Watched Sonic 3 a couple days ago, and was sat there the whole time thinking "I've gotta tell Tumblr about this", so here's what I thought (loved it btw). /lh /gen
Spoilers under the cut /lh /safe /gen
Loved the characterisation of Shadow and liked that they made him an actual fleshed out character and not just "oo bad guy cause bad"
Jim Carrey was a star as always, was wonderfully amusing and played his parts well
The ending was phenomenal, so cool, especially the final fight scene with Shadow and Sonic followed by the cool teamup
The choreographing for the fighting and overall acting felt really good to watch, as well as the animation - it was well-done
/lh /gen
These next ones are somewhat critical (not in a mean way, just in a story-telling analysis kinda way - lots of love to the people who worked on the film) if you wanna skip over them: /lh /gen
Also, CW for death mention. I didn't tag it so I didn't spoil people for it, but if you're reading this, you're already fine with spoilers I assume. Stay safe! /lh /gen
I was disappointed that we didn't get to find out what happened with Stone after the ending. We got to see the Sonic gang hanging out and living in the afterwards, but we never got to see how Stone ended up. I feel like they probably neglected to tie up his character's story for this arc (arc being film) because they figured they didn't need to since he was just part of the comic relief and not an important character, which was a bit of a let down, especially after we got those glimpses at the complexity and intimacy (/p) of his and Eggman's relationship. After that emotional speech from Eggman at the end, I really wanted to see where things went with Stone; did he move on, did he grieve, did he get closure from that speech or did it make him feel worse, did he go on to pursue villainy in his honour/memory or did he decide to start a nee chapter doing something different and leaving it behind to stay in the past?
Eggman's dad didn't feel fleshed out enough as a character. We got a brief insight into his history and his motivations, but it didn't feel quite enough to actually understand him as a person and not just a concept.
Eggman's dad also didn't really get a proper end, if that makes sense? He was a big part of the story in the film and was a key character, a catalyst for most of the events that took place, and then we got the fight scene between him and Eggman towards the end, and then he just gets zapped and they move on immediately. It didn't feel right to have this important character just be given the "Ok, they're really important, we're doing a lot with them, they're a key part of this story, andddd gone lmao". It felt like they tried to make it funny, but the comedy was misplaced.
We deserved to see more of Stone :[
The ending felt sooo narratively satisfying, and it felt like the film built it up perfectly; the ending of Eggman turning things around in his final moments but still managing to do it really in character was brilliant, and Shadow having this as his chance to die. He'd lived, he'd suffered, he'd mourned, he'd come to terms with it, and he was ready to go - he'd lived over 50 years, and although he spent most of it frozen and reliving trauma, that's still a long time to be alive, and he'd had his time. He was ready to join Maria in the stars. This was his final stand, to do something good and to truly honour Maria's memory in one last ultimate act of kindness and selflessness - he couldn't save Maria, but he could save all of those people down there, who still had lives ahead of them, love to give, jokes to laugh at, smiles to share. Sure it was a bittersweet ending, but it felt like the best outcome - the best way to end things. Shadow was incredibly powerful, and it's so tiring to have so much power that noone knows what to do with you, people are scared of you - nobody should have that much power, and I think he knew that. This was his ending. ... and then the filmmakers went "Sike!!" and made the post-credit scene where it shows Shadow isn't actually dead and that whole amazing ending that was perfectly executed was actually just for nothing :/. Like, don't get me wrong, it would've been awesome to see fanfic writers and artists changing or adding onto the ending to revive Shadow or pull a "Sike!!" moment, but I feel like that would only really work in the fan space where the story is malleable to each person and what they wanted out of it, but for the actual canon story itself, it just felt like a cheap get-out-of-jail-free-card.
/lh /nm /gen
Again, I know I sound critical there, but I did genuinely love the film. It was just some gripes that I wanted to pick at for a minute. I hope everyone else enjoyed the film! /lh /gen