Why Sonic The Hedgehogs Reviews Are So Mixed

Why Sonic The Hedgehog’s Reviews Are So Mixed

Much to the surprise of many critics, this weekend’s big screen debut of Sonic the Hedgehog opened to surprisingly decent reviews.

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Why Sonic The Hedgehogs Reviews Are So Mixed

Much to the surprise of many critics, the big-screen debut of Sonic the Hedgehog opened to surprisingly decent reviews. Video game movies, like Sonic the Hedgehog, are something of a cursed concept in Hollywood. Making films out of some of the most popular games of the past three decades has resulted in more than a few duds, be they mere disappointments like Assassins Creed or legendary flops like Super Mario Bros. Given how immense the popularity of gaming has become over the past decade alone and how increasingly cinematic the medium has gotten, it’s no surprise why the film industry keeps trying to make these movies happen, but there’s a reason the levels of skepticism are so high.

Audiences were highly tentative about the film’s success when Sonic the Hedgehog’s original trailer dropped last April and became the laughingstock of the internet. Many months before Cats came along to terrify us all, director Jeff Fowler’s take on Sega’s iconic blue speed-runner became the stuff of memes and vaguely existential panic. Suffice to say, the redesign of one of the most recognizable characters in video game history did not delight fans or novices alike. It was torn apart for its uncanny valley style and inexplicable creative decisions, from Sonic’s mouthful of tiny human teeth to the long, human-like furry fingers. The pushback was so massive that Paramount, not wanting to risk a massive flop, pulled the movie from its original November 2019 release date to allow the filmmakers and VFX teams to entirely redo their central character. Now, Sonic the Hedgehog arrives to us as a Valentine’s Day 2020 movie, and much to everyone’s surprise, the reviews have been pretty solid.

Sonic the Hedgehog was never a movie that anyone expected to be a critical darling. It’s a mid-budget family film based on a video game that was coming out in the aftermath of worldwide mockery. Still, with Rotten Tomatoes reporting a score of 64% based on 129 reviews, as well as a 95% score from audiences, Paramount has plenty of reason to be relieved. So far, the movie is also tracking well at the box office and is set to take the top spot with a potential $60 million four-day weekend. That would be more than what Birds of Prey made in its debut last week. If everything works out then the decision to delay the movie for CGI revamping will have been a savvy one.

Why Sonic The Hedgehogs Reviews Are So Mixed

As noted by the most glowing reviews, Sonic the Hedgehog succeeds on its own merits, being a fun family film with a charming cartoon lead and human actors putting in the legwork, most notably James Marsden and Jim Carrey. Many critics celebrated the return of Carrey, who plays Dr. Robotnik, to his old-school slapstick best. Sonic is a movie for kids and one that will certainly entertain them. Here are what some of the positive reviews had to say.

Now Toronto

“But Carrey isn’t the only one earning the laughs. Everyone looks to be having a good time in this light-on-its-feet kids’ adventure, especially supporting players like Lee Majdoub as Robotnik’s eager-to-please henchman and Insecure’s Natasha Rothwell as Tom Wachowski’s bitter sister-in-law. These are all relatively new names, as are the writers and director Fowler, and they all get together to make a movie – one that should have sucked – beat the odds.”

Polygon

“Sonic the Hedgehog isn’t working on that level, but it’s level-headed and earnest. Schwartz delivers jokes. Carrey hams it up. That one fart is audacious. And Sonic comes to life on screen with budgetary consideration and sponsorship from Olive Garden. With the energy of a Saturday morning cartoon that comes and goes, Fowler’s movie entertains and sneaks in a message about feeling sad, alone, and unmoored. It’s not for longtime Sonic fans, but it’s guaranteed to be someone’s nostalgic favorite in the year 2038.”

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Stuff.co.nz

“But what lifts Sonic , I reckon, is a signature turn from Jim Carrey, chewing the scenery as the villainous Dr Robotnik, of course. But with a warmth and generosity towards the lesser lights around him that has not always been a noticeable part of Carrey’s work. It all adds up to a film with very few surprises, but several happy treats. If you’re in charge of an under-10 anytime soon, you’ll be happy you had the excuse to go.”

Birth.Movies.Death

“So yeah, I was pleasantly surprised by Sonic the Hedgehog. I was locked and loaded for this review to be a torrent of ironic appreciation for the kind of misguided thinking that gave rise to the original design in that instantly meme-able first trailer, but instead I found a film that complimented the spirit of the character as much as the superior redesign. Live and learn, eh?”

Forbes

“Sonic the Hedgehog is, by the standard of almost any video game-based movie prior to two years ago, a miracle. I can understand why the filmmakers spent the time and money to fix the Sonic designs. They made a pretty good movie, and they wanted to make sure that audiences actually wanted to see it.”

TotalFilm

“Carrey’s Robotnik is a scene-stealing treat – a brainiac with a mean streak who even has a dance number. You get the impression 90 percent of his odd line deliveries and gurning to camera must have been improvised in the moment. For Carrey’s performance to be the strangest thing in a film about a blue space hedgehog tells you everything you need to know.”

Associated Press

“So much thought has been put into the film that at the very beginning the Paramount logo substitutes its regular stars for Sonic’s golden rings. A potential sequel is set-up during the end credits — as well as the glimpse of a familiar creature that fans are sure to get excited about. The filmmakers might not have rushed making this film, but that’s no reason for you to press the brakes now.”

Little White Lies

“Accumulating all manner of cultural detritus as it rolls rapidly along its way, Sonic the Hedgehog jumps through one well-established narrative hoop after another, barely ever putting its feet on the ground, no matter how worn the protagonist’s branded trainers may get. It is at once superhero origin story, chase flick and kids’ fun-time adventure, all leavened by savvy dialogue, surreal segues and Carrey’s unhinged performance.”

However, even the most positive reviews have noted that the bar of “best video game movie” was set pathetically low, and Sonic the Hedgehog is still a movie with many faults. Critics noted its lack of ambition and how its traditional cozy family road trip narrative had nothing to do with the games or what makes them so fun. The vibrant color palette of the old-school Sega Genesis titles is gone, replaced by the boring beige of the real human world. It’s also a movie that feels oddly out of time, as if it was made in the mid-1990s and left on the shelf until now. The obnoxious amount of product placement also put off many viewers. Here are what the less enthused reviews had to say.

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Collider

“Sadly, the rest of Sonic the Hedgehog doesn’t share the manic energy that Sonic and Robotnik bring to the picture. They’re off in something that’s sillier and goofier, but the overall movie demands that they play by the beats of a standard buddy picture/road trip comedy. That formula is fine for what it is, and it gets the job done here, but I wish the filmmakers had taken a bigger, more imaginative swing than settling for just using the Sonic IP, stuffing him into a one-size-fits-all narrative, and calling it a day.”

Deadline

“To Paramount’s credit, knowing this thing dies at the box office without fan satisfaction, it was back to the drawing board. Apparently it was successful digital dental surgery, since I saw no picket signs in front of AMC and Regal today. That still doesn’t make it sufferable for anyone but the target audience. The dialogue is flat, and try as he might, James Marsden, who plays the small-town sheriff who gets swept up in Sonic’s world, is likable enough but pretty bland.”

Consequence of Sound

“Millions of dollars, weeks of sleep lost, families neglected, pets unfed, all so that Sonic can have less realistic teeth. His attempts at Wachowski-esque compositions, color grading, madcap game logic, all of them fail. The movie succeeds only when it’s plugging The Olive Garden and its half dozen other corporate tie-ins. Like the Bloomberg campaign, Sonic The Hedgehog can pretend it’s in good fun to run amok with branded content, but it isn’t fooling anyone. This wasn’t a movie, it was a boardroom meeting with some poor hapless dreamer strapped to the “directed by” credit like a keelhauled sailor punished for his idealism.”

Jezebel

“Here is a list of things that Sonic the Hedgehog is not interested in as a movie or even an experience: being enjoyable, being watchable, being coherent, being aesthetically pleasing to look at. Here is a list of things that Sonic the Hedgehog, conversely, is very much interested in: mushrooms, ’80s nostalgia, biker gangs, and insisting that the alien at its center should have remarkably human teeth, despite jumping through an intergalactic portal from 200 billion light-years away after its alien-owl mother was shot by a bow-and-arrow-wielding hedgehog gang.”

The Atlantic

“Whatever backbreaking work went into the revamp, it’s now seamless: Sonic is every inch the peppy, computerized rascal he’s supposed to be, sporting oversize eyes and lacking rows of realistic human teeth. The film he’s starring in, though, is bland and disposable. It’s not the cavalcade of horror promised by that first trailer, but rather the kind of bad movie one forgets instantly upon leaving the theater.”

RogerEbert.com

““Sonic the Hedgehog” is a bad action-adventure, video game adaptation, and buddy comedy. It feels almost completely impersonal, save for whenever James Marsden, playing Sonic’s human companion, tries to rescue the movie by being confident and graceful in the face of an otherwise dire send-the-magical-critter-back-home kiddy fantasy. I hope that everybody involved in the making of this movie got paid well and on time.”

As theaters move past the Oscar season and the relatively sparse and mediocre early-year releases, Sonic the Hedgehog has the family film marketplace all to itself this week, and the President’s Day holiday in the U.S. might help it add to its coffers. But its solo time in the family film genre will be short-lived, as The Call of the Wild starring Harrison Ford releases next weekend. Until then, Sonic will pick up all of the gold rings he can.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/sonic-hedgehog-movie-reviews-mixed-reason-why/

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