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

Is it? Sonic doesn't absorb the Master Emerald when he turns Super, so this seems like it's some sort of different transformation.

 

Finally saw it last night. Enjoyed it. Would have preferred less human stuff - the wedding stuff just went off to the side for like 5 minutes and could have been cut entirely, and the dance off scene is just not for me. Almost feels like some weird cultural appropriation that gets everything wrong or something.

Loved the giant Eggman robot and the snow stuff, going through the Labyrinth and the like. Almost felt too easy to get it? Kind of felt like it was going to be more of a puzzle to solve for the crew in an Uncharted fashion where you'd travel the world -- instead it was just "Get Compass, Get Emerald". Was kind of hoping that it would end with Knuckles becoming the guardian, causing the temple and the island attached to it to launch into the sky so that nobody else could get it.

So we've got Shadow next round. Interested to see where they go from this point. My current theory would be that that they'll kind of follow the Shadow story in SA2 where Eggman tricks him and there's an ARK colony, but will differ on Maria.

If they're gonna go all out on the third film (How many films get to 4?), my theory would be that Eggman uses Shadow to get to the ARK and find the data about creating the ultimate lifeform. Instead of finding and defeating the Biolizard, Eggman uses the data to instead make a Metal Sonic that he can control. Sonic & Shadow Vs. Metal Sonic is the final battle.

 

I agree... BUT the wedding stuff got the most laughs from the parents in the cinema I was at haha. There was audible 'awwwhhh' when they kissed... but I guess thats the balance studios have to make with films where I imagine they have someone in a suit tapping at the 'must have something for all audiences' sign haha.

 

He was surprisingly fucking menacing here, I had a moment where I was like "oh...he's going to actually start killing people" before I remembered what kind of movie I was watching. It was pretty funny/cute that despite being that scary, he didn't leave Stone behind or morph him into a monster or anything.

Eh? I was pretty sure the GHZ melody was playing over the Original Films title card. What they removed was the repeated GET RING SFX from the end of the Paramount animation.

 

Exactly! When he started telling us what Wayne's brain smelt like I was thinking "is he about to eat Wayne's brain?!"

 

The one music thing I was kind of hoping for was a few bars from Open Your Heart when he turned Super Sonic, or go more in that direction.

 

I honestly thought he would turn Stone into Orbot somehow.

 

I saw 2 on a Thursday early showing, but I am actually thinking of going to 3 on premiere weekend because I absolutely wanna be in a crowd of people losing their shit as Live and Learn comes on (by god it better adapt SA2s insane plot). This might be the only time I'd want to be with an energetic crowd than a quiet one.

Also if they're going into the 3D games they won't have to worry about the licensing hell of the Genesis trilogy's soundtracks anymore, so perhaps we'll get a lot more game music then?

 

I actually do wonder if the licensing is the issue or it was a conscious effort not to use the music from the games.

Seems like they're using "On The Green Hill" to promote the movie in Japan, and there's definitely music they could've used from Sonic 3/&Knuckles or even some from the Adventure games. (legit thought we were going to hear a motif based on Knuckles theme from S&K or Unknown from me)

I really do hope they do license City Escape and Live & Learn. Can't imagine making a SA2 inspired adaptation and not have those songs in it.

 

I'll play the "Who'll voice Shadow" game, but bear in mind I'll go by the dubbed voices, so, if I said something like "Keanu Reeves"i'd be meaning his VA from here. Umm, let's see... Yes, probably Christian Bale would be a good choice, but I think I'd choose Benedict Cumberbatch, the voice doesn't fit as well but he makes good smart antagonists. I know I have someone else in mind for going full dark edgelord but I can't remember right now.

And then Sonic loses all his rings when hit in Ice Cap. I haven't seen any other ring bag among them, not even in Tails' backpack.

Considering past references to Star Wars in the games, he's the emperor of the dark side of the (Chaos) force.

 

I'm just wondering will it be Tom the Cop or his wife who reasons with Shadow into changing his ways because we all just know it's gonna be one of the human characters who takes that role from Amy

 

Could be Sonic himself if they really wanna give fuel to the shippers.

 

Here's some random thoughts I had about Sonic 2, probably no-one will care though.

Spoiler

I felt like it was over the place. It was over 2 hours and even then, just like the first one, I felt like it had some issues with pacing and they couldn't every plot point they wanted to introduce enough time so it could be satisfactorily resolved (the wedding being a fraud, Randall loving Rachel anyway, Tails admiring Sonic, Knuckles' story, Sonic's relationship with Tom and Maddy, Eggman and Stone's... bromance? (I'm not calling him Robotnik)). Everything was just rushed; clearly there was a lot of input from Sonic fans etc. but that showed in the worst way possible imo, like they shoved all they could from the Sonic lore into two hours of a feature film and that doesn't appeal to non-fans...

But, as a fan, I still feel alienated because of all the potty humor, the humans subplots, etc.

Also, I brought in a friend to watch it with me, she wasn't into Sonic but I thought she would like the movie anyway, but she didn't. She didn't understand the purpose of anything that was going on nor reasonated with any of the characters or the plot points. Maybe my disappointment was because I was anxious that she wasn't enjoying it, maybe when I re-watch it a couple times my opinion will change, but the fact my friend couldn't feel right with the movie as a movie, period didn't feel right.

All in all, the meat and potatoes of the plot was just S2-S3K made into a movie, from Sonic and Tails meeting to Eggman discovering the Chaos Emeralds and allying with Knuckles and betraying him. Of course, I knew that from the trailers, so it was very predictable, I don't know what I expected.

And, I think I would've enjoyed seeing all the major plot points from the classic games bring translated to the big screen if I had an audience cheering with me, but the theater was empty on April 11 at 1-3 PM, it was just me and her.

I liked it, but it left a sweet-and-sour taste on my mouth. I hope the next one's better.

 

Hopefully the fact that they're launching a miniseries will help relieve the pacing issues for Movie 3. I do have worries about it though, namely that a TV series would logically get less budget and therefore we might spend even more time with the humans to save on CG. Here's hoping that they make the most of it.

 

I kind of feel the tv show is going to close some of the story elements for Knuckles then to setup stuff for Sonic 3.

 

Me and an unspecified relative were the only two in the whole theater I watched this in, so it was I who was the kids in the theater having that reaction to Shadow. I'm a little disappointed but it was nice to at least experience it in the theater like that.

I went in mostly spoiled on some of the stuff that'd be shocking if you didn't know about it (pretty much anything shown in the second trailer... thanks Paramount) so Shadow being something I only "kind of" knew about was the thing I was betting on.

Overall review:
- I fucking love the human characters, I love all the mundane things that just escalate to insane extremes.
- I love the new spins on the lore that still leave the door open to going in new or old directions for adaptations.
- I loved Idris as Knuckles. He sunk into that role.
- This is not to knock on anybody or to criticize any casting choice or whatever, just an observation, I felt like Colleen as Tails was somewhat out of place in this movie.
- I love the running gag of Tom punching people in the face.
- I wish Tom went harder on the soundtrack. It feels very restrained, which doesn't match the movie to me.
- I'm ready for things to get even more chaotic.

 

Not to single you out here, but the use of "bromance" here is pretty silly to me, and I'm curious how many other people left the movie thinking their relationship wasn't overtly romantic. Stone's opening shot is him doing latte art of him and Robotnik with hearts in the air; if Stone had been a female character instead, there's no doubt people would've read that as Stone having a crush. Stone is also the only character Robotnik treats any positively (outside of manipulating Knuckles), even if he still doesn't treat him well. It definitely felt like the writers wanted to shift the perceived relationship between the two from the first movie to one where Stone's romanticized his devotion to Robotnik and Robotnik's accepted Stone as the only person who will understand and want to be around him. About as overt as it gets, imo.