Sonic the Hedgehog, the Movie

[LaZodiac]

Let chaos reign.

The trailer begins.

[Devonix]

[Otomodachi]

...Gangster's Paradise? Really?

Man. I don't... what? I wanna be enthusiastic about Jim Carrey because he's put out some really REALLY good work the last few years but, like... he's also a bit of an anti-science whackjob, too. I guess all I can say for certain is that, if Carrey's involved, this isn't gonna be grimdark or especially edgy and definitely not too violent. All of which seems positive to me.

[GloatingSwine]

Well. That’s me having nightmares then.

[HolyDraconus]

We have to watch it. Its mesmerizing.... like a train wreck

[Maryring]

I wasn't exactly worried about it being Grimdark. Sonic's never been any darker than the teen who just discovered what goth culture is. The problem is that it'll probably be just as cheesy, corny and poorly thought out. Now, a trailer is a poor indicator for the final result, but... this trailer is bad and if I were to judge the movie by it's trailer it seems like a terrible mess of a movie that tries so hard to be a comedy it becomes unfunnny. Fingers crossed for it being so bad it's good.

[Aotrs Commander]

That... is a thing that exists.

I mean, okay, so Jim Carrey wasn't completely awful and that chap whos in stuff I've seen that was playing the general looked like he was trying not to laugh during his bit, so maybe the movie can't be thaOH DEAR LICHEMASTER WHAT IS THAT THING IS THAT SONIC I DON'T EVEN WHERE'S THE ANTI-FRANCIUM TO CLEAN OUT MY SKULL

[Ramza00]

They made my James Marsden a cop a Bounty Hunter is fine, a Boyscout is fine, but why a cop?

[Giggling Ghast]

Well ... I guess it could have been worse.

[Magic_Hat]

This won't be a true Sonic film unless it's full of glitches.

[Millstone85]

I set my expectations low, but not low enough.

[Peelee]

I set my expectations low, but not low enough.

Shame; if you'd set your expectations underground, then you would already have a convenient hole to bury this movie in.

[Keltest]

...Gangster's Paradise? Really?

I kept hearing the Weird Al version in my head, which at least made me chuckle a little bit while watching instead of just staring in abject horror.

[Millstone85]

Shame; if you'd set your expectations underground, then you would already have a convenient hole to bury this movie in.

underground

Great, you made me think of another bonkers take on Sonic.

Why do they keep making those?

[Ravens_cry]

It was filmed on Vancouver Island, which is where I make my home. So, yay that, but, holy crap on toast, does this look like a trainwreck. I saw one still of two characters, one of them Sonic, and, wow, Sonic looked like something that would be drawn in the manual by someone who only had 16-bit era game graphics to go on and then did very badly. Very. Very badly.

[DataNinja]

It was filmed on Vancouver Island, which is where I make my home.

Oh, huh, really? I live there, too, and I'd not heard of that before. Neat (I guess)?
(I live near-ish to the "Xavier Mansion", so that's typically my main go-to movie landmark.)

It's... something, all right. I'm glad that I've never been a huge Sonic person, but... man, always sucks when yet another movie shows that it's hard to make a video game adaptation. I liked the Sonic Boom cartoon. Could we have a movie instead by those writers, in that style?

[Magic_Hat]

All of a sudden this video makes far more sense:

"What the F*** is a Sonic?!?!" indeed.

[Giggling Ghast]

I kept hearing the Weird Al version in my head, which at least made me chuckle a little bit while watching instead of just staring in abject horror.

Weird Al Yankovic @alyankovic
I'm not sure how comfortable I am with them using a parody of "Amish Paradise" in the Sonic the Hedgehog trailer.

https://twitter.com/alyankovic/statu...89100088369153

[Lord Raziere]

.....BAAAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAAAAH, AAAAHHAHAHAHAHAAHAAHAHAAAAAHAAAA....

haaah.

I look forward to the parodies of this and the dora movie. the internet needs fresh material.

[Ravens_cry]

Oh, huh, really? I live there, too, and I'd not heard of that before. Neat (I guess)?
(I live near-ish to the "Xavier Mansion", so that's typically my main go-to movie landmark.)

It's... something, all right. I'm glad that I've never been a huge Sonic person, but... man, always sucks when yet another movie shows that it's hard to make a video game adaptation. I liked the Sonic Boom cartoon. Could we have a movie instead by those writers, in that style?

When I lived up in Prince George, they were filming Reindeer Games, a pretty forgettable by all accounts Ben Affleck movie. Still, my mum got his autograph. My older sister fainted. But, yeah, the Rocky and Bullwinkle movie is looking better than this.

[Kitten Champion]

Honestly, it reminds me of the Detective Pikachu trailer except it seems to do everything it plausibly can to be unappealing.

I did, at least internally, assume that Sonic would look better in the actual film compared to the still rendering of him that came out, but no... not really. He's not cartoonish enough to be a Roger Rabbit and he's awkwardly real-looking enough to alienate him from his game design. Which, as a result, I'm just hyper-aware of how he's being computer animated. Like, it's like playing in a game on an engine that you're so very familiar with to the point that it's become distracting, that kind of feeling.

As to filming it in BC, while that can be fine if the direction's good or you just don't have much expectations for the setting like all the CW shows, it can feel like it adds to the sensation of cheapness in movies. That they're not particularly up to spending money beyond what they absolutely have to, especially if you're spotting all the landmarks you've seen before when they were supposed to be in Los Angeles, Budapest, or Metropolis. It would be different if they ever actually set something in Vancouver, but that would just be silly, clearly.

[DataNinja]

As to filming it in BC, while that can be fine if the direction's good or you just don't have much expectations for the setting like all the CW shows, it can feel like it adds to the sensation of cheapness in movies. That they're not particularly up to spending money beyond what they absolutely have to, especially if you're spotting all the landmarks you've seen before when they were supposed to be in Los Angeles, Budapest, or Metropolis. It would be different if they ever actually set something in Vancouver, but that would just be silly, clearly.

I know that Vancouver Island tends to be used for its beaches, at least from what I've heard - Tofino's rather popular for that. But, at least the natural landscape doesn't as much have the "landmark" problem that happens with cities. I can see why, when it happens a lot, seeing the City of Vancouver over and over again as umpteen different cities could jar one out of the experience.

[Zevox]

Yeesh. Yeah, this looks about as bad as I would have feared. Sonic looks awful, both in general and in contrast to the real people and world around him. And Robotnik, geez, what the heck is up with him? He neither looks nor acts anything like the character. Granted, he at least looks much closer to what he's supposed to in that final scene that pops up for like two seconds at the end of the trailer, but that doesn't help all that much. And why on earth is this seemingly set in the real world? It's not even like it's a Sonic movie in live action, as I'd assumed before, it's more like Sonic got transported to earth, and there's conveniently a random version of Robotnik here for him to fight, which is even worse and dumber than doing a regular live action Sonic film.

I can only really give it two things. One, Sonic's voice actor seems to be doing a fine enough job. Two, that guy who first saw Sonic had exactly the appropriate reaction to doing so.

But yeah, about the best this can hope for is to be so bad it's good. Otherwise it's just going to be bad, that's pretty obvious.

[Lacuna Caster]

Great, you made me think of another bonkers take on Sonic.

Why do they keep making those?

To be fair, Sonic:SatAM was actually pretty good. Underground was probably an... overreaction to the 2nd-season cancellation.

This trailer does looks aggressively off-putting though.

[Braininthejar2]

This is the new Street Fighter the movie, and Jim Carrey will be its Raul Julia.

[Peelee]

This is the new Street Fighter the movie, and Jim Carrey will be its Raul Julia.

I love Jim Carrey's non-over--the-top acting and will defend that constantly, but he's no Raul Bison.

[Millstone85]

Honestly, it reminds me of the Detective Pikachu trailer except it seems to do everything it plausibly can to be unappealing.

And why on earth is this seemingly set in the real world?

Yeah, one of Detective Pikachu's selling points is the setting. It appears to be much like our world, if Pokémon were an everyday sight. There are shops named after various species, statues (and swears) to the Pokémon gods, and of course tournaments. I really want to see what else they do with that premise. And obviously, this plus the detective angle gives me hope it will be a spiritual successor to Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

But Sonic will be thrown into modern Earth much as the Smurfs were. Not interested.

To be fair, Sonic:SatAM was actually pretty good.

SatAM sure was. But it stood beside AoStH and Underground, which were decidedly not. Sonic X had good art, but that same "let's see Sonic's world for a couple minutes then switch to Earth" nonsense. Sonic Boom was... better than the game it is based on, though that's not saying much.

[DataNinja]

Sonic Boom was... better than the game it is based on, though that's not saying much.

Yeah, that bar's so low, it's basically underground. While I really surprisingly enjoyed the Boom cartoon, I do understand that it's very much not typical Sonic fare, what with being a purely comedy focused show. It does what it does at least relatively well... but, it's tonally separate from all other aspects of the franchise. So, I understand why they didn't do anything like that.

Also, yeah, I'm not really a Carey fan, but he was (quite surprisingly) the least objectionable of anything in the trailer, and if everything was on that level it feels like it might be at least passable.

[Lemmy]

I expected nothing and still I'm disappointed...

[Devonix]

The more things change