Sonic the Hedgehog 2

By Jonah Naplan

April 9, 2022

What kept “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” from spiraling into disaster, was its continuous charisma and will to keep charming the audience. The film is not high-brow, prestige entertainment nor does it need to be. It’s nothing more than a purely entertaining movie that the whole family can enjoy. Therefore, it’s a little bit difficult to write this review. See, the film is far from immaculate, as you can probably tell from the rating at the top of this review, but at the same time, it doesn’t necessarily have any blaring flaws.

For most of its runtime, “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” maintains a surprisingly light-hearted and fast-moving pace. It’s never boring, managing to hold the attention of even the youngest viewers. I enjoyed that it had a considerable range of jokes. Some, the more poop and fart-based, were definitely geared towards kids. But others, the more mature ones, were actually amusing to behold. In a world where kids movies often treat their audience members like idiots, “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” was a satisfying breath of fresh air. I appreciated that it tried to stand out from the crowd in this vast web of Hollywood children’s flicks.

But make no mistake. “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” is not the Mona Lisa I may make it out to be. For one, the film is about twenty minutes too long. About seventy-five percent of the movie revolves around our leads: Sonic, Tails, Dr. Robotnik, Knuckles, and the two humans, Tom and Maddie. But for the other twenty-five percent, the film focuses too much on a plotline unrelated to everything else considered important. There’s about two or three scenes that take place at a wedding in Hawaii, that were unneeded. I still had fun with these sequences, they were still entertaining afterall, but the movie would have felt much more concise and straightforward without them. “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” was already trying to expand upon the first film, bringing many new characters, ideas, and plotlines to the table.

A lot of the film feels overcrowded, and is trying to do way too many things at once, causing for a runtime that’s over two hours, a remarkable minority for a kids movie. However, the film does fix one flaw I had with the first “Sonic the Hedgehog.” Much of why that film felt occasionally choppy, was because of its inconsistent tone. Sonic was almost unlikeable at times, some scenes were fun and bouncy, and others were straight-up off-putting and distasteful. This sequel fixes those mistakes, creating an easy pathway for consistently fun adventure throughout. I would even go as far as to say that “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” is a bit better than the first, while still slightly convoluted. But hey, Jim Carrey’s in it, so who’s gonna care?

But let’s talk more about Robotnik. A few days ago, Jim Carrey announced his retirement. He had his successful career, and now decided he was done. His antagonistic role in this film is supposedly his last, unless, of course, Christopher Nolan somehow agrees to direct Ace Ventura 3. Is his portrayal of Robotnik a fair sendoff? It depends on who you ask, but I say…sure. It’s not the greatest role he’s ever stepped into, but it’s a fun one at that. It’s clear in each scene that he enjoys being in front of the camera, and receives smiles from the audience with just a mere one-liner. Carrey is an enjoyable actor, so it’s sad to see him go, but his performance in this film is a nice encapsulation of what he’s always been good at. Both verbal and physical humor coincide swimmingly in his role, and his sendoff is satisfactory.

The dynamics between Sonic and Robotnik, and Robotnik and Knuckles, and Knuckles and Sonic, and Sonic and Tails, are enough to help the film get by on its own, but without the support of the actors behind them, the movie wouldn’t be as pleasantly decent as it actually is.

At the end of the day, “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” is solid family entertainment. It’s not aiming for the stars, it’s just trying to kill time via a Saturday matinee. Fans of the first movie will probably enjoy it, and maybe even more so. It ain’t Citizen Kane, but it’s more enjoyable than most family movies could ever claim to be.

NOTE: Stay for an extra-credits scene.