The Herald - The Herald Magazine
Comic book capers hit the mark in Spider-Man spin off
echidna assassin voiced with growling intent by Idris Elba, who is determined to honour the memory of his late father – a pleasing parallel to Sonic’s loss of a mother-figure in the first film.
Ben Schwartz continues to infuse the title character with childlike exuberance but Carrey inevitably steals every scene with his outlandish theatrics, aided by voluminous face fur.
After 243 days in “portobello purgatory” on the Mushroom Planet, Dr Robotnik successfully harnesses the power of a discarded blue hedgehog quill to send a distress signal across the universe.
Knuckles answers that plea and join forces with Robotnik to locate the Master Emerald – an ancient power source once guarded by Sonic’s owl mentor, Longclaw (Donna Jay Fulk).
Owls and echidnas have been at war for centuries. The quest for the gem leads to Earth where Sonic (Ben Schwartz) lives in Green Hills with sheriff Tom Wachowski and his wife Maddie.
While his surrogate parents are away in Hawaii for the wedding of Maddie’s sister, Robotnik and Knuckles decimate the Wachowskis’ home searching for the fabled emerald. Sonic vows to defeat the echidna assassin and Robotnik’s mechanised army aided by a new ally: flying fox Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey), teased briefly at the conclusion of the first film.
Sonic The Hedgehog 2 ups the action ante with a snowboarding sequence that pokes fun at the MCU and a final showdown against a gargantuan version of an automaton from the video games. A flimsy plot cannot sustain the two-hour running time but Carrey is an endless power source of unbridled impish delight.
6/10
THE BAD GUYS (U)
Leopards can change their spots – or at least apply make-up to cleverly conceal them – in a madcap computer-animated creature feature directed by Pierre Perifel.
Based on a series of graphic novels for younger readers penned by Aaron Blabey, The
Bad Guys unfolds in a heavily stylised world where humans and anthropomorphic critters co-exist in uneasy harmony.
The wise-cracking anti-heroes of this concrete jungle are five bank robbers led by a debonair wolf, whose hare-brained heists nod reverentially to Ocean’s Eleven to the point that when the lupine leader sweet-talks one clued-up target, she pithily counters, “don’t Clooney me!”
Scriptwriter Etan Cohen atones for the deplorable 2018 comedy Holmes & Watson with snappy dialogue, colourful characterisation and brisk pacing, including at least one rug-pulling plot twist and the loopy liberation of thousands of helpless guinea pigs from an animal laboratory. A running gag involving noxious flatulence whiffs well before the 100 minutes are up but gags hit more often than they miss and a distinctive aesthetic melds traditional 2D hand-drawn artistry with digital wizardry to eye-popping effect.