Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Review

The Freaking Film Fanatic with Nathan Unck

Sonic the Hedgehog 3     Rated: PG for violence and brief language

    We live in a world where films based off of video games are not great. That's not to say some are really good, but the bad outweigh the good most of the time. For the first Sonic the Hedgehog movie, I was happy to take my son who loves the video games, and I admit I am a gamer myself. I have loved the Sonic games since I was in seventh grade when the first Sonic the Hedgehog came out on the Sega Genesis. I had the Super Nintendo and my friend had the Sega Genesis, and when I was at his house, we loved playing the Sonic games. However, I know that sometimes films made about video games are terrible. (Take Borderlands for instance, It is terrible).

    I took my son, and both of us really enjoyed the first Sonic movie, and when they announced a sequel, I thought it was just going to be a cash grab by the studios because there is no way that the sequel would live up to the first movie, and guess what? I liked the second one even more than the first film. Now we have Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and I have to be brutally honest, I really enjoyed it. I feel it's better than the two previous movies, and with a mid-credit scene, we are treated to a new character with a cliffhanger ending. There is also a ten second scene at the very end of the credits as well.

    The story set-up is when we see a high-tech lab with some tubes with some kind of liquid in them and one of the tubes contains another hedgehog called Shadow. He has a sad backstory, but he has a neat power that the others don't have. When he fights people, he is able to teleport himself, a lot like Nightcrawler in the second X-Men movie. He also has a backstory that is kind of sad, so when he breaks out, this new hedgehog, named Shadow, starts to wreak havoc, and Sonic, Tails and Knuckles must travel and try to stop Shadow before he destroys everything. That's all I will say for now, but the plot was actually engaging and fun.

    Jim Carrey pulls double duty, both as Doctor Robotnic and another character which I will not say here for spoiler reasons, but it's fun. The rest of the cast is okay, but Keanu Reeves as the voice of Shadow was a lot of fun too. The voice actors all around them good. The only thing I have a problem with the cast is that James Marsden and the rest of the humans that are part of 'Team Sonic" help in some parts of the film, but they aren't used to their full capabilities. 

    This is film that I have to critique using two different mindsets. The first is as an adult, I found some of the jokes or plot holes here and there, but having two of my kids with me, and there were a ton of kids in the audience were having a blast. The movie is good, and it's got some fun comedic jokes, although they don't work at times, but there is a lot of fun action. The PG rating is right, but there are a couple of mild swearwords, (Like ones you would say if you accidentally stepped on your kid's Lego bricks,). 

    The fighting scenes are really cool because of the teleportation moves that Shadow has. The violence in the film isn't graphic, and Sonic has bad guys he has to fight in the video games, and the same is for the movie. The violence isn't graphic, and it is just fine for the younger kids to watch.

    If I was reviewing the film as a kid, I would probably love it a ton. The kids were going nuts, and even my two kids left the theater saying how much they loved it. I have to admit, this film is even better that the first two, which I thought were a lot of fun. It may not win any major awards, but it is still a great time at the movies, and with the holiday breaks coming up, I think this is one the whole family can enjoy together.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is rated: PG for violence and brief mild language.

Mufasa: The Lion King Movie Review

The Freaking Film Fanatic with Nathan Unck

Mufasa: The Lion King   Rated: PG for thematic elements and animal violence  

     I have to admit that I haven't been the biggest fan of the live-action movies that Disney has put out, with the exception of The Jungle Book and Cinderella. The rest of them, like Aladdin, Dumbo, Pinocchio, Beauty and the Beast and the last one ties into this review, The Lion King. I have seen them all, and I have no desire to go back to watch those that I didn't care for. I know some people love them, and that is totally fine. Film is art, good or bad, but art brings different emotions out in people, so it is very subjective. I just didn't like those ones personally. 

    I feel like they are making the live-action films to grab as much cash as Disney possibly can. The reason I didn't like the first live action Lion King was the fact that it was almost a shot for shot remake of the beloved animated film. There was no reason for them to make it. It had a great crew at the helm to make a good movie, but it didn't surpass on how good the original film is. So, the question that comes to my mind is, "Why would Disney take a film that not everyone loved and made a prequel?"

    The simple answer is that it doesn't need to exist. The more complicated answer is another question, did they have a legitimate story that they wanted to tell that they felt would make the first Lion King live-action film seem better. Well, I will get into the specifics, but I think that the film earns the right to exist. It may not be the greatest story, but it's interesting and is able to keep you engaged, at least for me. There are some great moments, but some of them are kind of distracting. Here are my feelings about the film.

    The good things are the animal animation is pretty good. The film looks good, and that is a plus. The score, or the music in the background was awesome. The voice acting was done very well, and the characters are likable. There are interesting fight scenes where the characters are fighting another lion tribe. The movie is exactly two hours long, and it kept me interested with the exception of a couple of things I will mention in a little bit, so with the good down, let's move to the bad.

    The bad things are something that if they would have been executed a little bit better, or where scenes took me out of the film's narrative. There are breaks in the story where Rafiki is trying to tell Mufasa's backstory to Simba's cub, and Timone and Pumba are there goofing off and telling jokes. The scenes are something to chuckle at, but those scenes break up the story that is being told just for comic relief. They didn't bother me too much, but there were times I was engaged with the story being told, and then they break away to those scenes. 

    Another thing that I was lukewarm about was that Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote songs for the film. Some of them are good, others not so much. I know how talented he is, which made the not-so-great songs pale in comparison to the good songs. Earlier, I mentioned the score, which is the background music, and those songs were really neat. I enjoyed them, but as far as the Lin-Manuel Miranda is concerned, they really should have taken more time to try and make all of the songs work.,   

    My personal favorite scenes are the ones with Rafiki. He tells the story of the film, but when his character is in the story, the nuggets of wisdom he speaks are really interesting and heart-felt. He was by far my favorite character, but Mufasa was great too. The potential of the things the film could have become keep it from greatness, but it's a great movie the whole family can enjoy, although the animal fights can be kind of scary for the little ones. I recommend this film if you liked the original or are curious about how Mufasa becomes king and the origin of Pride Rock.

Mufasa: The Lion King is rated: PG for thematic elements and animal violence.