'Sonic the Hedgehog 3' Review: Keanu Reeves and Jim Carrey Double the Excitement in a Zippy Sequel

"Sonic the Hedgehog 3" is wired-up, synthetic pleasure. It's a frivolous child film that moves at the speed of your thoughts when playing video games. Video-game films seldom have that quality; they are typically overproduced and dreary. However, "Sonic 3" lends hyperactivity a positive label. Jeff Fowler, who directed all three of these films, is a faster and wittier energy magician than he was when he filmed the first "Sonic" in 2020.

'Sonic the Hedgehog 3.'

Paramount Pictures and Sega of America, Inc

"Sonic the Hedgehog 3" is a vivaciously produced throwaway, yet its attitude is reminiscent of the beautiful tomfoolery of "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" and "Ralph Breaks the Internet." And it is anything but mindless. Though it never says it, the entire film — nuclear light displays, a plan to blow up the globe, a squad of heroes who can run circles around physics — is a mockery of the grandiosity that has come to define superhero films. It's reminiscent of a late Marvel extravaganza that never forgets how ridiculous it is.

The film jumps across time, with a backstory established 50 years ago, and surrounds Ben Schwartz's amiable, courageous Sonic, the speed-demon Sega mascot, with enough rival anthropomorphic furballs to keep our sympathies whirling. There are numerous major new characters, most notably Shadow, a red-striped black hedgehog produced by a secret government operation and positioned as Sonic's revenge-seeking enemy. At first that makes you think you aren’t supposed to like him — but Shadow is voiced, by Keanu Reeves, in tones of deepest resonance that draw us into his plight.

And Jim Carrey gets to deliver an epic performance that surpasses everything he's done in these films. He now plays two characters: the familiar Dr. Ivo Robotnik, a bad guy we know from the inside out, and Robotnik's grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, who looks like an older version of him (mottled skin, the same distended kielbasa of a mustache, only white), but is also a more hard-ass, cranky, and devious version. This type of dual performance has been seen a million times (the film makes a meta joke about it), yet it works well for Carrey, a performer who is always conversing with himself. The interaction between the two Robotniks has a contentious quality that elevates the movie. They're battling megalomaniacs, and poor Ivo believes he's finally found someone in the world who loves him. As the truth of their connection emerges, so does Carrey's sarcasm. "Oh, look, a nano-fist," exclaims Ivo. "I haven't seen one of those since I hate-watched 'Green Lantern' in 2011!"

The narrative makes way for the Master Emerald, the super-powered jewel introduced in the last "Sonic" film, as well as Tails the fox (Colleen O'Shaughnessy) and Knuckles the echidna (Idris Elba), who have joined Sonic's super-critter-hero squad. But the true star is Fowler's shape-shifting filmmaking, which is clever enough to indulge in blockbuster excess while also skewering it.