Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) Review

 "Step one: light taunting.  Step two: I have no idea."

-Sonic the Hedgehog

With Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie (Tika Sumpter) out of town at a wedding, Sonic the Hedgehog (Ben Schwartz) has the house all to himself.  Unfortunately, Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) returns for vengeance with help from Knuckles the Echidna (Idris Elba).  With the fate of the world at stake, it's up to Sonic and his new friend, Tails (Colleen O'Shaughnessey), to stop the dangerous duo.  

What Works:

The best part of the movie is Idris Elba as Knuckles.  I've never been a big fan of the character in the video games and Elba gives us the best version of him.  He reminds me a lot of Drax from Guardians of the Galaxy.  He's a warrior who has only ever known the life of a warrior.  So every line of dialogue from Knuckles ends up being hilarious.  He steals the show whenever he is on screen.

Jim Carrey is the only person that could play Dr. Robotnik.  He was great in the first movie and gets to be even more unhinged here.  He's simply perfect in the role.

The action sequences are a lot of fun and definitely feel more like the video games than the sequences in the first movie.  I'm not saying one is better than the ohter, but the action was different this time around and I appreciate it.  We get a variety of locations and some really fun sequences.

Finally, I loved the 3rd act of the movie.  The action gets dialed up to 11 in terms of insanity and pretty much everyone gets a moment to shine.  It's an absolute treat to watch and gets surprisingly emotional and badass by the end.

What Sucks:

My biggest complaint about the first movie was that the comedy was very hit-or-miss.  That holds true here.  Some of it's hilarious, while most of the pop culture references fall flat.

Ever since he got a voice actor, I have despised the character of Tails.  I think he is one of the most irritating video game characters of all time.  I was hoping if they cast a big name actor in the role, it might make Tails less insufferable, but they brought back Colleen O'Shaughnessey, who voices Tails in the newer games, to voice him in the movie.  Good for O'Shaughnessey, but bad for me.  Every time Tails speaks, I want to grab Tails by the tails and swing him into the next time zone.

Finally, the human characters were given an odd amount of screen-time.  I really liked Tom and Maddie in the previous film and was happy to see them here, but their inclusion felt a little forced.  If they had been included in the story more, along with the other characters at the wedding, it would have worked better, but if they want to go for the story that Sonic needs to handle this one without Tom and Maddie, then they should have been in the movie less.  Maybe have them show up in the final scene with no idea what just happened.  It should have been more or less.  This amount was just awkward and it made the movie somewhat disjointed.  

Verdict:

While not quite as good as the first movie, Sonic 2 is a lot of fun.  Elba and Carrey are fantastic, the action is great, and the 3rd act is awesome.  Tails is terrible, as per usual, not all of the humor works, and the human storyline needed some work, but this movie has still got it going on.

 7/10: Good