Film Review: “Sonic The Hedgehog 2” (2022)

Stronger. Better. Faster.

While there is still a lot of work to be done, movies based on video games have come a long way. Back in 1993, we were introduced to the “Super Mario Bros.” Starring Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, and the late and legendary Dennis Hopper, The film was an absolute disaster with critics and audiences and bombed at the box office. Following that failure, studios and fans struggled to find the one film that would break the infamous game to movie curse: The closest being 1995’s “Mortal Kombat”, 2001’s “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”, 2002’s “Resident Evil”, and 2006’s “Silent Hill”. Most video game-based movies would fall into one of two categories: hated by fans (i.e. 2009’s “Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li”) or alienating non-fans (i.e. Last year’s “Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City”). For nearly 30 years, Hollywood has repeatedly tried and failed until 2020, the year when expectations flew out the window.

In February of that year, Paramount released “Sonic The Hedgehog” in theaters. However, it wasn’t just the film’s mere existence that has made it iconic but, the film’s marketing. When the first trailer dropped in the summer of 2019, fans both online and offline erupted in outrage over the infamously horrific design of our beloved blue speedster. The uproar and outrage grew to a point where Paramount turned…