I have fond memories of growing up with Sonic the Hedgehog. I remember going to relative’s houses and playing the classic games on their Sega Genesis systems and eventually spending countless hours on my Gamecube with Sonic Adventure 2 Battle and Sonic Heroes.
I remember having to play the Shadow the Hedgehog game, the one where he rides around with a motorcycle and a gun, at my cousins’ house because they had a copy of it and my parents wouldn’t get it for me. And, of course, who could forget that time we all collectively bullied Paramount because their character design was ugly.

Bad CGI aside, Paramount eventually fixed that and the first Sonic the Hedgehog movie turned out pretty great, and now that we seem to be living in a golden era of video game adaptations, I am ready for any and all Sonic cinematic content. So when Shadow, my favorite Sonic character, was revealed to be in the third installment of the film franchise, I just wanted the filmmakers to go fast and release it already.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 finds Sonic (Ben Schwartz), Knuckles (Idris Elba) and Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) recruited by the Guardian Units of Nations agency (GUN) to help track down and subdue a mysterious a destructive force. When this turns out to be another alien named Shadow (Keanu Reeves) that looks exactly like Sonic except with teleportation powers and rocket shoes, Team Sonic is forced to join their old nemesis Dr. Ivo Robotnik (Jim Carrey) in order to take him down.
Sonic 3 is a fun movie for adults to watch, especially fans of the games, and in many moments it caters especially to them with jokes and references to the games that will likely fly right over the heads of younger audiences. However, Sonic 3 is absolutely a kids movie and probably the goofiest entry into the series (so far) both in terms of its humor and it’s frenetic, sugar-rush energy. While this does keep the pace going and the level of fun consistently high, that level of silliness clashes with the dark and heavy tone of the scenes that focus more on Shadow. It’s a case of a movie trying to do too much and is seemingly unsure whether it wants to be more serious and epic or comedic and kid-friendly. That isn’t to say that a movie can’t contain both moments of darkness and levity, but the balance isn’t quite there for Sonic 3.

Kids movies often get a bad rap and have a reputation for sometimes using comedy and colorful characters to cover up a threadbare story. Unfortunately, this is the case here. While the first two films in the series weren’t going to win any awards for being groundbreaking works of fiction, Sonic 3’s storyline felt especially flimsy, and under any level of scrutiny, plot holes start to pop up left and right.
Additionally, the entire time I was watching Sonic 3, I couldn’t help but feel like it was an amalgam of other franchises or tropes. For example, some battle scenes between Sonic and Shadow look like they were ripped right out of Dragonball with how the characters fly around and teleport.
The most obvious comparison is that the movie feels like baby’s first Fast and Furious film. Characters constantly talking about family? Check. Destructive chases through densely populated cities? Check. Heroes being recruited by the government for some reason? Check. Former enemies becoming welcome members of the team? Check. Again, this stuff isn’t bad. In fact I really liked those fight scenes and the parallels to Fast and Furious are actually kind of funny, however, the film would have been better if it had tried for more original ideas rather than borrowing or paying homage as much as it did.

For me the main draw of Sonic 3 was Shadow, who was set up to be the big bad. While I loved the scenes we got with him, he pretty much gets sidelined for a good third of the movie once Gerald Robotnik (also played by Carrey) shows up. His character brings a much-needed sense of danger and gravitas to the film, but his whole schtick of “teleport around and kick people then leave” gets old fairly quickly. In addition, he’s so much stronger than anyone on Team Sonic that it brings up questions of power creep and is almost unbelievable that he would ever lose a fight. The film needed to use Shadow more effectively and give him more to do than mope about revenge. If he returns for future films, then I hope he is given a much larger role.
Reeves’ performance as Shadow is excellent. Channeling a lot of his John Wick, Reeves nails the brooding, wounded, edgy energy that the character has always carried. His rage, weariness and gruff delivery are elevated by how well they contrast Shadow from the brighter, more youthful voices of Sonic and Tails. Again, I just want more of Shadow.
The rest of the cast voice cast are great as usual. Schwartz’s Sonic feels as exuberant, friendly and heroic as every, and in the few moments when the character feels rage or sorrow, Schwartz gives it his all, adding necessary depth to the role. O’Shaughnessey continues to charm as Tails. Idris Elba is probably one of my favorite parts of the movie as his powerful voice full of gravitas is used to deliver the silly lines of Knuckles obsessing over how muscular he is.

Jim Carrey does double duty this time around as two Dr. Robotniks: Ivo (who we know as Eggman) and Gerald, his long-lost grandfather. I enjoy Carrey’s work. You go into a Carrey film knowing that his character will likely be unhinged and psychotic. His performances as Eggman in the last two Sonic films were some of the funniest and most memorable parts of those movies. However, as I’ve noticed is a trend in Hollywood recently, Sonic 3 takes what was good in moderation and oversaturates it to the point of ruin.
There is little to distinguish between the two Dr. Robotniks other than the old age makeup/prosthetics and white mustache on Gerald. Their behaviors and quirks are exactly the same. Where one insane, narcissistic megalomanic made for a fun and memorable villain, adding in the second Robotnik is just overwhelmingly silly. When paired with the darker, more cynical scenes with Shadow, the lack of cohesion in the film’s tone becomes even more apparent and jarring. Carrey is just doing what we love him for and what he does best, but less really is sometimes more and having two Jim Carreys unfortunately undermines what made him such a fun Robotnik in the first place.
Despite my criticisms, I like Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The characters are charming, bright, and fun. The jokes, if a little dated, are funny. I enjoyed all the different locations in the film from the lush forest of Green Hills to the vibrant streets of Japan, and the fast-paced races and fights are as thrilling as ever. It’s a film that was made to get families in theaters and entertain them for a couple of hours, and not a film that was made to stand up to any real scrutiny, which makes it difficult if you’re a film critic like me. That said, I have to do my job and as much as I had a good time in the theater, Sonic 3 comes in third in terms of quality among the franchise.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a film clearly meant to cater to kids and often times feels like the filmmakers cobbled together ideas from other franchises and softened off the edginess to make them more family-friendly. While the cast is as consistently good as they’ve always been, Reeves is underused as Shadow and Carrey is overused as both Ivo and Gerald Robotnik. The films indecision whether it wants to focus on the darker side of the Sonic lore with Shadow’s story or whether it wants to cram as many jokes in as possible creates an inconsistent and confusing tone, unlike the previous installments that were sure of the stories they were telling.
Despite all of that, I dare you to stick around for the mid-credit and end credit scenes and tell me you’re not excited for Sonic 4.
Rating: 6.5/10