Amateur director Jeff Fowler made his first “successful” and full-length movie with the video game character, Sonic the Hedgehog, who just makes cliché jokes and never develops character. It’s like a Michael Bay movie with no meaning other than explosions.

In this case, comedy and Jim Carrey serve as Fowler’s crutch.

 In the Sega video games, directed towards ages 12 and up, Sonic is a snarky blue hedgehog who  protects the world from Doctor Robotnik’s world domination.  He is assisted by his friend Tails, a flying fox. The movie’s plot takes elements of the main game, but twists it to fit the screen.

Movie Sonic, gifted with powers of energy and speed, causes a power outage in the small town of Green Hills. The U.S. military sends Doctor Robotnik, a greedy scientist, to find out what terrorist attack could cause such a disruption. Forced to leave Earth, Sonic befriends a sheriff, Tom Wachowski, to find his bag of golden rings that will help him escape. 

Compared to the origin story of the Sonic franchise, it is not entirely correct. Sonic was born in Hardly, Nebraska– not space. And unlike in the movie, Sonic is aware of his powers. There is also the failure to mention his friend, Tails, throughout the story, which creates plot holes at the end. 

With an unknown director, it seems that the actors assigned their roles as Doctor Robotnik (Carrey), Tom Wachowski (James Marsden) and Sonic (Ben Schwartz) are used as a crutch to compensate for a very weak story, punctuated by weak jokes and anticlimactic fight scenes.  

The script is cheesy with dad jokes and witty quips, which children would be unable to pick out. The movie is targeted towards children and is considered a family movie, but if you’re looking for the hidden adult jokes, forget it!

Scenes from the movie consist of brightly formatted areas with a hybrid of live-action and CGI. Sonic’s new CGI appearance is satisfying to see on the big screen compared to the obscene human rodent as depicted in the original trailer. The internet response to the original trailer was overwhelmingly negative. After that, the creators changed the hedgehog to better suit the beloved video game character. The machines that Doctor Robotnik use are futuristic with the theme of black and red, like his jumpsuit.

For videogame fanatics, this film’s relevance to the Sonic franchise stops with the title and the credits. Forget the original videogame soundtrack because it’s been rebranded with rap, such as Khalifa.

However, it does feature Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” and the typical movie soundtrack, which fits the movie perfectly for calm openings with string instruments and fight scenes that involve percussion. But that seems to be the only decent thing about the movie that does not involve Carrey. 

If you can get past Carrey’s predictable shtick, weak plot and accept the new origin of Sonic, then this is worth your money. Otherwise, don’t go because it’s a joke. And a bad one at that.