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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nOne of the very few bright spots of the 2020 domestic box office was the success of \u201cSonic the Hedgehog.\u201d The Sega video game adaptation made $148 million, making it one of only two movies to pass $100 million in that pandemic-tainted year. More importantly, it became the highest-grossing video game adaptation of all time. Short of a pandemic-sized roadblock, \u201cSonic the Hedgehog 2\u201d is on track to break that record thanks to a $71 million opening weekend and Easter right around the corner. Not bad for a franchise that gave the world one of its most hated CGI monstrosities when the first trailer was released in 2019. The overwhelmingly negative reaction to the gangly, human-toothed Sonic from that trailer caused a months-long delay while the character was redesigned. But the rework paid off, as it led to both critical and commercial success for the film, not to mention interest in the sequel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new chapter starts with the villainous Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) escaping exile on a mushroom planet thanks to his trademark ingenuity and a hand from new ally Knuckles the Echidna (Idris Elba). Back on Earth, Sonic (Ben Schwartz) makes a mess of foiling a bank robbery. His parent-like human ally Tom (James Marsden) tells him he needs to be more responsible, so he puts him in charge of the house while he and his wife Maddie (Tika Sumpter) go to a wedding in Hawaii. Sonic isn\u2019t punished or made to fix the damage he\u2019s done, he just gets the house to himself for the weekend, and immediately gets to partying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The party is short-lived, however, as trouble soon finds Sonic in the form of Robotnik and Knuckles. Fortunately, new fox ally Tails (Colleen O\u2019Shaughnessy) emerges to help fend the villains off. From there the movie becomes a two-on-two race to see who can find an all-powerful emerald first. Adventure and gags ensue. It\u2019s been less than two months since \u201cUncharted\u201d and two weeks since \u201cThe Lost City,\u201d so the movie is striking a very familiar tone with its treasure hunters, but at least here it’s with more likeable characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To be honest, I didn\u2019t care about the emerald stuff at all (Tails is noticeably flat in his exposition). I found much more enjoyment in Sonic\/Tails\/Robotnik\/Knuckles relationship, as the characters learn lessons about courage, compassion, trust, and yes, responsibility. If any storyline in this movie is particularly \u201cengaging,\u201d it\u2019s the wedding between Maddie\u2019s sister Rachel (Natasha Rothwell) and fianc\u00e9 Randall (Shemar Moore, who could very easily replace John Stamos as the poster boy for never aging). I know people don\u2019t go to see a Sonic the Hedgehog movie for wedding hijinks, but the jokes in these scenes just land at a better rate than in non-wedding scenes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bad news is that I\u2019m not ready to say that \u201cSonic the Hedgehog 2\u201d breaks my streak of having never seen a \u201cgood\u201d video game movie. The story picks some bad times to not take itself seriously, the blurry action did nothing for me, and I was really feeling the runtime toward the end. The good news is that there\u2019s nothing painfully unfunny or disagreeable here. Jim Carrey is in tip-top comedic form (I hope he\u2019s not serious about retiring from acting) and all the characters are likeable in one way or another. I wouldn\u2019t say this movie should be a priority for adults, but\u2019s it\u2019s fine as a choice for families with kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grade: C<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSonic the Hedgehog 2\u201d is rated PG for action, some violence, rude humor, and mild language. Its running time is 122 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Bob Garver Last week I reviewed \u201cMorbius,\u201d a film whose constant delays in release turned it into a punchline. Next week I\u2019ll review the new \u201cFantastic Beasts,\u201d part… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":52957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[1219],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52956"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52956"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52958,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52956\/revisions\/52958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}