Sonic Live Action Movie Thread (Read OP for topic rules) "Trailer 2 on Page 482)

[MrPolynomialX]

To be honest...

Going off of that leaked reddit AMA, which is pretty much confirmed at this point, the movie seems to be hitting all the marks we were hoping it would hit...

Here are some of the details from it:
 

Spoiler

 

- The movie is geared towards new fans with respect for the older ones

- The cast does a great job

- The movie is cheesy but enjoyable from start to finish

- A Good Story is told and Sonic becomes friends with Tom

- There is a good balance between story to action.

- Jim Carrey is a psycho super smart doc that works for the gov initially. They give him the power and he goes full Eggman. He's super obnoxiously smart. Makes tons of comments in the film about how superior his brain is. Really fun role for Jim Carrey.

- Ben Schwartz nails the role of Sonic

- There is lots of humor and fun for all ages.

- This movie is the origins

- There is a good balance between sonic and Tom and they are a good duo.

- The leaker was pleasantly surprised by what he saw

 

 

11 minutes ago, MrPolynomialX said:

To be honest...

Going off of that leaked reddit AMA, which is pretty much confirmed at this point, the movies seems to be hitting all the marks we were hoping it would hit...

Here are some of the details from it:
 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

- The movie is geared towards new fans with respect for the older ones

- The cast does a great job

- The movie is cheesy but enjoyable from start to finish

- A Good Story is told and Sonic becomes friends with Tom

- There is a good balance between story to action.

- Jim Carrey is a psycho super smart doc that works for the gov initially. They give him the power and he goes full Eggmanl. He's super obnoxiously smart. Makes tons of comments in the film about how superior his brain is lol. Really fun role for Jim Carrey.

- Ben Schwartz nails the role of Sonic

- There is lots of humor and fun for all ages.

- This movie is the origins

- There is a good balance between sonic and Tom and they are a good duo.

- The leaker was pleasantly surprised by what he saw

 

 

However, while this does sound promising, there are a few things that I am concerned about in regard to the details provided by the leaker.
 

Spoiler

 

- He frequently compares the movie to those awful TMNT and Transformer movies from Micheal Bay, in regard to action and story balance

Now that I think about it, however, going off of the descriptions given by the leaker, the cast does a great job and a good story is told, which is one thing that these two movies failed at achieving.

- He gives the movie a 7/10 in regard to how cheesy it is

- They didn't take themselves too seriously with it and it shows, which, according to the leaker, is not a bad thing...

- The dialogue starts cheesy but gets better. Acting seemed off initially but fixes later on

- Sonic floss dances....

 

 

I guess all that I am worried about right now is how Sonic will look.

And going off of those trailer descriptions, the trailers will probably not do the movie justice...

[CaptainRobo]

So, you all remember about the reaction that the girl who used to worked at Sega tweeted last month? I know this is old, but I found this, but I don’t think anybody noticed this. She still have some hopes about the movie.:

 

[Scritch the Cat]

The portrayal of Sonic himself is probably the least worrisome part of this movie.  I don’t know if his jokes will be good, but I do expect him to make jokes enthusiastically.  Being a cartoon character in a live-action world at least gives him a chance to be Sonic, as he has the task of providing energy that others don’t.  That doesn’t justify Sonic being the only animated character, though.

[Razule]

26 minutes ago, Scritch the Cat said:

 Being a cartoon character in a live-action world at least gives him a chance to be Sonic, as he has the task of providing energy that others don’t.

Might be a little too much energy.

[Scritch the Cat]

41 minutes ago, Razule said:

Might be a little too much energy.

Perhaps so, but I'd always rather Sonic have too much energy than too little.

[SaturnWolf]

1 hour ago, Scritch the Cat said:

The portrayal of Sonic himself is probably the least worrisome part of this movie. 

I dunno. Going of the Reddit AMA, Sonic suffering from depression or being in some sort of existential crisis or whatever the hell it is that they're doing is probably the single most out of character way I've ever seen Sonic written.

[Scritch the Cat]

3 hours ago, DreamSaturn said:

I dunno. Going of the Reddit AMA, Sonic suffering from depression or being in some sort of existential crisis or whatever the hell it is that they're doing is probably the single most out of character way I've ever seen Sonic written.

I like his jokes revealed in the trailer, though.  Of course that doesn't mean there isn't crap on the side, but bare in mind, I did say least worrisome.  That nobody else in the film (besides Robotnik, and even he is debatable based on that AMA and the trailers) is even in the games makes them far more suspect to me.

[MrPolynomialX]

11 hours ago, DreamSaturn said:

I dunno. Going of the Reddit AMA, Sonic suffering from depression or being in some sort of existential crisis or whatever the hell it is that they're doing is probably the single most out of character way I've ever seen Sonic written.

Doesn't matter

As long as it appeals to moviegoers/audiences then it is all good!

[SaturnWolf]

24 minutes ago, MrPolynomialX said:

Doesn't matter

As long as it appeals to moviegoers/audiences then it is all good!

You and I clearly have very different definitions of "good".

[MrPolynomialX]

2 minutes ago, DreamSaturn said:

You and I clearly have very different definitions of "good".

It is a movie and it should be viewed as such.

It is not necessarily made for fans.

[SaturnWolf]

8 minutes ago, MrPolynomialX said:

It is a movie and it should be viewed as such.

It is not necessarily made for fans.

If you're not making something for fans, then why bank so hard on the character? Why bank on the brand name? If you aren't going to make a Sonic movie on Sonic's own merits, then what's the point of making a Sonic movie?

[PeterPancake]

That's like saying "why bank so hard on the Avengers" when the movie is not 1:1 adaptation made solely for fans of the core property. Fans are less than 4% of the movie going populace. They aren't to push this movie over 100 million dollars, the general audience will. The movie is being made with a wider audience because the producers want to make money off their product. It's that simple

[SaturnWolf]

7 minutes ago, PeterPancake said:

That's like saying "why bank so hard on the Avengers" when the movie is not 1:1 adaptation made solely for fans of the core property. Fans are less than 4% of the movie going populace. They aren't to push this movie over 100 million dollars, the general audience will. The movie is being made with a wider audience because the producers want to make money off their product. It's that simple

No, it's asking why, if Sonic simply cannot work as a movie based on his own merits, why make a movie of him at all?

The MCU movies aren't perfect adaptations of the comics, no, but they don't really dramatically change the characters. Spider-Man is still Spider-Man. Captain America is still Captain America. Thanos still wants to wipe out half the universe. Black Order is still evil. They didn't look at Spider-Man and say, "You know, that just won't work. We need to make him an alcoholic that swears at children." So why take Sonic, a character known for being up-beat and heroic, and make him be super depressed and having a mid-life crisis?

[CaptainRobo]

What if Movie Sonic's design is an hybrid of Classic and Modern? I'm pretty much over the design now. The only improvement I would make is his face . I made this picture with Movie Sonic with some minor changes, a while ago. I improve his eyes and the nose. I wouldn't mind, if he actually look similar to this in the movie.:

Spoiler

 

[Sonic Fan J]

12 minutes ago, PeterPancake said:

That's like saying "why bank so hard on the Avengers" when the movie is not 1:1 adaptation made solely for fans of the core property. Fans are less than 4% of the movie going populace. They aren't to push this movie over 100 million dollars, the general audience will. The movie is being made with a wider audience because the producers want to make money off their product. It's that simple

First of all please provide me with where you got that number from since I know that Sonic Dash has well over 100 million downloads, possibly 300 million if I heard Arron Webber right during the SXSW stream, and if you rolled that down to 5 downloads a person you'd still have 20 million people familiar with Sonic which if you put a ten dollar ticket in each of their hands that's 200 million dollars which is more than double the film's cost. So no, fans can make up a rather a huge number, especially if the second number were accurate and we were to go with my guestimate as you'd have 60 million people familiar with a single identity of Sonic and that would be 600 million dollars if you sold each of them a ticket. So again please show me where you got four percent from.

As for your comparison to the Avengers, I find it more than a little daft. Yes, the films needed to have certain changes made to fit both the live action setting where lighting is not a free thing like in comics and stories had to be told a certain way to maximize the audience, but the Marvel characters are hugely popular on a global scale and were in fact banking on their names after Iron Man proved to be successful. Sure they weren't the heavy hitters like the X-Men and Spider-man, but comic book movies were already proven to be able to work thanks to the Raimi Spider-man films no less multiple successful Batman films dating back to the 60s with Adam West who practically single handedly saved the Batman franchise at that time as well as numerous other movies over the years. RED, the Del Toro Helboy, Blade, etc. Then there is also the fact that most of these movies even for there changes still embraced the core essence of what they were adapting.

So no, I didn't expect 1 to 1, but I still hoped for Sonic to be more recognizable than in name alone and the most basic description of his appearance. I expected a fun loving, globetrotting daredevil who helped those in need that he met while looking for his next adventure which typically involved seeking out ancient legends and encountering Eggman who desired to exploit them. Or you know, something like Indiana Jones but with a daredevil instead of an archeologist. I did not expect Sonic the sentient raccoon who needs to bond with Tom the cop. And please try not to fall back on the origin story explanation because if you are telling an origin story then you don't need Tom. Tom's job is the audience surrogate, the one who bridges the audience between reality and the absurdity of what Sonic is. If you were going to tell an origin story then frankly you wouldn't need Tom as Eggman would be enough since by the Japanese Manual it was Eggman who first engaged Sonic and declared him his nemesis. then considering he is human and an established franchise character he himself serves as the bridge to introduce Sonic and his crazy world to the audience, no small town cop needed. All you'd have to do to make it work is play on Eggman's more human traits early on before twisting the story so that way the audience wants to see Sonic stop him.

So while I agree with you that changes were bound to happen, I disagree that the changes we were given were the ones that best translated the Sonic IP. Mostly I feel this way because if I have to compare Sonic to Hollywood franchises than the one I find he matches the best is Indiana Jones with the exception of him being a daredevil instead of an archeologist. And as I've also said before, if you still need an audience surrogate in that kind of story than use a paramilitary organization that is trying to stop Eggman and your audience surrogate gets involved with Sonic due to whatever circumstances you can think of and they help each other out in accomplishing their goals. In my opinion that even actually results in an easier to swallow pill that a regular human can help out someone who can run at the speed of sound and tear through solid metal by curling into a ball.

Honestly, I still don't know why Sonic needs Tom's help. He's, according to the leaks, rather successful living the life of a raccoon which also means he has no problem rifling through other people's stuff to get what he needs. So can someone tell me what's stopping him from just using his speed to run to San Fran in about two to three hours, blasting through a wall or two, grabbing his rings and warping out. It's not even like he doesn't have a grasp of his abilities and needs help like in Shazam since the CinemaCon reel implies when Tom first encounters him he's casually running at 700+ mph. It's bad enough that to date this film barely sounds like it resembles the source property in general, but the film itself doesn't make a lick of sense to me from what has been revealed on top of that.

Sorry for the rant there, but hearing that asking why use Sonic if you aren't going to do Sonic is the same as asking why use the Avengers if you're going to update their costumes and tell different versions of established stories just seriously riled me up.

[Scritch the Cat]

I'm starting the think Peter Pancake is blind to other tiers of accuracy besides 1:1 and almost completely inaccurate.

The Avengers isn't a good comparison any way you slice it, because it wasn't an origin story.  It had the benefit of previous movies to flesh out its universe, and they did a good job doing so.  This film obviously can't be The Avengers, or for that matter, a Sonic Adventure-style plot, because it's universe hasn't been fleshed out yet.  I accept that.  I do not, however, accept that this movie is doing much like, say, Captain America: The First Avenger to flesh it out and provide with a more full Sonic movie in the future.  Maybe it is, but the scenario it is using doesn't make me optimistic.

[Gamecuber64]

On 4/19/2019 at 10:39 AM, Sonic Fan J said:

Honestly, I still don't know why Sonic needs Tom's help. He's, according to the leaks, rather successful living the life of a raccoon which also means he has no problem rifling through other people's stuff to get what he needs. So can someone tell me what's stopping him from just using his speed to run to San Fran in about two to three hours, blasting through a wall or two, grabbing his rings and warping out. It's not even like he doesn't have a grasp of his abilities and needs help like in Shazam since the CinemaCon reel implies when Tom first encounters him he's casually running at 700+ mph. It's bad enough that to date this film barely sounds like it resembles the source property in general, but the film itself doesn't make a lick of sense to me from what has been revealed on top of that.

The people in the film's production team said that Sonic and Tom are both in need of a friend. The person who saw the test screening implies that Sonic struggles with loneliness when he grows up on Earth.

[Dr Ryan]

Movie spoilers coming out the wazoo in this thread...

[Sonic Fan J]

35 minutes ago, Gamecuber64 said:

The people in the film's production team said that Sonic and Tom are both in need of a friend. The person who saw the test screening implies that Sonic struggles with loneliness when he grows up on Earth.

Okay, so he needs a friend and decides to bond with the random nobody who shoots him if we go by the leaks.

Unfortunately I just can't buy that. As someone who suffers from loneliness myself (regardless of the amount of people around me) and also trust issues, which Sonic is implied to have by avoiding people in general, I just can't see him going "oh I was caught, let's be friends and I'll trust you with my problems and ask for you help doing something that I can do with no help and so fast that no one can even figure out what happened". Sorry, that's kind of a hard sell to me. Though to be fair speedsters in general are a pain to right for when pairing them up with normal human speed characters as the need to tell a story clashes with what the speedster and their powers should be able to accomplish.

Even then though, so Sonic needs a friend, that's fine, but why does he need Tom's "help"? Desiring friendship and companionship is something radically different from saying someone needs help. To me at least saying someone needs help implies assistance or aid with a problem that can not be solved on one's own. But what does small town nobody cop Tom have that can assist Sonic. If we are to believe that he's always lived in small town USA then he is every bit as worldly as this version of Sonic and based on the fact that he dreams instead of taking action Sonic is already leagues ahead of him. It feels more like Sonic is being patronizingly charitable to prop Tom up to feel better about himself and I don't see a reason as to why based on what information we have thus far. Sure you could argue that is why I need to give the movie a chance to reveal more information or even just watch it, but the fact that the initial info is leaving me with this impression is not a good thing at all. For all extents and purposes even to movie Sonic, Tom is useless and a burden for the task at hand even if he is great friend material. Funny thing is though, even being your best friend in the whole world does not equate to being able to help with a problem that they are not equipped to help you with. And right now, everything we know about Tom implies he is not equipped to help Sonic in anything but being a friend.

Worse yet, say that Sonic really is the source of these electrical energy discharges (why the production team went with electricity like the Flash and all DC speedsters to demonstrate speed themed around the speed of sound is beyond me though) then Tom can't even help Sonic by hiding him since the government is already aware of the phenomenon and has brought in a specialist to find the source before either Sonic or Tom are even implied to engage with the government. Again, Tom is useless in the aid side of things and as a government employee himself is demonstrating a conflict of interest that should land him in federal prison regardless of how far Robotnik takes things. Tom would better serve himself and Sonic by staying out of everyone's way and just wishing him the best of luck and a couch to crash on when he needs a break. And yes I get the whole desire to help a friend routine as well, but Tom is also a trained cop whose training should have included reading situations and determining the best course of action even in high stress scenarios. That means that even before taking action Tom should be considering if he even can. Sure police training isn't military training (again I feel him being part of a paramilitary group would have been better to feed into my three party Indiana Jones approach), but it is still intended to assure that officers do not act rashly (obviously there have been way too many real life incidents of this not proving true in the past couple of years to make one question the effectiveness of said training but that's a different topic for another discussion) and can break down a situation in real time to determine the best course of action. If Tom really thinks he has what it takes to be a big city cop then as soon as things go sideways then he should know that he can't do anything of worth and would compromise the situation at worst implying that he should step back. Joining Sonic on his trip to San Francisco and turning a few hours run (something Sonic has always been implied to enjoy doing in all iterations of the character) in a few day's car ride is only making things worse. The only potential benefit is hiding Sonic's electric interference (again why?) but to what benefit since it gives Robotnik time to prepare in days instead of hours. For all extents and purposes Tom would better serve the plot as a self freeing hostage after bonding with Sonic to at least take advantage that in every regard he is a liability. That would be significantly more palatable and would show off Tom's competence without having to undermine and dumb Sonic down to the level of an everyday human being.

Anyway, at this point I'm just ranting about my disdain about how bad most of these ideas sound on paper to me. The execution is obviously where it matters in the long run, but when the concepts can be picked apart so casually as to free rant about them then you are trying to build a scale model of the Eifel Tower in toothpicks alone (no adhesives of any kind) during an earthquake in the middle of a tornado spawning hurricane while balancing on a tightrope. The chances of making it work is just so astronomically small that it's pretty much impossible to have anything but blind faith as there is all of no evidence that it should work. Of course though if the supposed test screening responses are accurate then kids ate it up as just a smorgasbord of action and jokes and whether the plot actually works doesn't matter and whether or not that is good storytelling or not is irrelevant.

Honestly though, every time I break this film down it just paints itself worse and worse from the concept to its primary purpose of getting kids to get their parents to spend money so they can watch 90mins of action and bad jokes with a semblance of an actual story serving seemingly no other purpose than to give the unfortunate parents something to help them sit through what is appearing more and more to me to be senseless drivel. Sure that's all Sonic already is to most people if you go by the defenders of the movie here, but if that's the case then why not market to kids from the get go and embrace that drivel in the best possible way instead of trying warp it to tell a generic friends are good story. Honestly, good drivel sells and always has so not embracing that is just illogical as near everything else about this movie.

[Diogenes]

17 minutes ago, Sonic Fan J said:

Sure you could argue that is why I need to give the movie a chance to reveal more information or even just watch it

Could and will argue that.

At this point all we've got are teeny tiny snippets of what the story might be about, we don't know what kind of "help" Tom is going to provide, and there's not actually anything inherently wrong with a story about an ordinary person helping out an extraordinary one, even if you want to imagine Sonic as an omnicapable demigod and Tom as a useless worm who should know his place.

[Rabid-Coot]

Its not hard to find something for Tom, there's always diversions and B objectives to do.

[Sonic Fan J]

46 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

Could and will argue that.

At this point all we've got are teeny tiny snippets of what the story might be about, we don't know what kind of "help" Tom is going to provide, and there's not actually anything inherently wrong with a story about an ordinary person helping out an extraordinary one, even if you want to imagine Sonic as an omnicapable demigod and Tom as a useless worm who should know his place.

Wording that almost a little maliciously there, but for the most part I do agree as to my knowledge Shazam handles that quite well. To be fair to this movie though a lot of our discussion on it revolves around information that wasn't officially revealed or was said offhand by the producers in situations where the press would report every word they were saying so it just doesn't sound good to me at this point. It's one of the reason's I frequently express feeling sorry for the marketing team having to clean up the mess that's already floating around.

Still, critical of this movie as I am, I'm still trying to patient to see at least the first trailer and get a better grasp of what is being marketed. Until then though I'm stuck with my current reactions and interpretations and every so often I have to share them just so they don't drive me crazy. It's one of the major problems about being too attached to an entertainment property.

37 minutes ago, Rabid-Coot said:

Its not hard to find something for Tom, there's always diversions and B objectives to do.

My main problem though is with what info we do have I can't see anything that Tom can provide in assistance without it feeling painfully contrived. Sonic needs to go from Montana to San Francisco to collect his rings and Googling the distance to be more accurate it's like a hundred minute run for sonic versus a nineteen hour drive and considering how much of an unknown Sonic is to everyone it just feels dishonest with what we do know to not have Sonic just go get the rings himself and leave.

As for B objectives (save the world it seems) and diversions (Sonic at top speed can destroy just about anything before Tom even blinks) I will concede that the lack of any information makes it impossible to argue for or against any such plot points. That doesn't mean though that I won't experience, no matter how illogical, the fear that it will feel very contrive and end up as Contrivances the Movie © 2019 Generic Hollywood Studio. It's one of the major problems with connecting an everyman with for all extents and purposes a super powered freak. The movie is supposed to be about Sonic, but to justify Tom as more than just a friend (which is perfectly fine honestly) you're going to have to give him things to do and tell a whole story involving him to justify what ever it is he does. As I recall at least one of the supposed leakers implied that Tom pretty much has equal billing with Sonic and frankly for a supporting character that is an awful lot more than just B objectives and being a diversion.

The funny thing is though, I have nothing against giving Sonic a human ally for a story if it makes some degree of sense. As of right now small time cop doesn't make a lot of sense to me unless you're going for the underdog angle. Unfortunately, there isn't anything to go off of to make that assumption so I find myself asking about the gaps in logic for the story and looking for hypotheses that can logically fill them in until Paramount reveals more later this year. And thus at the end I find myself still without even one hypothesis for what type of help Tom can provide to where Sonic would need it. Frankly, I'd even just accept using Tom's phone to google info off the internet at this point as that is at least something he can help with since we don't even know if Sonic is literate but at least know that he typically avoids human contact, well beyond blasting down freeways at top speed for the kicks and giggles apparently.

[Alynoxenfree]

I can understand the small-town cop getting involved. Kinda like an alien-esque movie where in a small country town they discover an alien or something like that. The plot sort of reminded me a bit of E.T. and I feel that was not a good move for Paramount. Sonic, like said above, would be OOC if he just hopped in Tom's car and let him drive him to retrieve the rings. Sonic, in-character, would have went to get them himself, like the above says. It's just..forced. Hopefully the trailer will fix our assumptions about the movie. 

[PeterPancake]

Hope we get a trailer soon

[CaptainRobo]

Not news really, but this guy doubt that the team intended to waited for months to released the trailer. He bashed the movie a lot.

 

Oof.