A super-fast anthropomorphic hedgehog, Shadow, escapes after being frozen for 50 years in a secret military compound. He teams up with insane scientist Gerald Robotnik, the grandfather of Dr. Ivo Robotnik, who thus in turn joins them. Sonic, Knuckles and Tails unite to try to stop them from finding a secret key needed to complete a dangerous space station with devastating laser capacity. Gerald uses Shadow to power the space station and announces he intends to destroy the entire Earth, as revenge for his granddaughter Maria who died when Shadow tried to escape from the compound and was chased by soldiers. Robotnik thus joins forces with Sonic, Knuckles and Tails to stop Gerald. Robotnik diverts the laser away from Earth and dies in the explosion of the space station, together with Shadow. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles return to Earth.
Compared to the very fun part 2, the third film in the "Sonic the Hedgehog" film franchise is a small disappointment. It still has a few amusing jokes, but this time with too much empty walk spread out between them, and generic, standard action to fill out the missing ingredients. Thus, a certain creative apathy is sensed in the story. Comedian Jim Carrey seems to be playing a different Robotnik character in each "Sonic" film, and this time he even plays a double role as his own grandpa, Gerald Robotnik. In one of the best jokes, Dr. Robotnik "breaks the fourth wall" when he stands next to his grandpa Gerald, and as they both turn their heads towards the camera, they say: "It's as if we're two characters in a movie, played by the same actor!" In another good joke, after Sonic escapes with Knuckles and Tails from inside a secret base inside a hill, which collapses onto itself from a mini black hole, leaving a crater, he comments with: "We need to inform Google maps".
The highlight is a sequence in the middle of the film when Maddie and Tom disguise themselves and Rachel and Randall to try to enter the top secret London building, but when they don't have a security clearance to pass, Rachel has this hilarious exchange with the security guard: "Let me introduce myself. I'm Rachel. Rachel gonna-get-you-fired. Do you know what GUN stands for?" - "Of course, Guardian Union..." - "No! Getting Ultra Nasty... Go ahead and take those sad fingers and start typetty type-type!" Unfortunately, "Sonic 3" needed more of such inspired moments, since the rest is mostly a schematic sequel on autopilot, with a rather pretentious and bombastic action finale, equipped with one dumb, autistic buffoonery (Gerald using robot claws and scorpio tale, while Robotnik is using praying mantis robot claws to fight each other), whereas the characters of Tom and Maddie and underused and forgotten. Uneven and overstretched, the movie is this time much more powerful during its dramatic moments (the relationship between Maria and Shadow), though it does offer a neat contemplation of a mental fight between nihilistic self-destruction and optimistic-constructive faith in humanity.
Grade:++
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