Directed by Jeff Fowler, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 follows Sonic (Ben Schwartz), Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey), and Knuckles (Idris Elba) who reunite against a powerful new adversary, Shadow (Keanu Reeves), a mysterious villain with powers unlike anything they have faced before. With their abilities outmatched in every way, Team Sonic must seek out an unlikely alliance in hopes of stopping Shadow and protecting the planet.
It’s hard to believe how far this series has come starting from the ugly blue abomination first shown in the first trailer for the first film years ago to this highly anticipated third installment that brings one of the most iconic rivals of Sonic’s history to life on the big screen, yet here we are. I loved the first two films but ever since it was revealed that Shadow the Hedgehog was going to be involved in the third film I was immensely eager to see this film, especially for his involvement since he is my favorite character from the games. This was one of my most anticipated films this year and I had high hopes that this could be another great adaptation that would live up to my expectations.
After getting the chance to see the film after such a long wait I am happy to say that this film indeed lived up to my expectations while also offering numerous surprises along the way. Despite having some deviations from the source material and some tonal inconsistencies with the narrative I was still incredibly satisfied with this adaptation that delivered tons of fun, heart, incredible action, dark moments, humorous moments, and epic moments. This may be my favorite film of the series so far not only because of it having my favorite character involved and doing him justice but also because of just how amazingly and passionately crafted it is on almost every level.
The cast is once again terrific in this film with every cast member giving their all to their performances, especially the Sonic characters who remain as the main focus of the film. This does mean that some of the original characters like Tom and Maddie Wachowski, played by James Marsden and Tika Sumpter respectively, are sidelined for a majority of the film but they do still have some good moments that are performed wonderfully by them.
Ben Schwartz is once again perfect as Sonic, especially as we see him continue his emotional and investing journey that began in the first film. Here we see him struggling to be a leader of the team while also struggling to maintain his heart as he gets put to the ultimate test when facing Shadow. Sonic definitely has some of his humorous moments like in the previous films but it’s in this film where we get to see a lot more mature moments occur; Ben Schwartz absolutely nails these moments with his performance making us feel all the various emotions he goes through on the next step of his journey.
Colleen O’Shaughnessey and Idris Elba reprise Tails and Knuckles respectively and once again are both perfect in their performances as these characters. We see them work together in this film as both a team and found family with such great dynamics that they share with Sonic while facing their greatest challenge yet. Even when you know the cast members are playing these characters in voice booths they really put their all into making these characters come to life and making us love them every step of the way whether it be with humor or drama.
But by far the best voice performance of the entire film is easily Keanu Reeves as Shadow the Hedgehog. As one of my most anticipated characters of this film, Keanu was phenomenal in the role, bringing all the rage and pain the character is known for to life within his performance and doing justice to the character. He truly brings a dark presence the moment he gets on screen and shows himself to be a truly powerful adversary to Team Sonic that outmatches them in every way. But underneath the dark exterior is an individual who has endured great loss and never got to experience any form of proper closure or support from others as Sonic did, making for a fantastic parallel between the two characters that is the driving force of the film.
I’m truly satisfied by how Shadow was done in this film as Keanu Reeves, Jeff Fowler, and his team made sure he was given the best treatment possible. I also really liked the fact they explored more of his past relationship with Maria, who is excellently played by Alyla Brown, which adds more emotion to the tragic backstory of Shadow that gets revealed as the film progresses.
Shadow isn’t the only one who steals the spotlight though as Jim Carrey is back again to bring unhinged hilarity and chaos but this time in two roles, Dr. Ivo Robotnik aka Eggman, and Professor Gerald Robotnik, who is Ivo’s grandfather and the scientist who discovered Shadow. Yes, you read that right, we get a double performance by Jim Carrey who goes all in with both characters, giving both endless laughs and menace as these two in the most Jim Carrey way you can expect and I absolutely loved it.
After Jim Carrey seemingly retired from acting after the second Sonic film I was really worried we weren’t going to see him in the series again, especially when Robotnik plays such a crucial role in the original story that this film is based on, but I am glad he came back as him as well as got the chance to play Gerald Robotnik too, giving us double the villains and double the fun. This film does make it seem like this could be Jim Carrey’s final performance before returning to retirement and while that possibility is sad to think about, especially since he’s one of my favorite actors, I do think this was a fantastic final performance to end things off on that I would feel satisfied with if it did end up being his last performance.
I also have to give huge praise to Lee Majdoub reprising Agent Stone who continues to be such an underrated gem in these films.
The story wastes no time jumping right into the action from the beginning, delivering awesome sequences and a higher-stakes plot that has you hooked from start to finish never losing its traction. Development for the main characters occurs during the journey much like in the second film although this time it isn’t dragged down by any subplots revolving around the original human characters and instead keeps the focus on the Sonic characters for the entirety of the film, which I think is something most people have wanted ever since the first film.
A lot of the film is hugely inspired by the story of Sonic Adventure 2, with some various changes to fit the narrative of the first two films, but I do like how they pulled a lot from the source material and adapted it really well, including the darker and mature elements of Shadow’s story. It doesn’t go as dark in some places as I thought it would and I did find this film does struggle to create a perfect balance of its tone in some places but I was not turned off by any of it. I still very much loved what we got even if it’s not quite everything I expected it to be.
One thing that does remain consistent is the heart and touching themes that are present in this film that are written extremely well and feel like a natural evolution of the heart and themes of the previous installments. There are some really fun twists this film takes that I applaud it for going for as it really kept me on edge and thrilled at every turn in ways I didn’t expect. It also definitely had some more emotional moments that I felt were earned, especially with everything involving Shadow.
Then there are the two post-credit scenes, one of which blew my mind and made my audience of fans go absolutely nuts. At the time of writing this, there has already been confirmation of a Sonic the Hedgehog 4 in development and both post-credit scenes open the door for this sequel to go even deeper into Sonic’s lore as well as present even more awesome adventures for him and his friends, which I am honestly excited for after how well they did this film.
The technical elements of this film are magnificent, with visually stunning action and effects that are the best of the series so far. The action is much more intense and thrilling compared to the previous films and it also has such an incredible style to it that feels like it was pulled straight from the best levels of the games and brought to life beautifully on the big screen. The amount of detail in the effects is also vastly improved especially when it comes to the CGI character designs with Shadow’s design being the most impressive amongst them. There are so many vibrant colors shown in this film through beautiful cinematography that makes this film the most visually appealing of the series and I could not look away from it all. The cinematography also made this film feel so grand and epic in scale, which it needed to be given the higher stakes and you can really feel it watching it on the big screen.
Another major improvement this film has over its predecessors is the music that is once again composed by Tom Holkenborg. Tom Holkenborg has been on an absolute hot streak this year with his film scores but his score in this film is one of my favorites of his, especially with the inclusion of an orchestral cover of “Live & Learn”, the theme song from Sonic Adventure 2. The cover of this song is used multiple times throughout the film mainly as Shadow’s haunting theme before building up to an amazing epic version of the cover used in the film’s final act that put the biggest smile on my face. It truly was a pleasure to hear one of my favorite songs of the Sonic games be used in such epic fashion and add so much more awesomeness to an already awesome film.
There are so many endless possible directions for this series to take going forward, but I am happy for how these films continue to improve with every installment. I am also very happy with how this film turned out, especially since I had such high expectations for it going in as a fan of the characters and story they were adapting. Super fans and casual fans are guaranteed to love this film as much as I did and I honestly can’t wait to see more of what happens with these characters in the future if they are handled with as much passionate care as this film was. I’m going to give Sonic the Hedgehog 3 an A = 97.
You can find more of my writing on instagram, and check out my channel on YouTube!