I recently watched Sonic the Hedgehog 3 with my family, and I’ve been thinking about it for the past couple of days now. When I first saw the Sonic 3 trailer, my siblings and I were pretty excited, in part because Shadow is one of our favorite characters in the Sonic franchise. Also, the trailer made it seem like the stakes would be high and I thought the tone of the movie would be a little more serious compared to the first two movies. However, when I watched the movie with my younger sister and brother, we were all underwhelmed.
One of the main issues I had with this movie was the pacing. Ironically, the movie was going too fast. Things that didn’t make much sense would happen simply to keep the plot going. For instance, near the beginning of the movie, Sonic and his family’s picnic is interrupted by GUN, who requests Team Sonic’s help to stop a “very dangerous situation in Tokyo.” GUN does not explain what the situation is, yet Sonic and his friends quickly go into GUN’s helicopter to fly to Tokyo.
The main issue I have with this scene is that in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, GUN captured Sonic, Tails, and Tom, and they had to be rescued by Maddie and her sister. So why on earth would Team Sonic be so eager to help GUN now? They should be asking more questions about what exactly is happening, because they of all people should know that GUN isn’t always in the right and cannot be trusted. At the very least, Tails should have been the one to ask questions, because he is usually more cautious. He is more of a planner, while Sonic and Knuckles rush into danger.
But since the plot has to happen, Team Sonic doesn’t ask any questions at all. They only ask for more clarification after they have already been beaten by Shadow. GUN should have briefed them on who they were dealing with beforehand, but it seems the only thing they told Team Sonic after they had gotten into the helicopter was that there was an alien running rampant in Tokyo.
And what tool does Team Sonic bring to help capture the alien that GUN is extremely vague about? Handcuffs. GUN never showed them what Shadow looked like, and we know this because Sonic says, “We don’t know if it’s Godzilla or Hello Kitty down there,” and as soon as they run into Shadow, Sonic is surprised that he looks similar to him. So why would Tails have those titanium handcuffs out when none of them even know what the alien looks like, how big it is, or what abilities it has? Why wouldn’t he have any other gadgets ready? Maybe so the plot can happen, because after Shadow beats Sonic senseless, Sonic wakes up to find himself cuffed to a rail. He can’t be cuffed to a rail without Tails’ handy handcuffs.
There is another scene where Tom uses Tails’ tech to disguise himself as Commander Walters and tricks Director Rockwell into giving him the key. This wouldn’t be a problem if Commander Walters hadn’t been severely injured (or killed) earlier on. I first assumed Commander Walters was dead, and apparently so did Director Rockwell, because she is surprised to see him (but it’s actually Tom). Dead or not, Director Rockwell saw Commander Walters’ condition earlier in the film, and she didn’t think he would live, so why would she not be a little more skeptical? If Commander Walter’s is alive and he was in the hospital, then wouldn’t GUN know when he was discharged? Is there no communication going on?
Now, a possible excuse for this is that Rockwell was too afraid to risk angering her boss, and Tom’s disguise is realistic. However, I’m not convinced there isn’t some way Director Rockwell could have checked to make sure that she wasn’t being tricked before handing over the key. One simple call to the hospital or some other GUN agent, or perhaps some secret code used amongst GUN agents would have sufficed. Again, this felt rushed so that the plot can happen. Shadow won’t hurt Tom unless he thinks he’s Commander Walters, so Tom has to be disguised as him and have the key handy for Shadow to steal it, and we gotta go fast so let’s ignore Commander Walter’s death right now and just have Director Rockwell hand over the key without question even though that makes GUN look incompetent!
This scene was extremely confusing to me, because I honestly believed that Commander Walters was dead at that point. But after turning to Google, I found out that the writers behind the movie said there was a possibility Commander Walters is still alive, which is a little annoying. I wish they hadn’t made Commander Walter’s death ambiguous, but they may have done it to keep their options open for the next movie.
Another issue I have with the movie is that some serious scenes are quickly undermined by jokes, some of which aren’t even that funny. For instance, in one scene, Sonic is so angry that Shadow injured Tom, that he’s ready to fight Knuckles to get him to tell him where the Master Emerald is, even though they had all agreed that the emerald was too dangerous to use. Despite believing that Sonic should not wield the emerald in anger, Knuckles decides to uphold his promise by trusting Sonic, but tells him that he must go through a “fearsome warrior” to get it.
As soon as Knuckles said this, I knew there would be some sort of gag right after this. At first, I thought the “fearsome warrior” Knuckles was referring to was the family dog. But the scene immediately cuts to Wade, who is atop the police station’s roof, playing hockey with the Master Emerald he’s supposed to be protecting.
Needless to say, I was annoyed. Sonic has a serious confrontation with his friends and leaves them behind, and Gerald, Shadow, and Eggman have the keys needed to start the death ray, so the stakes are high. But let’s break the tension by cutting to Wade playing with the Master Emerald like it’s not one of the most powerful objects in the world. To add insult to injury, Wade tells Sonic that he can’t let him have the Master Emerald and that he has to protect it, but before he can even finish his sentence, Sonic snatches the Master Emerald out of his hands. Wade’s response? “Well, I tried.”
No you didn’t Wade!
I’m not upset about this scene just for trying to be humorous at the worst time possible. I’m upset because Wade should not have the Master Emerald to begin with. To be clear, I never watched the Knuckles series, but it isn’t really relevant to the movie. There’s no reason for Knuckles to trust Wade with the Master Emerald, and the fact that Wade was treating the emerald like a hockey puck proves it. This feels like the filmmakers decided that this “funny” scene is worth Knuckles’ character assassination.
Then there’s Eggman and Gerald. While I enjoyed their scenes for the most part, I think the time devoted to them should have been devoted to Shadow a little more. I’m probably biased since Shadow is my favorite character, but I don’t think there were enough scenes with him. He doesn’t interact with Team Sonic much. He doesn’t interact with Gerald a lot either, which is strange considering that Gerald is the only person he really knows. There is a whole scene where Eggman and Gerald dance their way to get the key out of GUN’s base, and while it was sort of funny, it wasn’t necessary. I would have preferred more scenes with Shadow interacting with Gerald or Team Sonic, or even Agent Stone rather than Eggman dancing with Gerald.
Shadow sort of gets sidelined by Eggman and Gerald. For example, while Eggman and Gerald go into GUN’s base to get the key, they leave Shadow and Agent Stone to wait for them. Mind you, Shadow is eager to help get the key needed to use Gerald’s weapon because he wants his revenge. But Gerald tells Shadow to wait and let him and Eggman handle it. Why on earth would Gerald not want Shadow to help them immediately? He is one of the most powerful allies he has. Shadow can teleport and can take down multiple GUN agents within seconds, yet Gerald leaves him behind to go dancing with Eggman only for their plan to get derailed. They would have been toast if Shadow hadn’t shown up to save them from GUN soldiers. Oh, and Shadow had to get the key himself after all because Eggman and Gerald were outsmarted by GUN’s boobytraps. Good grief!
Speaking of Professor Gerald, he dies towards the end of the film, and his death is played for laughs. While I found it funny at the time, after thinking about it, his death probably should have been treated more seriously, given the fact that he was trying to destroy earth, and the only reason he was trying to do that was because he lost granddaughter, who was basically murdered by GUN. Also, he was the only other person Shadow knew from his past. After Gerald’s death, we don’t see how Shadow reacts to this, and it’s unclear if he even knew that Gerald was dead.
Also, some jokes weren’t funny to me. At one point, Eggman says that his attitude makes him unappealing “to all possible genders,” and I don’t think that was an appropriate joke to make, especially since children are going to be watching this movie.
Then there is the swearing. D-m and Bad–A are said once I believe. Sonic 2 had a swear word or two in there as well, and I didn’t like that either. Swearing is never necessary, especially not in a movie mostly catered towards children.
Now that I’ve gone over the main issues I had with the film, I’ll go over some of the more positive aspects. I liked that they decided to keep Gerald alive up until the end of the movie. I know that in the Sonic video game, he is technically supposed to be dead at this point. However, him being alive to carry out his plan of revenge himself made things more interesting to me. I liked the scene where Shadow asks Gerald whether destroying earth was something Maria would want, and Gerald eggs him on by claiming that the real question is “What do they [GUN and the world] deserve?”
I also like the scene where Eggman tells Gerald that they’re a family so there’s no need to destroy earth, only for Gerald to tell him “You’re no Maria.” These scenes show Gerald’s need for revenge consumes him to the point where he doesn’t care about anything or anyone else. He wants revenge, and if Shadow and Eggman have to die for him to get it, so be it.
It would have been nice to get more scenes like this, with Gerald’s darker side showing up now and then before he reveals his true intentions to Eggman. I would have liked more scenes with him and Shadow, perhaps with him brushing over Shadow’s doubts about what they’re doing and manipulating him to do his bidding. But the movie seemed more focused on keeping the tone light and humorous.
I enjoyed the scenes of Shadow and Maria in the flashbacks, because their interactions were sweet. I also somewhat enjoyed the scene where Sonic and Shadow talk things out towards the end of the film before they join forces to save the world. However, I must admit that it was a bit hard to take the latter scene seriously the first time I watched it. I think the scene could have been way more impactful if there were less jokes and more buildup.
There’s also a scene where Eggman sends one final message to his henchman Agent Stone and says that he considers him to be his friend, which was actually nice.
Overall, I would give it 3/5 stars. Though there were some funny, enjoyable, and heartwarming scenes, sometimes the jokes and gags didn’t land or went a little overboard. Some characters didn’t get enough development or screen time, which made the movie feel shallow. Scenes that should have packed more of a punch didn’t feel earned because they lacked buildup. The movie probably would have benefited from both better focus and perhaps a longer run time, because some scenes didn’t make much sense and the movie felt too short. However, I am in my early twenties, so this movie may be way more enjoyable for a younger audience than it was for me.
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