Movie Time 2.0: TT mini reviews

[jpfriction]

I need to give those a fair shake one of these days. I skipped the first one, watched part of the second one on a plane but shut it off after Sonic and Tails win over a bar full of hooligans with a stupid dance. I don’t even think I made it to any significant robotnik parts.

 

[Violentvixen]

Jim Carrey is more of a cartoon than the animated space hedgehog

It's like they opened a time portal to 90s Carrey. I skipped over most of the human stuff except a few scenes I'd been told were good (the bride's rage scenes and basically everything with Jim Carrey in it).

 

[Violentvixen]

shut it off after Sonic and Tails win over a bar full of hooligans with a stupid dance.

Oh yeah I almost did as well at that scene. I forget when 2 gets better but the less human stuff the better it is basically.

 

[Pombar]

I need to give those a fair shake one of these days. I skipped the first one, watched part of the second one on a plane but shut it off after Sonic and Tails win over a bar full of hooligans with a stupid dance. I don’t even think I made it to any significant robotnik parts.

There are scenes in 3 I'd call similarly aggressively stupid, but having seen 3 in the cinema with a ton of kids in the audience, I feel like these are the scenes they love the most, so maybe that's part of why these films work so well for them. A bit of goofy stupidity in a kids film seems fair.

 

[Isrieri]

I got to see Krull and The Super Mario Bros Movie back to back. They actually are pretty interesting as a double bill.

I hadn't seen Krull and only heard about it from the likes of film aficionados. Haven't met anyone who's a die hard fan. I think the best way to describe it is a kids movie that was written for adults. There's a lot of imagination behind the world & set design with cool practical effects that although cheesy, still get the job done. I especially loved the design for the black fortress interior sets. That alone is worth checking it out if you have the time to spare. The plot is about as bare-bones as it gets: Prince and Princess due to wed, princess gets kidnapped by dimensional invaders, go rescue princess. Its not like other fantasy-adventure flicks have basic plotlines, but they tend to use the plot as a motivator to show "the adventure" which is the true appeal. Krull is really committed to keeping a quick pace and sticking to the plot - the interludes and events are all tied to tracking down the black fortress. There's enough weird stuff in it that its safe to say it was clearly somebody's passion project and I'm glad they were able to put it on the screen because its pretty cool and I think something that feels this original would make bank today.

I went into Mario Bros. with absolutely no expectations other than my love for the so-bad-its-good 90s edition. It also is very committed to a very tight pace with no wasted time and the film is trying to shove in as much whimsy and creativity into the corners of the screen instead of it being front-and-center. Everything in Brooklyn was the best, and I got to point out to my mom that Charles Martinet was, in fact, the offical Mario voice and her reaction was fun. I don't know how I feel about the 80s music interludes because montages in an action movie were a very smart idea and they're perfectly inoffensive but I just couldn't help but resist the itchy, prodding fingers trying to tickle my nostaligia bone without my consent. I didn't even grow up in the 80s, but A-Ha has been completely run into the ground in the last 40 years and I don't want to hear Take On Me again unless its rearranged into a flamenco or something. All the actors did a good job (specifically Jack Black who I think was trying his damndest to not sound like himself this time) and Peach in particular got some decent lines. I didn't know how they were going to handle power-ups, so imagine my surprise when they were straight up no frills no nonsense: Power-ups.

 

[Torzelbaum]

Back when we did the Top 50 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Movies I had Krull at #17.

The Super Mario Bros Movie

At first I thought you meant the live action version.

 

[4-So]

My dad showed me Krull when I was about 10 years old and I've been a big fan every since. One of my favorite movies.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

I gave the Sonic movies a try not that long ago. Most of the human stuff is boring, but I get it. I feel like the first movie is embarrassed to fully embrace how ridiculous everything is, but they get better about it in the 2nd and 3rd ones. Also the Knuckles show is kinda boring.

 

[gogglebob]

I feel like it's simple math.
Sonic 1: 2 cartoon characters (Sonic and Eggman)
Sonic 2: 5 cartoon characters (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Eggman)
Sonic 3: 7 cartoon characters (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Eggman, Grandpa Eggman)

By Sonic 3, they can leave the human cast behind, because they have enough cartoon critters to carry multiple plots. Sonic 1, they had to work with what they had, and it wasn't great. And, honestly, I feel like the humans in both 1 & 2 leaned into "wacky hijinks", it just didn't work because of course they are going to pale in comparison to their cartoon compatriots.

Of course, if I know anything about Sonic fans, it is that people are going to start complaining about too many Sonic friends soon enough...

 

[Torzelbaum]

Sonic 2: 5 cartoon characters (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Eggman)
Sonic 3: 7 cartoon characters (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Eggman, Grandpa Eggman)

So which character is so cartoony that they count as two cartoon characters?

 

[gogglebob]

Eggman doubled in cartooniness.

 

[Lokii]

What makes the Sonic movies good isn't that they're good because they're not but because they're far far _far_ better than they aught to be and that makes them exceptional.

 

[4-So]

Of course, if I know anything about Sonic fans, it is that people are going to start complaining about too many Sonic friends soon enough...

Sonic 4 will prominently feature Amy and/or Rouge in it and the usual suspects will complain about woke.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

I feel like it's simple math.
Sonic 1: 2 cartoon characters (Sonic and Eggman)
Sonic 2: 5 cartoon characters (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Eggman)
Sonic 3: 7 cartoon characters (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Eggman, Grandpa Eggman)

By Sonic 3, they can leave the human cast behind, because they have enough cartoon critters to carry multiple plots. Sonic 1, they had to work with what they had, and it wasn't great. And, honestly, I feel like the humans in both 1 & 2 leaned into "wacky hijinks", it just didn't work because of course they are going to pale in comparison to their cartoon compatriots.

Of course, if I know anything about Sonic fans, it is that people are going to start complaining about too many Sonic friends soon enough...

It's not just a numbers thing. The first movie almost seems like whoever was creatively in charge of it, was embarrassed to be making a video game adaptation of a kid's game. Jim Carrey in Sonic 1 is almost a completely different character from Sonic 3. In Sonic 1, he's just kind of a stiff, super egotistical jerk. By 3, he's bouncing off the walls and is one step away from being Mask level of Jim Carrey playing a cartoon. And the human characters being so important and taking up so much screen time feels like something you do when you don't want to spend the money to make the cartoons on screen 100% of the time, and trying to ground this exercise in reality. By Sonic 3, they know they're gonna make money and what their fans want to see and really lean into it being more about the cartoons.

Which is exactly why the Knuckles TV show is kinda not great. it's a TV show that stretches a pretty paper-thin concept out over 6 episodes. And it does so by making the focus of the show not be the title-character Knuckles, but about Wade Whipple. Who is not a bad character or not fun to follow, but like, nobody is here to watch Wade Whipple. We came for Idris.

 

[Paul le Fou]

I Lost My Body is an extremely well-made movie. It may not be saying anything new or groundbreaking with its personal existential questions, and it doesn't really push the envelope for animation technicals either, but still it's a good film.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Okay, watched Sonic The Hedgehog 2

MY OPINIONS;

It was fine but I liked the first one a lot more.

Idris Elba as Knuckles was the best part of the movie, easily.

||Them not using the Sonic is Drowning music when Sonic was drowning|| was a huge wasted opportunity

Don’t think I didn’t notice the name of the coffee shop was “The Mean Bean” and the instruction manual for the Eggwalker was a Genesis manual

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

Sonic 2 is probably the better cohesive narrative/movie, but Sonic 3 is the best Sonic movie and it isn’t really close

 

[Adrenaline]

They're all fine

 

[Octopus Prime]

Just finished Johnwick the Hedgehog.

And… like… the first one was unexpectedly good, the second one was pretty disappointing but 3 is… like… legit good. Not by the adjusted goalposts of a Sonic the Hedgehog video game movie, it was really good.

How the hell does that happen?

They even managed to work the friggin’ Biolizard and Death Egg and blowing up the moon into it without making them incredibly silly.

What the hell?

How?!?

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

They understood the assignment

 

[Octopus Prime]

Mickey 17 is a movie that heard of subtext and wanted nothing to do with it