## 2025-02-10 What the hell y'all. Do you remember, five years ago, when that first **Sonic** movie trailer came out and we all feared the worst? How far we've come. **Sonic the Hedgehog 3** is not only the best **Sonic** movie so far, it's also one of the best movies I watched from 2024. It's unreal. There's absolutely no reason it should be as good as it is. Don't get me wrong, I doubt you'll care as much as I do if you don't care about Sonic. But if you do...well *damn*, we're eating aren't we? It feels like the team that has been working on these movies finally hit their stride with **Sonic 3**. The first two are passable popcorn-fair, but they also felt unsure of themselves as films. Hence the stupid B-plots. But now they're comfortable with putting Team Sonic front and center and letting them play off of each other. They get much more screentime as a result. It really feels like a Sonic movie, with the appropriate level of stakes. I thought Idris Elba as Knuckles would be the most inspired casting choice in these movies, but then they brought on Keanu Reeves as Shadow and one-upped themselves yet again. He perfectly balances Shadow's anger and sadness with his coolness and that tinge of goofball that seems to exist in all the hedgehogs in this universe (Gabriella should kill them both, she's not a prize to be won). This movie has the most heart out of the trilogy, and got me a bit (a *bit*) misty-eyed in ways I wasn't expecting. There's no irony in **Sonic 3**; two anthropomorphic hedgehogs sit and talk about the nature of revenge and it is all played appropriately straight. It rules. And it's built with care. The references are always there but never obnoxious. Knuckles' fear of ghosts and the Biolizard showing up in a kaiju movie as a cameo? Inspired. But the fucking Egg Scorpion from **Sonic Spinball**? Like what? This is not a perfect film but my God did it understand the assignment. 6/7, would have been a full 7 if it included a full play of "Live and Learn." > [!danger]- Spoiler > seeing Sonic and Shadow dap the fuck up into their super forms transported my soul from my body and made me ascend to a higher plane > > i almost cried man, i felt like i was 7 again > > i fucking love Sonic the Hedgehog