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

I figured this was the case since that shit went completely over my head.

While I understand the logic and reasoning...you're asking for a lot fire; Amy having her big moment in SA2 given to someone else not once, but twice.

It would leave a bad taste in some mouths tbh

 

If they're serious about expanding the universe with paramount+ there are other places to introduce Amy ahead of Sonic 3.

There will probably be another movie or two after, too. It's not Sonic 3 or nothing at all.

 

One thing I want to mention is that O'shaughnessey's acting is very good, and it really goes to show how the game cast is good, but is just hampered by the sloppy voice direction and scripts they have to work with. This movie cemented her as my favorite Tails actress by far...but it feels a bit bittersweet that it's because of a movie and not the games themselves. I'm honestly expecting Frontiers to fall back into tradition and not put the care the movie got in that regard. And yeah, it's a game, so the acting and script are sharing space with gameplay in terms of polish, but I don't think I'm asking for much here.

That actually mirrors my opinion on the movie as a whole: it's sort of bittersweet. I had a lot of fun with it, but at the same time, I have a feeling Sonic Team is just going to do the same thing they always have. It's going to be much harder going back to sloppy scripts and shaky voice direction. After Knuckles' amazing acting by Elba and his much more appealing character, can I go back to Game!Knux who's just an idiot that barely does anything? Like, jesus, look at Knuckles in Forces compared to this movie. Look at him in every game he's been in post-SA2 to this movie. But who am I kidding: he probably won't even be in Frontiers, because Sonic Team thinks that they have to abandon the entire case save Sonic and Eggman when this movie shows that people DO like the other characters if they're done welll aaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH

I know, "Wow, SEGA sure has mismanaged this series" is a take that is ice cold, much less lukewarm. But I feel that this movie really really makes that clear, because now we have an example of someone else "getting it". Where was this Tails and Knuckles for like fifteen fucking years, holy shit. How did this movie make a more charming evil sidekick for Eggman than anything done before? I want Agent Stone to be canon now. Make him an animal character so he can do what Infinite did but like, actually be a fun character.

 

I wouldn't even be that charitable with the games. I was basically comparing him to SA1 Knuckles (Grim lone guardian of the master emerald who will occasionally do dumb shit for it, fights Sonic) and found SA1's version wanting. SA2 doesn't even bring in his backstory, he barely has anything to do with the plot.

Extra funny: one of the SA1 protos we have have audio files of like, all of Knuckles's EN lines from earlier takes where he did sound deeper and grimmer, which they changed later in the localization process. ...only for the movie to then take that direction and crank it up to 100 with better results.

 

It really just comes down to priorities from both creators. The games are just that, games. They're meant to be played above anything else and that's where the priorities are, the storytelling and characterization are merely a means to an end for the gameplay. Sonic characters will flip flop depending on the needs of the gameplay as opposed to what makes sense for a good story.

So if Tails has to be a bitch in order to introduce Classic Sonic, then he will be a bitch.

The films aren't bound by the constraints of being games to be played, they're stories so much more care will go into the characters. If filmgoers do not care about your story or characters, then you've made a terrible film. Meanwhile, a terrible video game story only really matters to the fanbase. Mania barely had a story to tell, yet you don't really hear anyone really care about it, because the focus was on the gameplay.


Its like Pokemon really; the character exploration stuff is in the extra media while the actual games are as barbones as they come. And to be honest, Sega can barely make a game I want to play, a shitty story on top of it just adding insult to injury. Id rather Sonic games be simple on the story front and leave the fleshing out to the movies and comics.

 

I concede that but this film is not high art and its story could easily fit into a game. It's a quest to find some stuff and then beat a bad guy. Some of the most well-regarded games of all time have that setup. In fact, MOST action games have that setup. I'm not asking for these games to have writing rivaling Disco Elysium or Planescape Torment here. I just want the voice acting to have competent direction and the script to be charming without being needlessly complicated.

If the third movie ends up being a loose adaptation of SA2, then that's the real litmus test. If it succeeds, then it shows that the problem wasn't the actual overarching plot (because it would have sustained a whole movie). The problem was the polish given to presenting that plot.

 

Well most people who don't like SA2 generally do so because of the gameplay.

But yea, I agree. Its all about the presentation. That said, I don't think its fair to compare a bunch of Japanese developers for not having the level of quality level of presentation of a Hollywood film.

 

It is fair to compare them to other game developers who do have film quality levels of presentation though. For example The last of Us or Red Dead Redemption. Sega is AAA game studio. Sonic is their mascot. Yet for some reason Sonic games are not AAA games.

 

It’s not about comparing quality, how hard is it to give your characters some depth, or at least a worthy and likeable characterisation? Sonic Adventure 1, 2 did a good job, as did Sonic Unleashed. I quite like Heroes and Shadow’s too, though I’m probably in the minority there. The games can level provide detail without the need to talk; look at Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

 

Apparently very hard for Sega.

 

Just watched it for the second time (this time in English). I still think the dance scene and the wedding arc drag too much, but overall I like the movie very much!

 

At the very least, the dance off got a few laughs from us, but my sister was completely angry at the time wasting during the wedding stuff and kept telling me "who cares?!" Definitely the low point of the film, and I hope they don't have something similarly time-wasty with the human characters in the third film.

 

Hopefully the complaints about the length don't cause the third movie to be shorter. The problem with the long wedding scene was that it didn't really do enough to add to the story or characters outside of showing the humans doing something. Two hours is fine for a movie like this as long as you spend that time wisely.

 

I thought the length was perfect, I actually enjoyed the wedding scene I've grown to like the human characters, and I loved seeing Maddie's sister just going on a rampage against GUN for operation catfish. The only scene I felt dragged was the dance off

 

That was the impression I got. Or the Sega Saturn?

 

I wasn't the only one who thought about the unused Marble Hill stuff?!?!

 

Tbh, I thought it was pretty obvious. It's both the beta "UFOs" from Marble zone and, thanks to Sonic Mania, the equivalent things in Studiopolis. I think there was a separate thing in some game that looked close to it, but my memories might be lying to me.

 

I see a lot of people speculating about the voice of the Shadow character. I do admit, I've never been a fan of that chapter of the franchise. It was like let's make a darker, edgier Sonic-like character and throw him in for good laughs. Very two-dimensional as I have always seen it but maybe they'll do something good. I see Keanu's name popping up a lot in discussions. Wellllll... maybe. BUT! What if it was something even funnier. Like, Will Smith (heh heh heh heh). Or, maybe Dave Chappelle. Or, what about that one guy who had the “edgy” radio talk show back in the day... surprisingly had to Google because I was drawing a blank although I do know his name. Howard Stern. Yeah, what about somebody like that? Like, I am a fan of risque cinema and art house films. Edgy stuff sometimes to some people. If you are going to introduce the Poochie of the franchise proper on screen, why not take it to 11?