Now here is another alien movie — because Sonic is from another world, you know — with a big budget, and a big star, and yet it still receives the same rating as the low-budget independent flick Useless Humans.  That’s because Useless Humans has some fresh concepts and a sense of fun, while Sonic the Hedgehog is a corporation’s idea of thrilling entertainment.  It’s overproduced, overblown and overrated.

Jeff Fowler’s film casts James Marsden as a small town police officer who befriends a small blue being (Sonic, of course) and tries to prevent ultra-ambitious Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) from vivisecting him to discover his power secrets.  It’s a little like Useless Humans where the evil doctor takes the place of the two women agents and Sonic is the mysterious blue alien with electric power issues.  And guess which one is more entertaining (at least to me).

To be sure, Sonic the Hedgehog is a children’s movie; it moves at a rapid clip and Jim Carrey has been freed to be a goofy as he wants to be.  Carrey fans will probably need more than one viewing to catch everything he is deploying.  But once is enough for me — there is almost no solid connection between Sonic and Officer Tom, and the childish shenanigans that they get into are not what I consider worthwhile.  Then again, I’m not six.

A few funny gags make it through the bedlam, and there is even a sentimental message underlying all the cartoonish carnage, which made me dislike the story even more.  Part of me dislikes the juvenile aspects, but another part is reminded how much Jim Carrey made me cringe in so many of his popular comedies way back when.  It wasn’t until The Truman Show that I developed any liking for the guy.  Now he’s back to being manic and manipulative and causing me gastrointestinal distress.  ☆ ☆.  31 March 2021.