The Sonic the Hedgehog has finally hit theaters, and reviews of Sonic are pouring in as critics and fans rush to pick apart the movie and decide if it lives up to the games or stands out on its own. So far, the reviews have been fairly positive, raising the movie to fairly unfamiliar of heights for video game movies.
Most critics and fans claim that Sonic the Hedgehog has joined recent video game inspired films like Detective Pikachu that have been reviving the genre from the campy installments of the 90s and the terrible titles of the early 2000s. However, now that the opening weekend has passed, some numbers are coming in and we can fully see how the movie stacks up against other movies like it.
Sonic vs The 90s
For some, the 90s was the heyday of video game inspired movies, like 1994's Street Fighter and 1995's Mortal Kombat. This was a time of campy fight scenes and long villain monologues, with costumes and visual effects that modern cosplayers can easily put to shame. However, all that aside, the movies that came from this era are well loved by fans who grew up with the titles, even if they haven't exactly stood the test of time.
Looking at their Rotten Tomatoes scores, the new Sonic the Hedgehog immediately came out above both Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. At the time of writing, Sonic's is currently sitting at 64% critic score with a 95% audience score. Likewise Street Fighter is sitting at an 11% critic score and Mortal Kombat seemingly soars with a 47%.
Clearly, Sonic has come out ahead of these two classics, and likely for good reason. Fortunately, the new Mortal Kombat in 2021 will be giving the series another chance to redeem itself, although it seems like Street Fighter may never get properly redeemed for that 11%. However, at the very least, the low scoring moving can at least still hold the title of being Raul Julia's final film where he gives one of the best speeches of all time in one of the worst movies ever made.
Uwe Boll
It is unfortunately impossible to talk about video game inspired movies without mentioning Uwe Boll and his catalogue of critically panned features. Including titles like House of the Dead, which currently sits at an abysmal 3%, and Alone in the Dark, with an unbelievable 1%, Boll's movies stretching from the early 2000s all the way to 2016 have been universally loathed by critics and audiences. In fact, Boll's movies are often cited as the most prominent example of the curse on the genre, implying that video game movies simply can't be good.
Considering the success of Sonic the Hedgehog, it would seem that the video game curse is no longer in effect, although many fans would claim that Detective Pikachu was a fixture in that change as well. It should be noted that this section is not an indictment of Boll, nor an opinion of his work or his intent, but rather a reporting on his legacy of titles like the Bloodrayne trilogy which is drastically less appreciated than the Bloodrayne games. No one goes to work with the intention of making a bad movie, and a number of factors play into Boll's career and the curse on video game movies.
Late 2000s to Modern Film
Unfortunately, there were actually a lot of equally terrible movies that came out in the mid to late 2000s, as well as the 2010s. Releases like Silent Hill and Resident Evil promised to bring some of the best examples of video game horror to the big screen, but the stories told unfortunately didn't translate properly onto film. Currently, Silent Hill and Resident Evil sit at 31% and 36% respectively, keeping them far below the new bar set by Sonic.
Coming closer to the most Modern releases from the 2010s, titles like Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia were allowed to fit more comfortably as standard action movies, but they may have leaned to far into the tropes of the genre. As a result, neither was able to attain a fresh rating, as they simply passed for being little more than generic action movies, as opposed to being the epics like the series they were based on. With Assassin's Creed scoring even lower than Doom, the otherwise cinematic game likely won't be returning to the big screen again.
However, some modern movies have been slowly building the genre up apart from Sonic, like both Rampage and Tomb Raider, which both launched in 2018. Neither of these more modern movies were excessively successful, with scores of 51% for Rampage and 52% for Tomb Raider, but they do top out the list for some of the best video game movies of the past few years. However, if there really is a curse breaker among the genre, then it still has to be Detective Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog.
Pokemon: Detective Pikachu
At the moment, the Rotten Tomatoes score for Sonic the Hedgehog comes out just under Detective Pikachu, although it should be noted that the audience score for Sonic is quite a bit higher. That being said, Sonic also seems to have beaten Detective Pikachu in the box office as well. All of that being said, Detective Pikachu has been praised by fans as one of the best video game movies of all time, being not only good for the genre, but also decent enough as a movie on its own.
To a similar extent, the same praise has been raised for Sonic the Hedgehog. The movie has seen praise this weekend as people have flocked to see what became of the controversial redesign of the character and Jim Carrey's performance as Dr. Robotnik. So, Sonic has found itself on equal footing with Detective Pikachu, although neither one of them is actually the top rated video game movie according to Rotten Tomatoes' critic score.
Bonus: The Angry Birds Movie 2
The Angry Birds Movie 2 is currently sitting at a 73% by critics, but still holding an 84% among audience scores. This makes it the highest rated video game inspired movie of all time, with the series breaking box office records. Similar to both Sonic and Detective Pikachu, Angry Birds 2 excels as a funny, family friendly movie that makes references to familiar game mechanics without relying to hard on the established brand.
Although, with a sequel looking more and more likely, perhaps Sonic 2 can dethrone Angry Birds 2 in a few years.