Banished to the Mushroom Planet, Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) builds a contraption harnessing the energy of one of Sonic the Hedgehog’s (Ben Schwartz) quills.  This new source of energy in the universe attracts the attention of Knuckles (Idris Elba), who is on his own quest for the Chaos Emerald.  The pair form an unlikely alliance and return to earth to hunt for Sonic who holds the key to recovering the emerald which will grant them unlimited power. 

Serving as – hopefully – a nice bookend to the pandemic shutdowns and heralding a return to Box Office returns, Jeff Fowler returns to direct Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for Paramount Pictures.  The family comedy has a lot of ground to cover and runs a bloated 122 minutes, and while the colorful antics can be captivating at times, overall, the film is weighed down by its already dated referential jokes and extended time spent overdeveloping subplots in long sequences that could easily be cut as much of the humor does not land. 

Schwartz brings the same annoyingly lovable energy to Sonic as he did in the first installment of what is later teased to be a trilogy in a post credits stinger.  Unfortunately, the script does not do many favors for “Blue Justice” as many of his jokes are grasping at pop culture references that have already had their brief moments of trending on twitter.  It is a constant problem with scripts that rely on this broad appeal of referential humor as the filmmaking process takes so long that what was once tapped into current state of meme culture during the writing process, by the time it hits screens it is already showing its age.  While Sonic is not the worst character in his own film – that dubious honor going to an absolutely grating Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) – this sequel outing finds the blue hedgehog without the same charm and heart he had from his 2020 debut.  To be fair to O’Shaughnessey, she is greatly let down by the screenwriting trio Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington who write the fox with a lot of heart, but always taking one wrong step which not only prolongs the film, but her presence quickly becomes an annoyance and her dialogue over-reliant on a cumbersome catchphrase. 

While the protagonist team are victims of poor choices on the page, the villains are quite engaging and enjoyable to watch.  Carrey is not doing anything new here, but his brand of physical comedy works well and he delivers a goofy performance that serves the tone of the story well.  Elba’s Knuckles is also a surprising hit whose self-serious attitude makes for some enjoyable exchanges throughout the film.  Again, its not reinventing the wheel with this kind of character, but because his jokes are built around the events in the film, it feels much more organic, and they land with a much higher rate than Sonic’s do.   

Carrey may work well, but the same cannot be said about the other human characters of the film.  Tom and Maddie (James Marsden, Tike Sumpter) both return but here they exist mostly to help guide the message on the importance of friendship.  Before they can get to that point, though, there is a long subplot of a wedding in Hawaii in the second act and finds Natasha Rothwell in a truly unfortunate bridezilla role.  Later, in the third act, Agent Stone (Lee Majdoub) returns, and with him an incredible amount of gay stereotyping reviving the long-thought-dead-in-2022 trope of queer coding a film’s villains.  This gross mishandling of all the human characters is, at best boring and at worst damaging.   

The human plot lines are also surprisingly violent for what is marketed as a family property.  While the cartoon violence works well with the tone, the final boss fight which finds the trio facing off against a giant robot, also shows colossal destruction to the town of Green Hills.  It is not just the damage, but how the camera goes out of its way to focus on cars and trains being torn apart and buildings collapsing that makes it quite frightful for younger audiences, especially when coupled with the wedding antics of the second act.  Thankfully, though, the more videogame feeling action works well.  There is a final dungeon where the Chaos Emerald lies that features a boobytrap laden labyrinth which lends itself to one of the most exciting scenes even if the traversing through the lair is rushed through, but it is also the most fun of all the set pieces in the entire film because it embraces the videogame DNA of the source material. 

Overall, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a disappointing film and a textbook example of what happens when a sequel tries to do too much and loses the heart of what made the original so enjoyable.  In this franchise culture we are currently in, these second film stumbles are becoming more and more common as filmmakers struggle to fill each frame with memeable moments and studio execs are even more laser focused on the bottom line.  The resulting product are films that barely cater to the lowest common denominator and find audiences more wary of any following instalments for fear of being burned once again.