Sonic the Hedgehog 2 hit theaters in 2022 with a bigger cast, a bigger villain and a bigger emerald. Jeff Fowler returned to direct from a screenplay by Pat Casey, Josh Miller and John Whittington. Ben Schwartz, Jim Carrey, James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Natasha Rothwell, Colleen O’Shaughnessey and Adam Pally all came back. Idris Elba and Shemar Moore joined. Paramount released it in several markets on March 30, 2022, in the United States on April 8, and in Japan on August 19. It grossed $405.4 million worldwide.
The movie runs 123 minutes. It is an action-adventure comedy with a family bent and a tagline that promises escalation: “Welcome to the next level.”
That promise is the whole problem.
Trailer, via Paramount Pictures.
Green Hills and a Hero With Nothing to Lose
The first Sonic film had a clean engine. A strange creature hides on Earth, a small town learns to accept him, a mad scientist chases him. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 starts with the same pieces and immediately strains them.
Sonic now lives with the Wachowskis. He tries to help the public as a vigilante and mostly fails because he is reckless. Tom Wachowski, on a fishing trip, tells him to stay patient until the day his powers are actually needed. Then Tom and Maddie leave for her sister Rachel’s wedding in Hawaii, and Sonic gets the house for the weekend.
That is a sitcom setup, and the film knows it. What it does not do is build anything real on top of it. The loneliness that made the first movie work is gone. Sonic has a family, a house, a town. The sequel replaces longing with restlessness, and restlessness is a thinner fuel.
Then the ambush comes. Dr. Robotnik has escaped the mushroom planet he was banished to. He brings Knuckles, an echidna warrior and his newest henchman. Knuckles wants the Master Emerald, an ancient relic that grants ultimate power and the ability to change reality. He wants it to bring honor to his ancestors.
Sonic is rescued by Miles “Tails” Prower, a young two-tailed fox who idolizes him and came to warn him about Knuckles. Sonic talks Tails into helping him find the Master Emerald. Robotnik reunites with Agent Stone and allies with Knuckles to steal it.
Siberia, a Compass and the Mountain Chase
The middle of the film is a globe-trotting hunt. Sonic and Tails follow clues on a map given to Sonic by his late guardian, Longclaw. They find a compass inside a temple in Siberia. Knuckles and Robotnik track them and chase them down a mountain.
This is where the movie is at its best and its most conventional. The Siberia temple is a set piece with traps and puzzles, the kind of sequence the games built their name on. The mountain chase is fast and loud. Both are competent. Neither is surprising.
The script keeps reaching for an emotional beat it cannot land. Knuckles reveals that he lost his whole tribe the same day Sonic lost Longclaw. It is a real parallel, and for a moment the film slows down. Then it moves on. The sympathy is brief, and the movie does not earn the weight it wants from it.
Knuckles and Robotnik steal the compass anyway. But Knuckles starts to doubt Robotnik’s sense of loyalty and honor. Robotnik mocks Sonic for choosing to save an injured and unconscious Tails instead of the compass. An avalanche starts. Tom saves Sonic and Tails by using a ring to teleport them to the wedding.
That teleport is the film’s clearest statement of what it is. It yanks the story out of the snow and drops it into a wedding reception. Rachel’s fiancé Randall and the wedding guests reveal themselves, and the movie turns into a different movie for twenty minutes.
Idris Elba, Jim Carrey and the Voice Cast
The casting is the sequel’s strongest hand. Idris Elba plays Knuckles, and the choice is not obvious. Elba brings a low, serious register to a character who could have been pure comic relief. Knuckles is a warrior with a grievance. Elba plays the grievance straight, and the film is better for it.
Jim Carrey returns as Dr. Robotnik. Carrey had said in January 2020 that the character could be expanded: “I wouldn’t mind going to do another one because it was so much fun, first of all, and a real challenge to convince people that I have a triple-digit IQ… There is so much room, you know, Robotnik has not reached his apotheosis.”
He got the room. He uses it. Whether that is a good thing depends on your tolerance for Carrey at full volume. Robotnik here is louder, stranger and less tethered than in the first film. The performance is committed. It is also exhausting.
Ben Schwartz remains a good fit for Sonic, though the material gives him less to do than the first movie did. Colleen O’Shaughnessey voices Tails, a role she had in the games, and she gives the fox a warmth that keeps the sidekick from becoming a prop. James Marsden and Tika Sumpter are reliable in roles that ask less of them this time. Natasha Rothwell returns as Rachel, Adam Pally as Wade Whipple, Lee Majdoub as Agent Stone, Shemar Moore as Randall, Melody Nosipho Niemann as Jojo, and Tom Butler as Commander Walters.
Jason Momoa was considered for Knuckles in February 2021. Shemar Moore’s casting was announced on June 16, 2021, and Idris Elba’s on August 10. For the Japanese dub, Hololive VTuber Inugami Korone, the Japanese brand ambassador for the Sonic series, voiced a character.
Shadow the Hedgehog makes his live-action debut in a non-speaking cameo in the mid-credits scene. It is meant to tease a larger role. It does its job.
The Wedding Detour and the Subplot Problem
The Hawaii wedding sequence is the film’s biggest structural gamble and its clearest failure. Randall and the guests reveal themselves as something other than what they seemed, and the movie shifts into an ensemble comedy that has nothing to do with the Master Emerald.
It is not that the sequence is unfunny. It is that it costs the film its momentum at the exact point the plot should be tightening. The first Sonic film was 99 minutes and knew it. This one is 123 minutes and does not.
The film was inspired by Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992), Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994) and Sonic & Knuckles (1994). You can feel the pull of those games in the emerald hunt and the Knuckles rivalry. You can also feel the film trying to serve three or four movies at once.
What the Box Office Says and What It Does Not
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 grossed $405.4 million worldwide. Like its predecessor, it set several box office records for a video game film. That is a real achievement, and it is the number Paramount will care about.
It is not a measure of quality. A movie can set records and still be a step down. This one is.
The film received mixed reviews from critics. That verdict is fair, and it is not a hedge. The sequel does several things well and one thing badly: it does not trust its own core. The first movie was about a creature finding a home. The second is about a creature finding a franchise. Those are different stories, and only one of them has a heart.
What works: Elba’s Knuckles, the Siberia temple, the mountain chase, O’Shaughnessey’s Tails, and a mid-credits cameo that lands cleanly.
What does not: the wedding detour, a Robotnik performance that tips into noise, and a runtime that lets the middle sag.
The Hard Numbers
- Title: Sonic the Hedgehog 2
- Release year: 2022
- Director: Jeff Fowler
- Screenplay: Pat Casey, Josh Miller, John Whittington
- Runtime: 123 minutes
- Theatrical release: March 30, 2022 (several markets), April 8, 2022 (United States), August 19, 2022 (Japan)
- Worldwide gross: $405.4 million
- Metacritic: 47/100
- Critical score: 4.7/10
- Tagline: “Welcome to the next level.”
- Genres: Action, Adventure, Family, Comedy
Release Dates
| Date | Release |
|---|---|
| March 30, 2022 | Theatrical release in several markets |
| April 8, 2022 | Theatrical release in the United States |
| August 19, 2022 | Theatrical release in Japan |
| 2024 | Sonic the Hedgehog 3 released |
| 2024 | Knuckles television spin-off released |
| 2027 | Sonic the Hedgehog 4 scheduled |
The Score
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a sequel that grew in every direction except the one that mattered. It has more characters, more locations, more money on screen and a bigger villain. It has less of the thing that made the first film work.
The Knuckles material is the best evidence that the franchise can still tell a story with stakes. Elba’s performance suggests a character worth building on. The mid-credits cameo suggests the studio knows where it is going. The wedding sequence suggests it does not always know how to get there.
The film’s defenders will point to the box office and the games. Both are real. Neither changes what is on screen for 123 minutes.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a watchable, overstuffed, occasionally charming movie that confuses more with better. It is not a disaster. It is a step sideways.
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