a different direction; Sonic's tale here is more of an origin story, though one which curiously involves our own planet and people; Sonic is wet-behind- the-ears; he runs away from conflict and just wants to fit in; live like a normal American, watching Hollywood movies and playing baseball.
The film is not without ambition, but there was enough material in the film for things to sit uneasily with me: Toyota get their plug as a company capable of making near-indestructible automobiles, as too do Amazon and Fitbit, though less amusingly, and it was odd to see Sonic partnered up with another person, rather than, say, Tails, while Robotnik is slimmer; less bald and less moustachioed - he does not have the deep, booming voice of an authoritarian or the air of a maniac, necessarily, and his machines are not really Badniks - those ingenious inventions of death made to resemble creatures of Mobius. However, the film cheekily addresses much of this by its culmination.
Furthermore, its depiction of Tom and Sonic essentially beginning the films as the villains in the wrong, and Robotnik on the side of the establishment, before inverting this, was impressive, even though much of what Sherriff Wachowski ultimately decides to do as a person in a predicament lacks motivation and realism. This is different to, say, Steven Spielberg's "ET", from which this film briefly borrows (even going so far as to depict Sonic disguise himself in a closet-like space in an attempt to blend in), where that film's child lead had a reason to keep his newfound alien friend a secret through loneliness and his own sense of alienation.
"Sonic the Hedgehog" was a generation in the making and it was hard to see what else it may have consisted of save depicting a Mobius-set all-out-war, using quite possibly the technology of "The Polar Express" to create new worlds; adventures; characters and such ala "Avatar". The film is what it is - a buddy comedy; a voyage down nostalgia avenue, the casting of Jim Carrey of which contributes to such a thing. We sense there are things at stake; we like the characters, with Marsden playing Wachowski well enough to keep him from being the wrong side of annoying, and hope they succeed. Many will not enjoy it, but I kind of did...