Sonic 2 film review: This year’s Super Mario film has a new bar to clear

Enlarge / Knuckles and Sonic. (credit: Paramount / Sega)

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is the snappy, fun-for-everyone film that the first live-action Sonic film should have been. It's loyal to the source games and comics without getting hamstrung by reverence. Its best laughs are earned. Its cheesiest laughs are easy to shrug off. And while Jim Carrey returns with an enjoyably madcap turn as the villain, the rest of the production has stepped up to pump life into the non-Carrey moments.

In some ways, Sonic 2 is better than Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, my previous favorite live-action game adaptation. The character of Sonic finally has a dynamic ensemble cast to bounce off of. Ultimately, those two films are neck-and-neck on a game-film quality basis, which is fine. Sonic 2 is a better family-friendly movie option than, say, any of the Despicable Me films, even if it's not a cinematic triumph.

Finally, Sonic has his gaming move set

Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik, seen here sipping the te-er, sipping the latte. (credit: Paramount / Sega)

The first film devoted too much time to Sonic's backstory, which connected our heroic hedgehog to a race of magical owls on a planet far from Earth. Sonic 2 has clearly learned from this. Carrey opens the movie with his own backstory and explains the new film's basic plot (Robotnik was previously defeated by Sonic, is trapped on a faraway planet, and now wants revenge) in a way that never requires viewers to visit Wikipedia. Carrey reminds us why his '60s-film-villain lunacy is the best thing to ever happen to the Dr. Robotnik character.

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