I was not expecting the movie to start with baby Sonic being raised by a talking owl who uses a giant ring to send Sonic to another world while she prepares to die protecting him. Protecting him from people hunting him because he didn't listen to here about hiding his speed. That's going hard right from the jump.
He eventually reaches Earth, lives near a town called Green Hills, spies on the residents, imagines himself as part of their lives. Gets majorly depressed about being alone, runs until he releases a massive amount of energy that knocks out power for miles. Which gets the government involved, with the investigation led by a mad scientist named Robotnik, played by Jim Carrey.
The movie reminds me a fair bit of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, although that's not a comparison that does this movie any favors. You've got a talking animal on the run from the authorities with darker motives, aided by a person who ostensibly is the authorities. In this case a small town cop dreaming of joining the San Francisco PD. I wouldn't think a cop could make enough to live in San Francisco. Not without taking kickbacks, anyway.
The interactions between Sonic and physical objects aren't nearly as smooth as with Roger Rabbit (Sonic trying to hit the biker with the beer bottle looked extremely fake), and there aren't nearly as many layers to this movie, but in the broad "odd couple on the run" strokes, that's what it reminded me of. There's even the part where the animated character is supposed to stay hidden and instead goes out in public and starts a huge mess.
Carrey plays Robotnik with a fair amount of that '90s Jim Carrey energy. Lots of flamboyant gestures and facial expressions. I didn't know he still had that gear in him, but the moment he stalked off his personalized Maddencruiser with his neck oddly stretched out and angled forward, I just cracked up. Don't know why, just thought his posture was funny. Then he verbally eviscerated the Army captain there in a way that perfectly lays out Robotnik's intellect, ego and contempt for anyone he considers lesser than him. Which is everyone. It's a very effective couple of minutes of establishing the character.
And it lets Robotnik act as a contrast to Sonic. Neither has friends, but where Sonic imagines himself as being part of other people's lives, and tries desperately to make it a reality, Robotnik decided he doesn't need friends, period. He'll have intellect and power. Those will make people do what he wants. he does have one moment where he actually compliments his assistant on how he makes Robotnik's lackeys, but even then he does it by yelling the compliment angrily.
The movie uses two different approaches for showing off Sonic's speed. Sometimes it shows him moving fast. Running past "Donut Lord's" speed trap and the radar gun reading 296 mph. Other times it does what the X-Men films did for Quicksilver. Everything else is either frozen or in extreme slow-motion and Sonic casually lopes around tapping bullets aside or giving bikers atomic wedgies.
James Marsden and Tika Sumpter did a pretty good job playing characters who have been together for a while. They have their routines an in-jokes, they're used to Maddie's sister wanting her to break up with Tom. I did feel like Tom should know there aren't animal smelling salts, but chalk it up to him being stressed worrying about essentially a bizarre child that has wandered into his life and gotten hurt. But the gag with the two cakes was funny, and the bit where Maddie's niece gives Sonic new shoes was actually very sweet.
I was expecting an absolute trainwreck, but, it wasn't too bad. Sonic's constant one-liners could get annoying, but it feels like an attempt to just keep throwing jokes out and see if enough land. It's a time-tested approach.
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