Sonic the Hedgehog 3

I don't know what happened, but Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a delightful family that works better than I could have expected.

It's a surprise because I disliked the first two, yet thoroughly enjoyed myself with this one. Nothing is different, yet it's the approach that makes all the difference. This is a solid, often funny, and always entertaining family film that's worth seeing on the big screen.

Sonic 3 is much of the same as its predecessors. The plot barely makes sense and moves so fast you can barely stop to think about it, which is probably for the best. Logic and reason have no place here. However, where the first two felt like manufactured attempts at capturing the attention of fans well into their 30s, Sonic 3 looks and sounds like a film made for the younger generation. Those for whom the character was always meant for.

It still has a plethora of throwaway gags, dated references, and aggressive hyperactivity – stuff that's basically mandatory at this point. But it's also surprisingly witty, heartfelt, and demented as well. Watching Sonic 3 feels like having a conversation with my early-teen relatives. I don't understand half of what is said, but the result is so charming and lively it doesn't really matter.

The plot is inconsequential and Sonic 3 makes an effort to pause every ten minutes to remind the audience of what's next. Another Sonic-type hedgehog, Shadow (Keanu Reeves), escapes from a government facility where he's been imprisoned for the past 50 years. Lost and disoriented, he joins forces with Gerald Robotnik (Jim Carrey), grandfather to Dr. Robotnik (also Carrey), on a quest for vengeance on those who wronged him.

Sonic 3 is a collection of setups for wacky shenanigans, explosions, and references that are both timely and hopelessly dated. I'm not sure who some of the jokes are aimed at, but the presentation is so lively and committed that they land nonetheless. Sonic seems to be stuck in the 90s, and the film makes no qualms about its love for that nostalgia. "The 90s were the best decade!" James Marsden's character swoons at one point to cheers and high-fives. It's clumsy and pandering, yet I didn't hate it, and now I worry that I've gotten old enough to warrant that kind of rose-tinted retrospective.

I want to like every film I see. I don't go into a screening hoping for the worst. Imagine how much wasted time that would amount to! Even so, sometimes these things surprise me. I didn't expect Sonic the Hedgehog 3 to be this entertaining or fun, yet it is. I kept thinking about how finely tuned it is for its target audience, and how that kind of artistry deserves applause. Like The Avengers, it does one thing extremely well, and gracefully exits the moment it runs out of tricks.

It won't set the world on fire, but I can imagine that 20 years down the line we'll have an entire generation of adults looking back on it fondly.