Sonic the Hedgehog 2, review: a bizarre romantic subplot inhibits the hero Sega

One of the biggest surprises of 2020 Hedgehog Sonic was that a film based on a character from a video game known for running through fast-paced fantasy lands very quickly would include so many scenes in which he was driving around Montana in the passenger seat of a Toyota. Or taking part in a fight at a bar, playing for a laugh. Or it was a means of extensive product placement for the American real estate website Zillow. Or it emits so much tension.

Although, that movie managed to raise £ 250 million in about a month before cinemas closed the hatches for Covid – which meant this sequel, filmed during the pandemic, was inevitable. And he looks – albeit occasionally and briefly – as if he was inspired by the original games. There is a scene in which our hero descends a mountain slope while jumping on an axis-shaped robot, and another in which he runs through an ancient labyrinth full of traps for spikes under Indiana Jones. In this respect, it is considered an upgrade.

Otherwise, another banquet of confusion awaits. The assumption is that Sonic (Ben Schwartz) and his newly found fan Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) will face the evil Dr. Robot Jim Carrey and a pink echidna named Knuckles (Idris Elba) in a race to discover the mythical master Emerald. So far, so Sega Mega Drive around 1994.

But the complication works out much more often or selectively ignores the characteristic mobility of its hero than it uses, and the domestic story remains bizarre. Sonic, an alien, is now essentially the adoptee of (human) Green Hills residents Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie (Tick Sumpter), and he calls Marsden a “father,” which is never unusual.

Worse, this deal leads to a long, detailed sub-plot about a family wedding that went catastrophically wrong, in which Sonic himself barely performs. As you watch Maddie’s abrasive sister Rachel (Natasha Rothwell) chase her bold but duplicitous future husband (Shemar Moore) around the Hawaiian resort with a strong brand in her wedding dress, you may be wondering if Paramount had half an hour off. an unused romcom from the 2000s sitting somewhere in a closet and decided to put it together just to get the thing to full length.