Jim Carrey (and Jim Carrey) Elevate Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 gets one big thing right, which is that these movies are a lot more fun when there are humans involved. The fans of the video games will surely eat up all the shenanigans involving sarcastic CGI critters speeding around space and fighting one another — as is their right — but these films tend to have a lot more heart and unpredictable energy when these characters interact with actual people. The first film was carried along by alien hedgehog Sonic’s (voiced by Ben Schwartz) discovery of a new earthly home with Sheriff Tom Wachowski (James Marsden) and his wife, Maddie (Tika Sumpter), then really came to life with the arrival of the demented Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik, played by Jim Carrey in a revival of his unhinged ’90s-era wild-man energy. The second film was a bit of a wash, occasionally enlivened by Carrey’s return as Eggman. This time, Carrey gets to play both Eggman and his own grandfather, the even more demented Gerald Robotnik — and by this point, director Jeff Fowler and his team know well enough to stand down and let the actor go to town, as he screams at, schemes, and fights with himself.

The Sonic movies have built their success on mixing light doses of Gen-X nostalgia with shiny, sparkly, speedy CGI action, and this new entry has that in spades. But for all their swiftness, the fights and chases in these pictures tend to have a predetermined quality; it can sometimes feel like watching someone else play a video game. That’s why giving the characters some shading helps. The new film’s main anti-hero is Shadow the Hedgehog, one of the Sonic-verse’s most popular figures, who emerges from a 50-year cryo-sleep in a Japanese prison island burning with murderous fury at a world that claimed his own loved ones. Keanu Reeves voices him in the movie, giving him a fine, gravelly ruefulness that sells the rage. With red, Sauron-like irises, Shadow makes an effective counter to Sonic’s blue-eyed sweetness — even though, of course, they’re both goofy, adorable, animated hedgehogs. (The filmmakers could have considered giving Shadow the scary teeth they originally gave Sonic before fan backlash prompted a redesign.)

These movies aren’t anything if they’re not fun, and Carrey probably understands that better than just about anyone. The new film has Eggman and Sonic reluctantly agreeing to work together to stop Shadow, which produces its own comic energy. And once Eggman meets his even more psychotic grandpa and the two Robotniks go at it, Sonic 3 pretty much becomes a high-concept buddy comedy you could probably spin off into its own series. “The resemblance is striking,” the two Carreys exclaim. “It’s as if we’re two characters in a movie, being played by the same actor!” It’s a dumb, obvious line, but Jim Carrey is the master of selling dumb, obvious lines; his specialty is not wit but half-wit conviction. Watch how he plays the gloriously idiotic spectacle of the two Robotniks yanking viciously at one another’s giant mustaches.

I’m not a video-game guy, which means I’m not really a Sonic guy, but the first movie won me over with its effervescent energy and genuine heart. This latest entry mostly sidelines Marsden and Sumpter, but it makes up for it by giving us more Carrey. And all these films demonstrate a defined, charming sensibility as they throw a million gags at the wall to see what sticks; it’s mostly a victory, even if just a few do. And the resurrection of Carrey as his old plastic, spastic, motormouth self is the key to these movies’ overall effect. The actor stands slightly above the fray with his wink-wink dialogue and ridiculous physical comedy; his self-aware, spoofy shtick is an overtly comic version of what the silly action scenes are themselves trying to achieve with their repurposed one-liners and too-fast-for-human-eyes velocity. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is still just product, but at least it knows what it is.