I’m not a huge fan of the Sonic franchise… I played the first game in the 90s and a little of its sequel but dropped off after that. But I liked the first live action Sonic movie and really liked the second so I was hoping for the best with part 3. And they delivered.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 launches with Sonic Team (nice inside joke) – Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles – as well as the returning humans James Marsden and Tika Sumpter. When Shadow – a dark hedgehog kept on ice for fifty years – escapes, the team is called on to save the day.

This sequel drops the white gloves and goes full sci-fi adventure. It ejects the majority of the cost-saving human subplots and leans heavily on its team of heroes. Plus the return of still-having-fun Jim Carrey as Dr. Eggman/Robotnik.

This is the best film in the franchise so far. I love its dedication to its superhero/sci-fi feel. It remains corny in its comedy and I barked not a few times at the goofy gags. My favorite being a perfectly timed Nintendo reference in the first act (my audience ate it up).

Newcomer Shadow the Hedgehog is given the grimdark, angry voice of Keanu Reeves in grimdark Keanu mode. Keanu is naturally such a nice guy and his angry voice seems to be the only way he shaves off the surfer bro good guy cadence. And it works perfectly for Shadow, making him an ironically funny character.

The finale is a bit of a let down. It has cool ideas and a huge sci-fi scale, but it serves too many main characters to retain focus. It simply has too many moving parts and is a little too loose and a little too long. Plus it whiffs its final boss confrontation.

But otherwise, this is a lot of fun, even for a casual fan of the video game franchise. Somehow these characters – as one-dimensional as they kinda are – are fun to meet up with again. Its scale, vision, and sci-fi cool are pretty great. And I look forward to the next new character introduced in the mid-credit scene. Sonic 4… coming soon.

Score: 86