No gastrointestinal distress this time, but things are just as weird or weirder in this installment of what is bound to become a franchise.  It’s another movie based upon a video game, but at least this concept has characters to follow and it doesn’t seem like a video game as much as a goofy kids’ movie.  And I must give credit to director Jeff Fowler and stars James Marsden, Jim Carrey, Tika Sumpter, Ben Schwartz, Natasha Rothwell, Adam Pally, Lee Majdoub and Tom Butler, as well as the writers, Pat Casey and Josh Miller, because they all have returned for the sequel.

Jeff Fowler’s film opens with Dr. Robotnik (Carrey) finding a way off of the Mushroom Planet, back to Earth where he goes after Sonic the Hedgehog (voice of Schwartz) with the help of his own animated hedgehog, Knuckles (voice of Idris Elba).  Yet another animated hedgehog, Tails (voice of Colleen O’Shaughnessey), arrives to warn Sonic and help him.  The humans are secondary in this tale, involved in a wedding in Hawaii, which Sonic interrupts with an avalanche.  And then it gets weird.

I’m not a big fan of the hedgehogs (they have their own civilization?) or the game (never played it), or these movies.  They’re a bit adult and perhaps uncomfortable for kids, yet not funny or sarcastic enough for adults to enjoy.  Jim Carrey gets to stomp around and make faces and he’s good at it, yet I can’t help but wonder if he wonders if this is what his career has come to.  As an adventure tale it has its moments, and Tails and Knuckles are more interesting characters than Sonic.  The ending definitely infers that another episode is on the way.  I can’t get excited about it.  ☆ ☆.  14 June 2022.