Sonic 3-Dark Turn, But Still Shined Brightly

"Start with the great fireball," Tails, voiced by Collen O'Shaughnessey, 'Sonic the Hedgehog 3.'

When I saw 'Sonic the Hedgehog 3' on New Year's Eve '24, it was like a cross between 'The Empire Strikes Back' and 'Spider-Man: No Way Home.' It was like those two particular films given that Sonic the Hedgehog, voiced by Ben Schwartz, took a dark character turn while trying to ferret out Shadow the Hedgehog, voiced by Keanu Reeves. Fortunately, Blue Justice snapped out of it to save the day and hang with his friends and family. 'Sonic 3' brings back the usual lovable antics of Team Sonic and Jim Carrey, this time playing Doctor Eggman and his grandfather, and shows some emotional journeys that make Sonic mature and Eggman and Shadow less one-dimensional villains.

Taking place after 'Sonic 2', Shadow the Hedgehog, voiced by Reeves, breaks out of a military facility to get revenge on the people who locked him up. Despite assistance from Tails, voiced by Collen O'Shaughnessey, who you might remember as voicing Jazz Fenton from 'Danny Phantom', and the Thor-like might of Knuckles, voiced by Idris Elba, Sonic is no match for Shadow's brute force and teleportation powers. Reluctantly, the boys have to work with Eggman, played by Carrey, and stop Shadow from wreaking havoc on the rest of the world.

The film starts with some heavy electronic and string music as Reeves' character brings back some of Reeves' previous role of Neo with his kung fu prowess against armed soldiers, then transitions to Sonic having a fun moment in the woods with Tails, Knuckles, and Tom "Donut Lord" and Maddie "Pretzel Lady" Wachowski, played by James Marsden and Tika Sumpter. Shadow is like Electro from 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2' with the menacing power and background music. But something good about Shadow is that a human from years ago didn't see him as a monster, and he took time to enjoy the beauty of the stars at night. But all that changed when the human died, and Shadow only acts this way now to get the pain away from him. So, he makes a convincing villain, strong enough to beat Knuckles, spoiler alert, but he's down-to-earth, too.

As for Eggman, the crew established that his conceited and harebrained personality stems from a lack of a comforting parental figure growing up. Next thing we know, he meets his grandfather. They bond like Dr. Doofenshmirtz and his dimensional counterpart in Phineas and Ferb, with The Beach Boys highlighting their buddy nature. They also outsmart a laser security system by dancing around in suits that remind me of 'The Incredibles.'

Back to the humans, Tom and Maddie Wachowski looked like they were enjoying retirement while staying behind at home during Sonic's mission. But it's funny how they realized it was boring without Sonic and the boys' action. Once they joined the team in England, Sonic looked like his classic light blue self in the sunlight.

As the collision course with Shadow led to some angering moments, Sonic was like Tony Stark and Peter Parker looking for vengeance. That threw me off most of the time, but going through that darkness made Sonic realize how much he needed his team and family.

I liked Sonic's maturity, Shadow's fighting, and the usual antics of Eggman, the humans, and Team Sonic. I give the film an 8 out of 10; it just needs a backstory for who/what brought Shadow to Earth and why, and maybe a little more screen time for Krysten Ritter, showing her making Sonic a part-time agent or giving him a statue like Rocky's or something.

'Roofman': Channing Tatum Played a Lovable Thief

Poster for 'Roofman.' Courtesy of Paramount Pictures and Miramax. Channing Tatum played Jeffrey Manchester, an ex-Army Reserve soldier and divorced dad who had a penchant for details and thieving. He was known as "The Roofman" for breaking into his targets by drilling into their roofs. It was like Tatum channeled Sam Dawson and Scott Lang into one as his character managed to find a way to sneak out of prison underneath a truck with skills from prison shop, then make a home in a corner in a 2004 Toys 'R Us. It was pretty funny and amusing how Jeffrey sort of took control of the store after closing. How he snacked on M and M's, skated around on Heely-like shoes, he acted like a grown man with a kid's bedroom with inflatables and Spider-Man merchandise, and he kept security with baby monitors. It was also kind of funny how he made money out of stealing and pawning a bunch of video games. While trying to get out of the country after fleeing to the store, Jeff...

Superman-Great Past and New Hero Magic

Superman (2025) poster. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. James Gunn's iteration of Superman was a well-thought-out film. I give it a 9.4/10 for both the occasional references to the Christopher Reeve film from the late 1970s and for standing out with different presentations of the iconic Man of Steel and his colorful supporting characters. This was my first time seeing David Corenswet, but he was great acting out the drama and heroism in the lives of Clark Kent and Superman. It was also great to see Rachel Brosnahan bring some gumption and humor to her role of Superman's love interest, Lois Lane, and it was great to see former X-Men actor Nicholas Hoult bring some vigor to his role of Superman's ruthless archenemy, Lex Luthor. In this Superman, it stood out by skipping the intro of Kal-El leaving Krypton as a baby and instead showing Superman, played by Corenswet, in his third year of protecting Metropolis and the world. In his quest to prove Superman a threat to humani...

'Sarah's Oil': A Sharp-Willed, Inspirational Tale

Poster for 'Sarah's Oil.' Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios. Naya Desir-Johnson triumphed as the eponymous character of Sarah's Oil . She channeled intelligence, comic relief, and proud spirit in her role as child oil baron Sarah Rector. I also enjoyed Zachary Levi's role as Sarah's business partner Bert Smith with his Southwestern charm and protectiveness over Sarah. You'll also appreciate the performance of Sonequa Martin-Green as Sarah's mother, the costume designing by Michael T. Boyd, the scoring by Kathryn Bostic, and the filming in Oklahoma where the story took place. In the early 1900s, Sarah Rector, played by Desir-Johnson, was granted land that, unbeknownst to people of power at the time, had crude oil gushing underneath the infertile land. With help wildcatter from Bert Smith, played by Levi, and her family, and eventually others in Oklahoma, Sarah shows certain racist people that she will stop at nothing to drill for that oil and make a great l...

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