“Sonic the Hedgehog” Movie Review

    Growing up in the 1980s, we had no idea how fast technology would evolve.  We thought things couldn’t advance past the current standards we had, how could it?  We were young and naive but that nativity played right into the hands of video game developers.  Nintendo and Sega both introduced systems which would revolutionize the home entertainment market and create a new generation of video game zombies in the wake of Atari’s former dominance.  We had so many options for consoles and all the choices came with their own benefits.  Nintendo/Super Nintendo had the Mario franchise and the Sega Genesis had the Sonic franchise.  Due to their cost at the time, most of us kids had to choose which console we got, if we were even so lucky to get one.  It wasn’t an easy choice but most of us had to make it.  My brother and I ended up sharing a system and we ended up settling on the Sega Genesis primarily because of the Sonic games.  As a result, I was naturally curious about the film.

    The movie follows Sonic the Hedgehog as he grows up in a small town called Green Hills and lives in hiding.  One day after an accidental power outage caused by Sonic, the government sends a team led by Doctor Robotnik to investigate the cause of the incident.  After accidentally shooting Sonic with a tranquilizer, Sheriff Tom Wachowski agrees to help Sonic locate the rings he lost to escape this world after Doctor Robotnik becomes aware of him.  Doctor Robotnik will stop at nothing to capture and study Sonic however, even if it means killing him to do so.

    This movie is surprisingly good considering everything it had going against it before it’s release.  Films based on video game franchises are typically notoriously bad (although I do admit to finding several of them, including “Super Mario Bros.”, entertaining in their own right).  “Sonic the Hedgehog” is a legitimately good movie though.  It is simple and knows it audience is primarily made up of kids and families.  It doesn’t try to be edgy or risqué, the film just has fun with it’s characters and it works.

    A great deal of the success of this film comes from the strength of Jim Carrey’s performance as Doctor Robotnik.  Carrey is weird, creepy and just a plain jerk which makes it easy for the audience to root against him.  Carrey also hams it up in ways he hasn’t done for years and he seems to have a good time doing so.  I am not the biggest Jim Carrey fan, but he delivers in this role.  James Marsden is also charming as usual as Sheriff Tom Wachowski.  Having co-starred in huge hits like “X-Men”, “Enchanted”, “Westworld”, and “Superman Returns”, Marsden takes on the co-lead with ease and proves once again he remains one of the most under appreciated talents of his generation.  Lastly, Ben Schwarz of “Parks and Recreation” fame voices Sonic and does a stellar job bringing the blue hedgehog to life.

    I would like to take a minute and praise Paramount Pictures for their actions regarding this film.  When the first trailer for this film was released, the design for Sonic was universally panned by fans of the Sonic franchise.  Instead of attacking the fanbase (like Sony decided to do when it’s “Ghostbusters” trailer was universally disliked), Paramount wisely decided to listen to the constructive criticism and changed the design of Sonic.  This cost the studio money and they had to delay the film, but it also helped build good faith with the fanbase and as a result, “Sonic the Hedgehog” now has the highest opening  weekend for a film based on a video game of all time, besting even “Pokémon: Detective Pikachu”.

    It certainly didn’t hurt the film that so many things behind the camera worked as well.  I really enjoyed the music and hearing musical nods from the video game was special to me.  The production design overall was amazing.  Also, despite the major overall on Sonic’s design, the special effects were actually far better than I thought they would end up being considering the animators time crunch.

    At the end of the day, every film is subjective but in my opinion, this was a very solid family film.  It amazes me that Sonic has managed to stay relevant even after nearly thirty years after his debut.  Make sure you stay after the film ends for a post credit surprise.

Grade: B

“Dark Phoenix” Movie Review

    The final Twentieth Century Fox owned and controlled “X-Men” movie was released a few weeks ago to little fanfare and a terrible marketing campaign.  “Dark Phoenix” unwisely dropped X-Men from the title which I am sure led to some audience members being unaware that this was meant to be a continuous of the X-Men saga.  As many of you know, Disney bought Twentieth Century Fox and has gained the rights to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four.  The next X-Men movie besides from the already filmed “New Mutants” will likely be a complete reboot set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

    The film starts out showing how Professor X and Jean Grey met.  The film then jumps to show the X-Men on a rescue mission to save the astronauts of a destroyed space shuttle.  While on the mission, Jean Grey absorbs what turns out to be the Phoenix force.  As Jean Grey starts to lose control, the mental barriers Charles Xavier put in her head start collapsing and Jean realizes her father is still alive so she takes off to find him.  Professor Xavier and the rest of the X-Men try to bring her back to the school but they end up fighting and Mystique is killed in the battle.  Seeking sanctuary, Jean Grey seeks out Magneto Buy is turned away by him before he found out what she had done.  Hank McCoy/Beast decides to leave the X-Men over the grief of losing Mystique and ends up seeking out Magneto as well.  Beast informs Magneto that Jean had killed Mystique, the woman both men had loved, and the two decide to set off to kill Jean Grey as a result.  The X-Men are forced to square off with them before an alien threat forces all parties to work together for the sake of the entire planet.

    So, there is a lot of story going on with this film, both in front of and behind the cameras.  Currently “Dark Phoenix” is the worst reviewed X-Men film to date and probably will remain so for a long while (unless “New Mutants” ends up taking that honor).  The critical bashing the film took certainly didn’t help the film at the box office, as the film opened to disappointing financial results.  I had to check out the movie for myself however, not only as a film reviewer, but as someone who has seen every other film X-Men related (including the made for TV movie “Generation X”).  Without further suspense, I will say I found the film to be okay.  It wasn’t a masterpiece nor as bad as some of the reviews made it out to be either.  The worst thing I could say about the movie is that I expected a little more from it.

    The film focuses on the popular Phoenix saga from the X-Men comics.  This story arc was already used in the clustered “X-Men: The Last Stand” so this was essentially a reboot of that sequel.  Unfortunately, this film proved to be just as clustered but instead of focusing on action, this film was clustered with melodrama.  Personally, I prefer a messy action film over a messy melodrama.  I won’t say “X-Men: The Last Stand” was a better film, but it was no worse either, and to spend time rehashing this particular storyline, you want the film to top the film it’s rebooting.

    One very distracting aspect of all the X-Men films is their lack of solid continuity throughout the franchise.  These films span decades but the filmmakers use the same actors without any age prosthetics.  You would think I multimillion dollar film could invest a little money into age makeup or cgi touchups on the actors.  Another solution might have been to set all the films in the 60s-70s but that didn’t seem like a sensible solution to the studio.

    The film primarily starred “Game of Thrones” breakout Sophie Turner as Jean Grey/Phoenix.  Turner does a fine job as Grey but can only do so much with the material she was given.  Jennifer Lawrence was quickly killed off on the film and sort of phones in her performance.  You could tell she was done with the franchise and just wanted out.  James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender continue to prove to be the backbone of the films and deliver stellar performances as the head figures of two drastically different ideologies.

    Say what you want about filmmaker Bryan Singer (and he may very well deserve it) but the X-Men movies have always been their best with his direction.  His ability to relate to the source material and use his struggles with his homosexuality as an allegory for the mutant struggles.  Singer has also proven to be the only filmmaker to successfully showcase the character of Quicksilver (Joss Whedon included).

    It should be noted that the ending had to be changed due to it’s similarity to the ending of “Captain Marvel” which was released a few months before “Dark Phoenix”.  It is believed the original ending featured the Skrulls (which makes sense since the aliens depicted in the film were shapeshifters) and a battle fought in space.  It’s ironic that the filmmakers changed the ending for it’s similarity to the ending of “Captain Marvel” yet decided to leave the opening of the film untouched considering it was almost identical to the opening sequence of “Shazam!” (which is based on a different Captain Marvel ironically).

    While we talk about the film’s final act, why on Earth did someone think turning the final battle into a literal train wreck was a good idea?  I can just imagine the meeting to change the ending going like this...

Fox Executive:

I can’t believe this!  Disney is making a Marvel movie with almost the same ending that is hitting theaters before us!  This is a nightmare!

Script Writer:

This is terrible!  What are we supposed to do?

Fox Executive:

I was hoping you might have some ideas.  The last thing we want is for this to turn into another train wreck like “X-Men: The Last Stand”.

Script Writer:

Did you say something about a train wreck?

Fox Executive:

F*** yeah I did!

Script Writer:

Interesting...  Also, I like that you threw in a random F bomb.  Being a PG-13 movie, I feel it is my moral obligation to throw in one random F bomb (randomly turns to a page and places his finger somewhere) HERE!

Fox Executive:

Are you drunk?

Script Writer:

Nooooo....now hold my beer!

    So in a nutshell, I found the movie to be okay with some enjoyable action set pieces but nothing about the movie will wow you either.  Still, there are far worse movies that have hit theaters this year alone.

Grade: B-

Superhero Movie Showdown Round 4

    It’s that time again!  We are heading into uncharted territory as we are pinning fan favorites against fan favorites and some surprising films have fallen by the way side.  Do you agree with what my Instagram followers have picked?  Comment below and let your voice be heard!

Superhero Movie Showdown Round 3

    As C-3PO once said, “Here we go again.”  Yes, here are the results for the third round of my superhero movie instagram poll.  Once again, there are some upsets and some underdog wins!

Superhero Movie Showdown Round 2

    So, here are the results from the second round of the superhero movie challenge from my instagram account.  There were definitely some surprises but that is what makes this poll so fun!

Superhero Movie Showdown Round 1

    So I decided to do a poll on instagram asking my followers which superhero movies they preferred and here are the results from the first round...