Today we received the first trailer for the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog live-action movie and its reception has been what you would expect. It is being torn apart from left to right on the internet and honestly, I can't really be mad about that. It's a live-action movie starring a blue hedgehog: most people cannot see the movie be anything but horrible. 

When the film was originally announced, I thought "there's no way this can be good." Then things slowly started to change. As the film's production progressed, when we found out that Ben Schwartz--or who I know better as Jean-Ralphio from Parks and Recreation--was going to voice the blue hedgehog, my eyebrows were raised. He's a funny guy that fits the Sonic persona: I began to listen more intently. We then found out that Jim Carrey was set to play Dr. Robotnik (aka Dr. Eggman) and then my interest grew even more intensely. The role fits him perfectly. It felt like a Jim Carrey character like Ace Ventura or Stanley Ipkiss from The Mask. I actually had some hope in the movie.

[pullquote]"It's a live-action movie starring a blue hedgehog: most people cannot see the movie be anything but horrible."[/pullquote]

While Sonic has more or less become a meme and a character who has been lacking in quality games in the past few years, I have always been a Sonic fan: some of my favorite games are Sonic Adventure 2 Battle and Sonic Heroes. So when finding out that this movie was going to happen, I was happy but had absolutely no trust in it due to the character's recent history. After the character model for the film leaked several weeks ago, my entire hope for the movie was sucked out of me. Not particularly because it was a bad design, it just wasn’t what I wanted.

Waking up this morning and turning on my phone to immediately see that the trailer had come out, I took a big sigh and jumped in. Once the trailer was over, I was grinning cheek-to-cheek. I don’t know if it’s going to be a good movie, but it looks fun, which is all that I want from a Sonic movie. Jim Carrey seems to fit Dr. Robotnik perfectly, and the Sonic humor was there. The film is set in the real world but still has that cartoon-like feel that I experienced as a kid watching of the animated series like Sonic X and Sonic Underground.

[pullquote]"I don't know if it's going to be a good movie, but it looks fun, which is all that I want from a Sonic movie."[/pullquote]

I know the film already has a lot of hate from the internet, and it is likely to grow. But the thing is that I don't know what those who are against the Sonic movie expect from it to be good or what they want. To me, what they have shown is a best-case scenario. The movie seems self-aware, which is something this type of film should be. It could have been significantly worse than what they have so far shown. Whatever others think, I will be in the theater opening night.

Sonic the Hedgehog will be dashing into theaters on November 8, 2019. If you have yet to see the trailer, you can view it below: