If you’d have told me that I’d be sitting in a screening of a second Sonic the Hedgehog film, on opening day, and hear the end of the film greeted with cheering easily as loud as those I heard at the closing of a midnight screening of Avengers Endgame, I’d never have believed you. If you’d told me it after that disastrous first trailer for the first Sonic movie, I’d have had you sectioned. And yet, here we are: it happened.
I’m really glad I never made it to any of the pre-release screenings of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, because although it would’ve been nice to see it early, it did award me the more organic experience I had today. I saw it in a real cinema, about two thirds full, the first showing near me, early-afternoon on release day, in a room full of the film’s intended audience – kids with parents, tweens, and the occasional older long-time fan.
There’s an energy in the room at screenings like this, and that energy can tell you a lot about a film. The thing it told me about Sonic 2 was simple: I wasn’t just enjoying it because of laser-calibrated pricking of my decades-honed sense of Sonic fandom – I was enjoying it because it was a good film in its own right. It’s by no means perfect, but very high highs and fairly modest lows make this an easy recommendation, and definitely among the best video game-based movies to date.
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