Sonic 2 (Movie) Spoiler/Discussion Topic (Stay away if you don't want to be spoiled)

I’ve lived in the Denmark, the USA, and Chile - I’ve never witnessed this type of behaviour anywhere. I mean I didn’t go to the cinema at all from like 2015-2020, so maybe things have changed since then, but I would probably lose it at someone clapping.

Edit: Clapping during the actual film, specifically. I wouldn’t get mad at someone doing it during the credits (though it is silly IMO).

 

I'm torn between Nic Cage, Robert Pattinson, Christian Bale, and Willem Dafoe. Any of them would be cinema.

 

Just got out of it. I can't believe I just walked out of a theatre, a packed one on a Sunday at that, feeling that finally someone has managed to get across in some form a lot of the things and reasons why I like Sonic to begin with. I'm kinda hoping this movie makes a shitload of new fans.

Let's see, disconnected thoughts a go go,

The movie is so much better than the first one just solely on how it manages to bring in far more gravitas this time around. By that I mean, Eggman manages to do harm to our little CG heroes in a way that doesn't feel contrived like it did for the last bit of the movie, Marsden actually getting to start beating the shit out of people pointing guns at him because they were trying to take his kid, Sonic basically getting bodied by Knuckles in every fight, Knuckles almost drowning and Sonic saving him (and also almost drowning), the implication that Hot Owl Mom Longclaw managed to take on Knuckles's entire tribe singlehandedly and kill literally all of them without walking it back for being too scary/dark (yet), and also Stone still being a fun-to-watch sycophant that still manages to actually feel threatening, as opposed to being fun to watch but feeling totally harmless in the first one.

Like, everything feels earned to me this time around. The Icecap scene, the Labyrinth Zone scene, the Sonic 3-sized but Sonic 2 Death Egg Robot scene (let me tell you how fucking weird it is to be to type everything prior to this in this sentence out) all are a blast, and manage to be a blast while also having urgency and danger to them. Like, I get that might seem like "damning with faint praise" but look, every time I try to explain Sonic to a friend of mine who never grew up with the games, everything about the games is 100% bonkers to newcomers even when they play it and sounds like verbal vomit when I try to actually enumerate what even the classic games are about. The fact that they managed to make that not only watchable but fun (and fun in a way that I can see people not-us enjoying) is a fucking miracle.

And even though I had a feeling about a minute beforehand that that's where it was going, Super Sonic showing up and just kicking total unadulterated ass made me tear up. Just No Selling the giant robot punches was so good. SO GOOD.

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Unlike a lot of people here, I actually liked the human characters a lot in the first movie, thought Marsden* and Pretzel Lady's chemistry was really great and charming, so I wasn't really wary when they showed up this time around and the scene with Sonic miming a TSA/boarding agent was so damn charming (not to mention actual Now You're Thinking With Portals practical usage). I was definitely ready to cringe to death when it turned out the subplot was about Rachel, the most obnoxious human character, but they really turned me around on all of that. I really, really liked the entire wedding action segment, the aforementioned Marsden just throwing hands like most people would, and Rachel's entire psychotic anger break was probably the funniest part of the entire movie for me...which is probably because I am also a 30-year-old exhausted as shit adult who has the occasional daydream about Going Ham and thus am the perfect demographic for that.

I thought the siberian dance segment went on way too long. Way, way too long. It felt like it was a studio mandate, though, with that kind of thing it could be much worse in practice (I thought the way they got into trouble to begin with was very charming, with Tails's wonder gadget messing up. poor kid.). But basically, literally everything after that segment was perfect to me.

I did like that he did the Adventure Pose in that scene though. pretty much the one thing I liked about it. lol

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Despite not having seen the first movie since before the pandemic (the last movie I saw before the pandemic in fact), it is blindingly obvious that the storyboarders and VFX team got a lot more faith, time, and money this time around. Not even with the increased number of action scenes, but stuff like harder compositing work (that is, more human-to-CG animal interactions and more difficult interactions to make, like Knuckles' multiple handshakes), underwater scenes (very difficult and very much a computational pain in the ass), stuff like the characters getting grimey with mud and sand and dust which are generally a pain to do on realistic characters but make my head spin with how hard it must've been to plan on the sliding scale of "realistic material interactions" and "but they're literally not realistically proportioned or entirely realistically textured".

Also, SHOUT OUT TO THAT AMAZING ANIMATED SEGMENT showing the backstory of the master emerald. Was that your doing Hesse? That was cool as hell.

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The dynamics of the Big Three in this are perfect. 100% perfect. To the point that when I was driving back I was contemplating the sacrilege of putting out there that yes, I would be entirely 100% on board with Idris Elba voicing Knuckles from now on.

This is the best version of Knuckles, full stop, to me. The super-grim-but-fish-out-of-water-clueless straight man which allows him to be very funny without being a total moron, having a gravitas about his duty and it feels earned, being scary in a fight. They somehow managed to take the aspects of his personality that they tried to nail in Adventure 1 and managed to actually make a good and funny character with him, and Elba's voice acting is so spot-on, which is something I never thought I'd think in a million years and yet here I am, putting it out there, he is the best Knuckles.

Colleen also 100% hit it out of the park again. Her Tails is so fucking adorable, I wanted to squish him every moment he was on screen and especially every time he ever doubted himself. He's so cute.

Ben's Sonic also strikes me as better this time around too. Still not a fan of the topical humor style, but something about him is a bit more "set in" this time around. He feels like less of a gimmick choice and more of a proper voice acting choice this time.

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I totally get why Carrey shines less in this, but I don't think that's his doing, I think it's just that he's surrounded by a much more interesting movie this time around with many more things to have interest in. Also shout out to Stone just pulling out a Genesis game manual out of nowhere, that was a funny sight gag.

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All in all, unlike the first movie where I was tempted to get the blu-ray for the novelty, I think I actually unironically want to pick this one up because I fucking actually liked it and my god that is surreal. For the record, I saw the first movie at an Alamo Drafthouse an hour from where I live because I was like "well, if the movie is absolute trash, I'll at least have good food with it" but this time I bought the tickets for the local AMC last night on kind of a lark because I had the feeling I didn't need to bribe myself with good food to see it. Which, I was right. This movie is fun.


* Mind you I have a soft spot for him because I basically followed his superhero acting career during my childhood, from Cyclops in X-Men to...Generic Charming And Cute Fiancee in Superman Returns. hm, he must have a type. It's nice to see him get good work even if he's like fifty, and still shredded too. <3

 

Please do Willem Dafoe so I can hear a batshit crazy Shadow.


The real question regarding Shadow is if they're going to kill him or let him live; on one hand, his death can leave the impact it originally intended (and his haters can finally have a peace of media where they can see him die ) while on the other hand, I'd find it somewhat questionable to introduce Shadow so early because of his popularity, only to kill him in the one movie he is in.

Sooo, it can go either way, but there's a heavy leaning towards Shadow living and may becoming something Sonic's older brother figure or something, I dunno.

 

So this is Super Robotnik right?

 

Yeah I remembered seeing them fly into the sky but the characters seemed to not notice it somehow, or they did notice but didn't acknowledge it.

I don't see how they can introduce and kill Shadow in a two hour-ish movie and have it be as impactful as it was in a ten-hour game. They'll probably make it look like he died but then reveal he's secretly alive (think Catwoman in Batman Returns).

What I really hope is that they don't do the "everyone thinks Shadow is Sonic despite it being painfully obvious in all news footage that it's not him" shit from the games and Sonic X. The fact that GUN seems to be aware of Shadow's existence makes it seem like that's less likely to happen, but we shall see.

 

I can definitely see GUN use Shadow's actions as an excuse to capture Sonic.

Plus, I can definitely see how people can confuse Shadow for Sonic. Even if other hedgehogs exist in the world suddenly there's one with super speed, targeting places with Chaos Emeralds and somewhat resembles Sonic, I can see the logic behind the confusion.

Especially when a whole city saw him transform to defeat a water dragon. What's to say this wasn't another transformation?

 

Well if you only count cutscenes, that's the length of SA2's plot, but I see what you mean. And yea, that seems likely, fake out death.



Shadow getting mistaken for Sonic feels just a bit more plausible this time, since Sonic isn't a publicly known hero in this universe. Very people are supposed to know about him.

So Shadow suddenly showing up and fucking shit up would instantly put Sonic under suspicion.

 

Eh, that is true. I guess I'm just not a fan of false accusation/mistaken identity tropes in TV/movies/any medium.

 

A lot of people are asking for Keanu Reeves for Shadow, but I think that's a little unrealistic. Personally, I'm hoping for Pedro Pascal.

 

Wanted to see this one more time before its opening weekend was over and it was a mistake, lol. I was sandwiched between a dude who kept looking at his phone and a group of loud, really young kids that were babbling, yelling, and kicking the seats the whole time. They seemed bored and were hardly paying attention to the movie. I feel bad for the staff since they left the place in an awful state with spilt popcorn all over, even out onto the walkways on the side. It was a really awkward time.

I envy those of you that got to watch this with a fun audience... even the early April 6th showing that I got to see had several crying babies there. Think I'm going to give theaters a break for awhile since it's consistently annoying putting up with obnoxious crowds for popular movies like this (had similar problems when I went to see Spider-Man).

 

I solved this problem a while ago by going to late showings (like 8-9 pm).
Dunno how doable that's for you, but it's been a real game changer. There's hardly anyone, it's like I have the whole theatre to myself.

 

My showing was actually in that very time range.

I didn't necessarily want an empty theater, just one that wasn't a shitshow. The theater closest to me is in a casino, so that might have something to do with it.

 

Ah, gotcha. Sounds like a tough time...
tbh the fact I watch English versions of movies in theatres probably helps, but if you live in an English speaking country that's probably not gonna factor in

 

Just wait for the crowd reactions when City Escape and Live & Learn play in Sonic 3.

 

I'm kind of lucky both times I saw it gave me the recliner seats, so no chance of kids kicking my chair.

 

This terrified me haha. His voice, his dead stare, smelling people's brain...

 

Alright I saw it on Thursday and really liked it. I heard a distinct lack of Sonic music in the movie though and that was disappointing. (The GHz ringtone was fun though). I thought Johnny had teased some crush 40 music in the movie a couple months ago. I think the dance fight scene would have been way more palatable if instead of Uptown Funk, they played something like "Endless Possibilities" or Sonic Colors' theme. And at the end when Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles have their Avengers moment while fighting the Death Egg Robot, it would have been so cool to hear the Sonic Heroes theme in the background.

All that to say, we better have Escape from the City/Live and Learn featured in Sonic 3.

Also (and I'm only half joking here) I would be down for a gritty Shadow the Hedgehog Paramount+ show where he teams up with aliens and shoots people. Definitely don't want it in the movie, but a stand-alone could be fun.

 

Yea I was hoping for at least a couple game musical cues, that's probably my only real criticism about this movie. Can't have a few bars of like Labyrinth zone, Emerald Hill, any boss battle music or Knuckles theme from Sonic 3 or Sonic & Knuckles? I was so hoping when Robotnik stepped out of the way for Knuckles to come in we'd hear one of Knuckles' themes for a few seconds.