My Review of "Sonic the Hedgehog 3"

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is one of the last big releases of 2024. It's a follow up that not a lot of us expected even though the previous movie hinted at this sequel. I was really surprised how much I liked the second movie, so I had high hopes going into this third iteration. Good news, this movie keeps everything that we loved from the previous movies and amped it up to the next level.

The movie starts off with the family unit all together. Now we have Sonic, Knuckles, Tails along with Tom and Maddie. What they wanted to emphasize was that Sonic, Knuckles and Tails are now a pretty tight unit. They seem to be getting along with one another despite their differences from the last movie. There are even a few jokes thrown in there as they're aware of this situation.

Each of the characters still have their plucky personalities. Knuckles is still a warrior that uses might over brains. On the polar opposite, we have Tails who is all brains but has no size. Then we have Sonic who is still a wisecracking pompous speedster.

As this is all being established, we have a new mysterious character Shadow who is awakened in some sort of laboratory. He's out for revenge. Something has happened to his best friend Maria and he's angry. Little by little the cloak of mystery reveals what had happened to Maria and how all of the Shadow's past events relate to the Sonic gang.

Dr. Robotnik also returns in this movie. He's even wilder and crazier than the previous movies. It's double the fun and double the anarchy when he comes into the picture. I don't think anyone could have done a better job with his character than Jim Carrey. He's able to make this character look more cartoonish than the animated cartoons. If you're a fan of his work in the 90s you will absolutely go crazy for this movie. In fact, I think he makes this movie so entertaining that it could have only included parts of him and I would have been fine.

The story isn't complicated. I liked that they kept it short and simple so that they could emphasize the zaniness and fun all of the characters get into. We don't go into a Sonic movie looking for a masterpiece. This movie is pure popcorn fun. The jokes are flying a mile a minute and I had a smile throughout the runtime.

I also have to give props to their special effects team. They did an outstanding job with this movie. Some of the CGI seamlessly blends into the real world scenes despite obviously being CGI. I don't know how they did it but CGI is really starting to blend in pretty well. The characters are all animated but yet they shadows and lighting of each of the characters seem to meld right in.

Although, this movie is over the top they are still quite grounded in terms of paying homage to Sonic and Sega history. They even keep a lot of the older cast in the mix even when they didn't need to. I appreciate that they were able to keep some of the actors that were quite memorable in this movie in very small parts. It's noticeable but very small.

Overall, as you can tell from my review, I liked this movie. It has some pretty memorable scenes that I would remember over the other two movies. I think they really outdid themselves with this one. A huge spotlight has to be placed on Jim Carrey for his contributions as well. If you're in the mood for silliness this is the movie to watch. I have to give it a 7.5 out of 10.