On Dec. 20, 2024, “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” directed by Jeff Fowler, was released by Paramount Pictures in the United States.
Based on the game “Sonic Adventure 2,” the hour-and-53-minute film begins with Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz), Knuckles (voiced by Idris Elba), and Tails (voiced by Colleen O’Shaughnessey) reuniting to go against Shadow (voiced by Keanu Reeves).
Shadow, a hedgehog much like Sonic, is an unknown danger far more powerful than they have ever encountered. With the extra help of their human “parents” Tom Wachowski (played by James Marsden) and Maddie Wachowski (played by Tika Sumpter), an unlikely alliance of the three is made to stop Shadow and save the world from other dangers.
Although the genre of this movie is action and comedy, “Sonic 3” also shows more serious themes. One viewer wrote that “Sonic 3” displayed themes of “grief, loss, anger, and the struggles of changing who you are.”
Even though there were many good ratings for this film, there were also some negative reviews.
For example, freshman Zachary Chau disliked parts of the movie.
“I liked watching it. It was easy to laugh at with friends. Though, I did not like the grandpa. I thought it was weird,” Chau said.
Many viewers disliked the “flat jokes,” most of the focus being on Doctor Eggman’s character (played by Jim Carrey) and overall the goofiness. Other than the jokes, some said the movie shouldn’t have been marketed toward younger kids because of its violence.
Others also pointed out that the movie’s pacing was off, and the story wasn’t clear.
“I would’ve just rather had them retell the story based on the games instead of adding a lot of flat jokes and focusing on Eggman’s character,” Jade C., a viewer from Canada, said.
From a survey conducted with 78 responses, about 56.4% of Rancho students did not watch Sonic while 43.6% did. Only about 52.6% of students enjoyed the movie compared to the 47.4% of students who did not enjoy the movie.
There were some suggestions from Rancho students who believed that the movie could have had some changes to make it more popular.
“I wish we saw more of the human characters, kind of like how much screen time they had in the first movie,” senior Grayson Ciadadano said.
Likewise, sophomore Akshita Akshita agreed with the characters needing improvement.
“One thing that could be changed about ‘Sonic 3’ would be to improve the pacing of the game by either speeding up or adding more varied level designs,” Akshita said.
In addition, some students who voted in the poll agreed that the character development could have been better directed to let the movie move more fluidly.
There are many mixed opinions about the film. Overall, most students at Rancho would not recommend watching “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” to others within a certain age group.
