Movie Thoughts: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024)

 

• Released: December 10, 2024
• Directed by: Jeff Fowler
• Running time: 1h 50min
• Rating 3/5

Synopsis

Sonic, Tails and Knuckles have to face off against Dr. Robotnik, Dr. Robotnik's grandfather and a newcomer named Shadow, as the evildoers want to destroy the world.

My Thoughts

I guess my thing with the Sonic sequels so far is just that they're fine. Not great, not bad, just fine. I've seen worse, but I've also seen a whole lot better.

I guess I do have some real issues with this one though that I can pinpoint. For one, I just felt no real attachment to any of the characters in this one. They're not outright bad or anything, but I just felt nothing for any of these guys. Even Sonic and Tom, whom I at least somewhat connected with in the first movie, now just kinda made me feel blank. Same applies to Tails, Knuckles and Shadow here. They sure do try to make me feel for them, but it didn't really succeed at all for me. 

Shadow's arc also felt quite similar to Knuckles' from the last movie, where we have this hedgehog/echidna alien who first joins up with the Big Bad but later joins the side of the heroes. I'd have liked it better if they did something different with him.

Another issue I have is that this movie doesn't really seem to respect its audience, because it constantly feels the need to spell out its morals and themes for the viewer. As if we can't infer those ourselves based on the story and actions of the characters. They literally have the characters go "you have to make the right choices" and "family is important" and "revenge is bad" and "teamwork is important" multiple times throughout the film. Like, how dumb do the creators of the movie think their audience is? Gives us some credit. It constantly hammering home these messages was really, really obnoxious.

This movie also feels the need to include the trope I hate where the main characters have this pre-third act breakup. It felt forced and I dislike seeing this trope quite a lot, so it didn't feel welcome here at all.

There are good elements though. The visuals are still great, I did have a good time with the Eggman villains and Stone, the voice acting (at least of the Dutch dub) was decent and there were one or two jokes that got a laugh out of me.

But yeah, overall this one just didn't do much for me. I'm unsure if I like this one or Sonic the Hedgehog 2 better, but they're honestly about the same level of enjoyment for me.