MOVIE REVIEW: Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Hey, this is Scott Snyder, the writer of American Vampire, Barnstormers, Witches, White Boat, and Batman, lots of other comics, and you are listening to the best comic podcasts around, the Oblivion Bar podcast. Welcome to the Oblivion Bar podcast with your host, Chris Hacker and Aaron Norris. Welcome to episode 178 of the Oblivion Bar podcast. I'm your swarm protector of the master emerald and super literal echidna Chris Hacker.

And joining me is last month's gun employee of the month, my co-host and BFF Aaron Knowles. You know what, Chris? What? I'm just going to admit it. You're adorable. Welcome back, everybody, to the Oblivion Bar podcast this week. As Aaron alluded to there just a moment ago, we are talking, I guess we both were sort of alluding to it in our opening. But point being is that we are covering the last installment in the Sonic franchise. mark? Yeah, or yeah. mean, I think we'll get into it. The latest?

Yeah, I guess the third. Usually, know, usually a trilogy is the ending of a franchise, but one would wish spoilers for Aaron's thoughts on Sonic 3. Aaron, we have covered every single installment of the Sonic franchise here on the Oblivion Bar podcast. I think that's the first one. Has there been any other movie that we've had that opportunity? I don't think so. think if you don't count like the MCU and things like that, that are just sort of again, continuously running.

I think Sonic is the only franchise that we've covered every entry of thus far. And then this is, this is where you insert the sad music after he dies. I can do that. I can definitely do that post. So everybody again, Aaron, what a movie. Firstly, I don't want to get into it too much here in the beginning, but I think what's more interesting And again, we'll talk about more here during our main topic.

We have a big, big piece of news to cover this week on the show is sort of basically the actual environment that I was in while watching Sonic three. Judging by your side, you also had a similar environment. I could. I think the listener can as well.

But also what it means for the future, what it means for culture, as we say often here on the Oblivion Bar podcast, we are sort of slaves to pop culture and turn your culture and to all things IP, but there are certain things that I feel like this film has pretty much solidified for culture and for nerd culture going forward. I'm just going to say this. OK, if there was ever an external reason for me to want to quit doing this show, it was going to see this movie.

And I'm not saying that about the movie. I'm just saying the experience of going to the movie before we get into our news and notes. This is our second to last show of the year. You know, I didn't imagine that we would be covering Craven the Hunter and Sonic three as our last two episodes of the year before we get into our last call awards, which is always our last episode of the year. Excited to eventually bring that to everybody.

But I just want to kind of briefly talk about twenty twenty four as a whole. You know, we've been doing the show for exactly what it was. Yeah. What a year, everybody. What a whole. What a whole of a year. This has been an interesting year for not only the Oblivion Bar, but also us in real life. Yeah, just real life in general for all of us. But I will say like from the O.B.P. standpoint standpoint of it all. This has been a good year.

You know, we got we had a chance to completely rebrand the show through all of the fire and flames of what this year had brought to us. We had a chance to interview a ton of amazing creators, including Brian K. Vaughn being one of those. I want to give him a special shout out because that was like a a benchmark for our show's history. And we've grown just as a show in general.

think we've sort of solidified not only through con going with New York Comic Con, San Diego Comic Con, the many cons that we go to. We sort of solidified ourselves as I would say. And I mean this respectfully and humbly, a premier comic book movie, television, anime, nerd culture podcast. Aaron Harumph. We have done it, everybody. God damn it. We did it. What are your thoughts on 2024 Aaron? is it? What's one thing that you're super proud of from us this year?

And then what's something that you want to accomplish for us in 2025? I feel like this is really the first year and this is going to be a little bit of inside baseball, which I don't get a chance to use that that term. You're welcome for that. For that. Thank you. Thank you. This year has been, I think, probably our most like comrade comraderick. camaraderie film. But I get it. I get what saying. You know what mean?

Like, I think that this year honestly has been the year that we like there was not a single time where either of us was really like fed up with each other. know, there's been some times. Why are you laughing? I'm just laughing because you're so right.

It's because every other year of the Oblivion Bar podcast, whether the listeners know it or not, we have we have often like butted heads at certain points in the year behind the scenes and like a sort of a loving you know, respectful way, never like angry or whatever, but yeah. Yeah. I think that that gives us that this year has really been behind the scenes. Like we're kind of like rehashing out some things to make sure things are less on your shoulders, more on mine.

You know, we're coming back after the break. We're coming back after, you know, you're coming back after your second round of chemo. You know, I think that this year was definitely a year for us to come together closer as friends and to come back better and not even leave as like less than better, like friends or co-hosts. But I think that together, like we've done a lot together to make this show better, despite how much stress that you and I have gone through this year, like individually.

So for me, that's like, I reflect on this year as being a really like... Kind of like there's a lot of personal stress, like individual stress, know, stress with like my move, with retiring, with the job hunt, with financial stuff. Like there's been a lot of stuff just individually that I've gone through and also like health-wise and then also the same for you. Like you've been going through a lot, you know, new relationships and trips and work and a new, like responsibilities in your job.

And it's just like, it's been like a crazy year and I don't mean to drone on, but I'm just really proud of us. for the progress that we've made individually and together. I completely agree.

And I think to sort of put a cap on this fart sniffing that we're doing right now, think it's the oblivion bar was 2024 was the year for the oblivion bar to, we've always said that we want to level up the show, but I think we finally, finally everybody hit a standard that like someone who I think an Aaron, I think you would agree. Maybe the listener would agree as well. I have, I do not have the ability to be happy in like what we do with the show.

I'm always like trying to push us to the next level. Like if we do the thing that we've been shooting for, it's not good enough because there's another thing that we need to still do. And there's three other things behind that as well. But I think this year was the first year that we finally got comfortable in our scenario, our priorities with the show, again, our standard with the show. I'm very proud of all of that.

And I think again, as we'll continue to do, we'll continue to make the show better every year. But if the show, and I mean this like, I'm going to say all this everybody, but also Just remember that we're going to continue to get better. If the show never got better than it is right now, I would be completely happy with the Oblivion bar. Like we are fucking lie. That is such a lie. That is such a lie. I love I love the quality we're at right now is what I'm trying to say.

Yes, it's all really good. You are you you are accepting of the quality, but you will never accept you wouldn't accept this as as what we would be. You know what I mean? Yeah, we just hit like level seven or eight. You know if we were like Kakuna, know, like like like like Caterpie going into Kakuna Pokemon reference here we go So yeah, that's like that's where we're at, you know what I mean?

So I think that there is a lot to say when it comes to Where we're at, but I don't think that either of us needs to be appeased. know at this level. Yeah, absolutely The comfortability is just it's it's sort of a fun new feeling with the show. again, as we just said, we will continue to get better.

And I think the best way to get better, Aaron, here's a nice transition for you is with your support, everybody, as you guys listen to the show, a free way to help the show is to, of course, follow it, listen to it if you can, if you'd be so kind, you know, to help us listen to the show, but also follow us on social media at a Blivion bar pod and all the platforms and then, you know, rating reviews on Apple podcasts, Spotify, those are free. easy ways to help the show if you haven't already.

But if you want to take that next step, if you want to, I mean, really love the Oblivion Bar, if you love this Tom Fuller that we give you each week, guess what everybody, we have a way to make it even better. And that's over on Patreon, patreon.com forward slash Oblivion Bar Pod for your support over there, Aaron, you could get access to The Grid, our weekly bonus podcast, where essentially what you've just consumed over the last eight minutes on the show here, you get that every week.

It is just frontal lobe stream of consciousness. Aaron, I thought you're talking about all the bullshit right here. Yes. Whether it's relationships, mental health games were playing comics or reading movies that we didn't want to cover on the show. Yeah, there's a ton of stuff. So it's a it's a great behind the scenes. It's a great unfiltered, unformatted, X-rated, X-rated, unrated, formatted show, unformatted show. So there's a lot to it. That's right.

And they don't only just get the grid over there on Patreon, they also get behind the scenes look behind the scenes looks at how we prepare the show with our episode transcripts. What we're using right now for this episode of Sonic. You get that over there on Patreon, Patreon polls as well. And you also get a whole bunch of exclusive goodies, merch, stickers, comics, all types of things.

So go get a shot over with a seven day free trial, patreon.com forward slash oblivion bar pod or check out the link in our show notes. Let's go and get into our news and notes.

and notes. my God, what's that? Is that a bird? Is that a plane? It's Superman. Chris, amazingly enough, and it's funny, you actually texted me as like in the middle of watching because you don't think that I have my finger on the pulse of society. I should have never second guessed you should never have second guessed me. But I was watching the teaser trailer for James Gunn's. Superman. Now, is this movie going to be called James Gunn's Superman? Or is it just going to be Superman?

Because there's no way around it. If you see the word Superman on Twitter, on Instagram, the Internet anywhere, it's going to say James Gunn's Superman. So I feel like they should just change the title to that. But after being teased for months on social media by James Gunn, the full teaser revealed what we can look forward to when Superman releases in theaters July 11th. 2025 and I don't know about you Chris, but I was on the edge of my adult size seat on your your red trunks in my red trunks.

You're peeing your little your little red trunks while watching. I was like, which are outside of my pants. I was on the edge of my seat. Yeah. So let's let me let's get into it during the during the trailer. Not only we do we see DC's new look for David Cornswede Superman who replaced former Man of Steel Henry Cavill, which I mean, Can we pour one out really quick for Henry? I not his fault, everybody.

An incredible rendition for what I mean, I'm going to say surface level rendition of Superman. Not my favorite iteration of the Man of Steel, but Henry, not his fault. One hundred percent. Not his deal that lies with the director and the creative forces over at Warner Brothers in D.C. I owe you Superman.

I thought he I just thought of him as Wolverine, but his bumbling alter ego Clark Kent, which Again, Clark Kent is like seven feet tall in this movie when you see him walking wildly taller than I saw. He's a reporter for the newspaper, The Daily Planet. We also see a few shots of Nicholas Holt as Lex Luthor, a romantic love scene within love interest Lois Lane, Rachel Brosnahan in front of a big glowy ball in the background with little like laser.

What do think that ball is, by the way, real quick? I was I mean, I don't know. I was thinking it was something to do with like Brainiac. I was thinking it had something to do with There's so many things like I... We'll get into that in a second. So, and at one point we see Crypto, which I already love Crypto. I'm a dog lover just in general, but Crypto is so adorable. But he comes to the rescue of Superman who's just like wheezing in the ice.

Gunn has said that Crypto is based on his real life dog, Ozu, who was problematic to say the least after initially adopted him during the filming of the film. And then throughout the trailer, if you listen closely, this is one thing that I loved. Not only do they I feel like they're using like the iconic kind of font of the original like Superman's when we see the lettering and the stuff on the what do call it? Like just the fonts on screen.

Yeah. There's a there's a hint of John Williams's iconic score from director Richard Donner's 1978 Superman, which new composer John Murphy incorporates into his newly original score as basically a nostalgic callback, which is what we need, which is a respectable tip of the cap.

I think we should just go ahead and say for the rest of time, even though that 1978 theme is for Richard Donard Superman, the movie, as you said a moment ago, a lot of people think this is just going to be called James Gunn's Superman. This is the first movie in Superman's history to just be called Superman because that movie was called Superman, the movie. So I to go back to my original point, we should just use this theme for Superman going forward. John Williams score.

is so intrinsically tied to the character and in the most important ways. When I hear that theme, it's like with I would say, like in a very similar way, Indiana Jones or Star Wars for the rest of time. I mean, when those movies are made, regardless of who's playing the titular characters, those themes should be attached to the character in some way or another, whether it be like a rendition or of some sort, the core of that, those scores should be the same. Agreed. Absolutely agreed.

And then compared to DC's last Superman reboot, 2013's Man of Steel, 2025 Superman seems like an altered altogether more optimistic prospect. The darkness injected by that film's director, Zack Snyder, is replaced with blue skies and hope. And you can you can absolutely see this during the trailer with brighter colors, know, the less heavier tones, the blues, the reds, the yellows, they're all right in your face.

Yes. I'm gonna get to the end of this because I know we can stop in the middle if you want to sort of chat about all this stuff. Okay, fine. I just want to say this. I want to say that this movie, okay, there's a lot going on and it almost feels like it's going to be what do call it when you're like when you're put like into a class like a crash course in Superman like this movie feels like it's gonna be like a crash course in Superman because we see robots we see many heroes already.

see, we're going to talk about more. We see many people, we see many villains. see like there is just a slew of, of iconic things going on in this teaser trailer. And as excited as I am, because honestly, this trailer or this teaser did not evoke any sense of like dread. It was like, like, like it says it was all blue skies and hope. And I'm just, I don't know. Like it's like, like what could go wrong. We're in a day and age where when you see a trailer that's good, you're like, fuck.

Yeah. Like that was good. You know, remember when we were talking about our most anticipated films of twenty twenty five and I said, and I uttered these actual words, it is impossible for this movie to be bad. James Gunn is so into the lore of Superman. He would not take on not only his role as co-CEO of DC Studios, but also the director of this film, Creature Commandos Peacemaker again, still like he is so in love with this universe.

that I find it almost nearly impossible that this movie won't be at the bare minimum good. Could be great, honestly. And I want to go back just a little bit though, Aaron. We had a comparison here between, and we don't need to compare the Snyderverse to this, but I'm just curious as someone who's like relatively, I would say newish into the comic world, someone who loves these characters, but is not like so intrinsically tied to the comics medium with the character of Superman like I am.

What do you prefer? What did you like better? Do you like this sort of new look? This might be an unfair question, too, because we haven't seen the movie. But like just based on the trailer, do you like Henry Cavill's sort of and Zack Snyder's sort of darker rendition? Or do you like this more hopeful sort of hokey almost campy look at the Man of Steel? This is going to be hard for me.

And I don't know if I can honestly answer this until I see this movie, because going back in the Christopher Reeves, which is like Superman, which is what I grew up on. always loved like his suit, the naturalness of him. just the sheer like portrayal of Clark Kent and Kal-El from, you know, Christopher Reeves. A friend. was amazing. I don't remember the other guy who played it in the return of Superman or whatever. I did not really like that. I did.

Okay. Which is supposed to be Christopher Reeves as Superman, by the way. It's supposed to be. just I the Snyder verse is itself a darker drearier, less hopeful universe. Let's just say that's what it is. is a somewhat say worse universe. I'm just going to call it a different universe. Worse, maybe. again, but yeah, that's the difference.

You as somebody who is like very well versed in all that is Superman and love what he is as far as the symbolism, the hope, the love, the brightness, the blue skies and hope as we keep referring to. Like that's your growth. and your ground and your foundation of Superman for the majority of your life. Again, I grew up on just Christopher Reeves as a Superman. I remember him in, I want to say it was Superman 2 when he loses his powers and it's like a very negative, like sad movie.

I might have been three actually, if I remember I think it might have been three. But like, so I've seen like the struggle, you know, of those, of those like almost human concepts from a super, from an Ubermensch in human society. So for me, it's I look at all these as again, different universes and they all have potential for what they are and who they are. So I'm excited for this one. I still am not super sold on David. sweat all over. You like that haircut. You like that Gen Z haircut.

Man, we're to fucking move on. But I'm excited for the movie. What about Rachel Brosnan? I think she's a I mean, very, very attractive, also great actor, but just also just Lois Lane is a sort of a difficult character to capture correctly on screen because she is like the news reporter in the DC universe. She is extremely smart. And I feel like a lot of times she gets sort of cornered in this love interest slash MacGuffin for Superman to save constantly, which does happen in the comic sometimes.

But for the most part, she can handle her own and has interesting things to do in that universe within Metropolis and within the daily planet, which we get to see in this trailer. We get the big globe again, which we should. You know it which is incredible. So I'm just excited for all of this Jimmy Olsen. We see again. We'll get into it Aaron Why don't you continue on the comment on Rachel Brosnahan? Because if I'm not wrong She played the lead in the that was it the the talent was it mrs.

Mabel? Yeah on Amazon and I think she did a fabulous job as that character so she can definitely hold her own on screen I've seen her more like stand on her own in comics than I have in film and so it's good to see when she's not constantly the damsel in distress, peach to the King Bowser, you know, kidnap. But yeah, so like I'm looking forward to seeing her portrayal of the iconic, the also iconic Lois Lane.

But according to James Gunn, he said, David said something to me that really affected me. Superman wants kids to not be afraid of him. He's an alien. He's this incredibly powerful. could be considered a scary individual and he wants people to like him. He wants to be a symbol of hope and positivity. So he dresses like a professional wrestler. He dresses in a way that makes people unafraid of him and that shows that.

let's talk about some other stuff that we see in this trailer because again, this is one of those ones where you're going to see plenty of breakdowns on YouTube online. And so let's let's just give like an initial breakdown from the oblivion bar pod. Yeah. So in the trailer, of course, we get a look at Hawkgirl. This is being played by Isabella Murchon, who we last saw in, I want to say Madame Webb, but she's also in she's in Transformers as well. She was in Alien Romulus.

Like she's been she's the one who's pregnant with the with the Xenomorph half man, half Xenomorph. It's a baby. Looked like one of the what do they call the engineers from Prometheus? Yes. So she's she's firmly planting her flag in the nerd verse. And I think also Dora for all you weirdos out there. She was also in the last of us as well. So she's she's doing a lot of things in the nerd world. I like what we're seeing here from Hot Girl. Very small bit that we see of her.

She soars through Metropolis, the Metropolis skyline wielding her signature mace. While we saw Hawkman in twenty twenty two's Black Adam, which Aaron loves and said was the best movie of twenty twenty two. Correct. You get the fuck out of here. We also this is the first time that we've ever seen Hawkgirl in live action. Now, we don't know if this is we don't know if this is Kendra Saunders, who is, I would say, probably the most popular version of a Hawkgirl.

But the other year, I don't know if you know anything about Hawkman and Hawkgirl's backstory, not only just like as like an entity, as like, you know, Canon, quote unquote, but just like you in comedy here. What I know. What do know? What do know? I know that they were a couple. way back in ancient history. And at least in one of the timelines that this is what I have for, they basically were together and then they were cursed. they're like, they just constantly are, what do call it?

Reincarnated and they have to like find each other. So if one dies and the other one gets reincarnated and they have to like stick around and try and figure that whole awkwardness thing out, hawkwardness. you remember who is cursing them? Do you remember the person? I want to say it's what's his name? They saw him in Wonder Woman number two played by Pedro Pascal. Wait, what? That was supposed to be Maxwell Lord. Maxwell Lord is the one who cursed them. I'm pretty sure I could double check that.

and go the next person. It's the guy like he's once you say his name, if you look it up and you say his name, I'll tell you he's like the guy. I fucking he's like a savage. Randall Savage. You're right. Actually, I apologize. You're so right. I damn it. Damn it, I got it right. Yeah, that's correct. Good job. But Maxwell Lord is being played by Sean Gunn in this universe. That's why I don't know. I got it mixed up in my head, but you're totally right. Yeah, it was a Vandal Savage.

So, Aaron, go into the next one here. All right. This is exciting. Firstly, I love the picture that you put in here. Yes. Eric, I'm Nathan Fillion plays Guy Gardner with stupid. It's bulk. Aka our first green lantern in the DCU and the trailer guy is his ring to keep a door. That's that's a good use of it to keep a door closed from a bang mob after they're shown targeting Superman. One angry mob mob member. even throws a cup.

And I have a problem with this, but like throws a cup at Superman's head. Yeah. Guy first premiered in the comics in Green Lantern number 59, which was released in March of 1968 and was created by writer John Broom and artist Gil Kane. Now you tell me this, Chris, if you're a super powerful Bing and somebody throws a little can of soda at your head, are you going to notice that shit? I think it's just important to realize that he probably didn't know that it was coming.

It probably just startled him a little bit. But I agree. I was wondering if maybe it would just bounce off his head like boink. But yeah, he sort of a little wince. It's like he like blinks out. He doesn't even wince. He doesn't like doesn't do anything to him. But yeah, it was it was sort of funny. But to get back to Guy Gardner, what do you know about Guy Gardner in the cop? Do you know anything about him like as a character outside of his silly ass haircut? Nothing. I know nothing about him.

OK, I'm going to give you a brief quick overview. And I don't know everything about Guy Gardner outside the fact that he's in Justice League International and Aaron. He's a huge douche bag, one of the biggest idiots in the DC universe. He is essentially everyone's little brother in this universe. Whereas anytime some shit is getting stirred up, Guy Gardner wants to be in the middle of it. He is he wants to essentially swing with the big guys, even though he is sort of an insecure dumbass.

Like he is literally the most annoying character in comics, but he does have like some redeeming moments here and there where he'll like put his ego aside for a moment and then help everybody out. So I want to sort of compare him like in a very loose way personality wise. I'll say as like Namor over in Marvel, whereas like his ego is so inflated and terrible that like a lot of times he sort of borders on the line of a villain in a way because he just always is stirring shit up.

The only reason I possibly like him is because of some of the looks that I've seen him with where he has like this like vest. Yeah, he has the white sort of the white vest. I think a green vest with like black sleeves and white. white gloves. I think that that's a badass look, but he doesn't have this stupid haircut like he's got in some of them. He's got like this interesting like where it's like shaved on the side.

He's got like a kind of like a little bit of a he's got like bangs going all the way around. Yeah, you're thinking of his 80s look. That's exactly what he looks like in the 80s. Yeah. So after after Justice League International. Yeah, this is a dumbass look. Yeah, I'm interested to see Nathan Fillion, of course, is good friends with James Gunn. So it made sense that he was going to be in this universe. You want to get into the next guy, which I'm excited for?

Yes. Yes. You want to go over it since you're excited? Yes. Okay. Okay. So, Edie Cathigui's, I don't know if that's how you say it. That's correct. Yeah. Mr. Terrific has revealed in a tantalizing shot of him using his powers to summon a force field and repel an attack. writer John Ostrander and artist Tom Mandrake created Mr. Terrific in Spectre number 54 came coming out in June, 1997.

We'll see Michael Holt use a combination of invisibility, super tech, superior technology, his genius level intellect. And I don't know if you know this, Chris, but Michael Holt is considered often to be the third smartest person in the universe and the DC universe behind Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor. Mm hmm. This is exciting. I also really love Mr. Terrific. He I'm excited for Edie to get another shot at a superhero, because if you remember Aaron, I don't know if you recognize the name.

He is Darwin. in X-Men First Class. He gets blown up from the inside. Yes, I recognize him very well because he in my opinion, he was the that was the most unnecessary, like ridiculous death. Like it just made zero sense. Biggest plot hole in First Class. Yeah, absolutely. That was super annoying. And then Mr. Terrific. I have a theory about Mr. Terrific. We'll get back to it because it's based on the next couple of characters that we're going to talk about.

I have a theory because some people think that James Gunn and the powers that be at the DC studios are creating what is essentially going to become Justice League International or maybe that's who is the team that we see Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, Mr. Terrific, other characters in this movie. I think they're setting up another team. ahead. Actually go on to the next guy. I'll get to it here in a bit.

I don't know if you watched any like I know we've kind of talked about a little bit the CW shows because Mr. Terrific. Was in the CW shows and he was pretty good in there.

Yeah, so I did like his the betrayal of Mr. Terrific in there So Anthony Carrigan also so this okay, I'm gonna throw this out there metamorpho is One of the earliest villains that I have like a recognition from or of for the DC universe because I used to watch these old cartoons of you Superman and Thor and metamorpho Was that his name metamorpho? I want to say but that basically he's the guy that has all the different elements and and Yeah, so we'll talk about him in a second.

anyways, Anthony Kerrigan plays the shapeshifting Rex Mason, aka a man turned into a mass of chemicals after being cursed by an ancient artifact metamorpho. At least that's how he's introduced in 1965's The Brave and the Bold by writer Bob Haney and artist Ramona Frayden. Hyperelasticity and elemental transmutation are his core powers. And I just remember like whatever he touched, he could kind of transmit his body into that. And that gave him the ability to like basically just kick ass.

What do you are you familiar with Anthony his work? I'm familiar just based on his work in Barry. He was no ho in that series. You ever watch Barry? I did watch Barry. Anthony Carrigan's been in so many things and he's he has so much range. It's like it's crazy how much rage he has. He was in Bill and Ted face the music as well. I really enjoyed him in Gotham. He was Victor's as that. Yeah, Victor's as and I just the guy's got range. It's crazy. Yeah, absolutely.

He's also going to be in an in a movie that I'm excited about next year. Death of the Unicorn, by the way. Yes, that's right. We just got that trailer. A 24 with Paul Rudd and who else? Who else was in it? It was a Wednesday. What's her name? Wednesday. Jenna Ortega. Thank you. Thank you. All right, Aaron. I want to bring this next one up because when you got to watching the trailer, we talked about this for a moment and I found out through my research who this was.

So the dead robot that Superman is holding and sort of mourning there is his mechanized caretaker, Kellex. A faithful Kryptonian service robot who serves both the house of L and the fortress solitude Superman's home base. Kellex first appeared in John Burns 1986 comic. The man is still number one. We don't know who Kellex is being voiced by quite yet, but we've seen him, you know, in a couple of different iterations Superman.

We most recently saw him in Man of Steel, a vert like a very, very loose version of the Kellex where he's just like this sort of tower. He's not even he's like a floating tower, essentially that acts as sort of like a security for the force of solitude. I'm laughing because in my brain he's going to be voiced by what's the name? Davidson, Pete Davidson, because for some reason, James Gunn likes to fucking put Pete Davidson in shit. Yeah, that's right. All right.

And then, of course, we have Nicholas Holt, who is about to have a very crazy couple next month. Couple next month. I'm excited for this one. Yeah, I am pumped. I'm actually going to see Nosferatu, which he co-stars in with Will DeFoe and Aaron Taylor Johnson. That comes out. Christmas Day. I'm gonna go see that later this week. But of course now he's playing Lex Luthor in these movies, which you know, very exciting. Nicholas Holt, one of our best young actors.

He was most recently, well, we covered him. What was the movie we watched last year where he's a vampire with Nick Cage? It was Aaron, help me out here. man. Renfield. Renfield, God damn it. Why was that so hard to figure out? I don't know why we're talking about Renfield because he's also more recently he was in Juror number two, the Clint Eastwood movie. That's really fucking good. my God. That was yeah, that was really good. That was really good. He is he is talk about like range, man.

Yeah, he is. Honestly, Nicholas Holt is the definition of range, modern range today in movies. So Lex Luthor, as many people already know, but we'll go over here as the CEO of Lex Corps and is often portrayed as the smartest man. on the planet, even more so than Bruce Wayne and harbors a deep resentment of Superman because he believes that once Superman is discovered among the masses of people here on earth, the human race is on the fast track to extinction.

That's often Lex's sort of beef with Superman is that he believes that man can achieve all. They don't need the help of super beings, whether that be Superman or otherwise. And a of times Lex is capable of extremely impressive feats. as just a normal human. has no powers. A lot of times he has a suit and he will often use the he'll use the benefits of other villains that are super powered like Brainiac, for instance. But most of what he achieves comes directly from his maniacal genius.

Supreme intellect. That's right. Lex Luthor first appeared in the comics in Action Comics number 23 back in April, back on April 10th, 1940 and was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster. So. Superman also stars Rachel Brosnahan's Lois Lane, Skyler Giassondo as Jimmy Olsen, Maria Gabriela de Ferraria as Angela Spica, aka The Engineer, a member of The Authority, which Chris will probably talk about in a second. He'll know more about that than I do.

Sarah San Paolo as Eve Tessmacher, Lex Luthor's assistant and love interest, which... I don't know. And Wendell Pierce as Perry White, Pruitt Taylor Vintz as Jonathan Kent, and Neva Howell as Martha Kent. Two things, Aaron. Number one, do you remember or do you recognize the name Pruitt Taylor Vance at all? No, he is the guy who like drowns himself in Constantine. He's like Constantine's little helper for a bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, With twitchy eyes. That's right.

And then you said a moment ago, you've got the engineer from the authority of the authority is supposed to be playing a role in the background in this movie in some way or another. Like the authority is sort of the government's answer for superheroing. Like they are paid sometimes bad guys, sometimes good guys. They're they're Moral high ground is sort of loose in that way. But yeah, the engineer is one of those characters.

And I say she's actually one of the better characters of that team in terms of like morality. So exciting to see her and Angela Spicer in this movie, because this is going to set up gods and monsters. Part one Superman again, as you said earlier, comes out on July 11th, 2025. We have creature commandos already, but I've heard James talk about this. This is essentially just going to set up the rest of the universe and also Peacemaker season two. all I've ever wanted.

The last thing we'll talk about here, Aaron, because this is a long News and Notes segment. Excited for this already. Has this trailer made you more excited than you were last week when we talked about our most anticipated films of 2025? Absolutely. How cute is crypto? We didn't really talk about crypto, but very cute. He's got that one ear that goes up. Right. And I knew almost immediately as soon as Superman started whistling that that was going to be crypto.

And I want to say outside of the TV shows, this is the first live action crypto. Am I wrong there? I believe so. pretty sure. We're not counting the CW everybody. Stop it. That is done by the way. Now that Superman and Lois has ended, no more CW. Yeah, which I heard is pretty good, but this is very exciting. This is my most anticipated film of 2025. Pretty cool everybody. That'll do it for our News and Notes. Let's go ahead and get into our review of Sonic 3. Yeah. Should be interesting.

All right, let's get into it.

Me and Tom. Okay, everybody. Welcome to our review of Sonic 3. Spoilers ahead. If you have not seen Sonic 3, spoilers. Do we need honestly again, just very similar to Craven last week. Do we really need a spoiler warning? Like there's really not a ton that happens in this movie that either fans are not expecting or what the fans wanted, which I think is sort of my first gripe of this movie. Aaron before I guess, as I've already kind of saying, I'll give you my initial thoughts here.

This movie is essentially just a conveyor belt of giving the fans what they want. It is essentially remember that thing from Sonic Adventures 2. Well, there's six of these in this movie. And Shadow is being voiced by Keanu Reeves, even though hot take alert everybody. And Aaron, I don't love Keanu Reeves as a voice actor. OK. A lot of the appeal to Keanu Reeves is Keanu himself, his sort of his his stature, his acting, all the things that he does. Not as a voice actor. Not great.

Don't love him in this role. You mean you don't like hearing the same monotonous voice say every line the same way with the same. tone and the same rhythm. don't like zero inflection. Maria. Maria. I'm going to kill everybody. will have my vengeance. Do you have cake? I have a cheeseburger. Like this is the entire movie. This is every single shadow line. Exactly. you know, as someone, okay, let's talk about initial thoughts and then we'll talk about our environment.

was going to get into our environment. Aaron, what are your initial thoughts on this film? And bleed into your environment, your movie. OK, so this movie was exactly as you said, it's conveyor belt of just giving fans like honestly, like this is what young moviegoers are going to see going forward because this is a movie where a new template like it's just a new template. Like there's there's literally like several moments of action followed by a couple of moments of nothing.

Followed by a couple of moments of action because there's no little exposition. There's no attention span. No, there's no attention span like this movie was honestly like just clips clips clips with some some minor stuff in the middle that made they had no impact that had no need this could have been a 30 minute episode. You know what I thought about while like maybe halfway through this movie was your thoughts on the Super Mario movie.

We talked about it here on the show last year where you said you didn't love that movie and you're like a Nintendo head you love or just I would say video games in general. You love video games. That's like your strongest passion and You said you enjoyed Super Mario Bros. But the one big gripe is that you felt like it was just a tad too kiddy paint by numbers. Just like too safe. Very safe. No liberties to the source material or anything.

And I think maybe you could say for all of these movies, all three of these installments, this may have been something that we've talked about in previous reviews is that this movie and this franchise is so fucking paint by numbers. It's annoying to the point where like And Aaron, want you to talk on this now. The reaction from the people that were in my theater was infuriating. Their happiness made me angry, Aaron.

Yes. OK, I'm just going to like let's go into the environments, man, because this is this is I have to get this off my fucking chest. And I'm sorry that I'm about to lose my cool just a little bit because I had the worst, the worst movie going experience because I did not understand, A, why there were so many kids in this movie theater, because it's a Thursday night. But then I, you know, I asked Carly and Carly was like, they're on Christmas break. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense.

movie is a kid's movie. And yes, it is a kid's movie. Within 10 minutes of movie starting, turned around and told somebody, I said, pardon me. Do you plan on talking like this the entire movie? Because I paid good money to watch this movie and not listen to you talk. What did a nine year old Jimmy say to you afterwards? That. She was like, OK. It was a young girl. then her mother, who was sitting two seats down, says, excuse me, you don't have to be rude. I said, I'm not being rude.

I said, I'm just I would like to watch this movie. He goes, she's like, you're a jerk. And I'm like, I was like, OK. And she's like, you don't have to talk to kids like that. I said, I'm not I'm not being rude. But maybe you should teach your kids better not to talk during the movie. Yeah. I'll stop being rude when you start parenting. How about that? Yeah. And then her oldest son, who I'll tell you more about in a minute, literally goes, hey, man, fuck you.

And I was like, and then I turned around and said, that's yours. Great parenting. then no joke, like not even two minutes before this interaction happened, I had to walk down a couple of aisles and tell a kid to stop recording the movie on his cell phone. Yep. I was like, you know, that's illegal, right? And he puts his phone away. You wouldn't download a car, would you? And I'll be that guy because you know what? Like, I don't care.

Like, I know that I'm in a kid's movie, but I'm also I am well aware that there are that there are just things you don't do in a movie theater. man, like just multiple times people talk to me. We are officially the movie theater, like police, you Police, yeah.

The other thing that really irritates me, and we'll get to like the ending of the movie, was like when there were certain moves that were used by like certain characters, there were children and young adults literally screaming at the top of their lungs. Was that a shadow spear? my god, Aaron. my god. They play live and learn. They play live and learn. Can you believe it, Aaron?

Yeah. And then at one point, I'm not, I'm not kidding, but like we'll talk about the post credit scenes where the same kid who's like, fuck you, man. Half the audience probably are literally on their feet, like what is with this high pitch. screaming. Yeah. And and and not just like screaming like, my God, they're like, let's fucking go. It's like you are a teenager in a in a in a theater filled with other kids and you think it's OK. And your parents are there. Your parents are there.

And you're going to scream, let's fucking go like Aaron. When did the Sonic fandom become so passionate? Because to go into my own, my theater experience. Same thing. I went at three o'clock on a Thursday. It was quote unquote the fan experience where you get like a shadow poster at AMC, but sold out crowd. It was an Adobe theater, extremely loud. And I get in there, this guy next to me, first of all, is on his phone from the very beginning. And I say, Hey, do you mind putting your phone away?

He doesn't hear me because it's super loud. I go, Hey, put your phone away. He eventually puts it away. And then like every 10 minutes or so, he like looks at it really quickly. Just take like boop lights up his dumb face and puts it back down. At one point, like, dude, Put your phone away. This dude's, I don't know. He's an adult. He's taller than I am. I knew that he was a big dude, but I'm like, how can you not not look at your phone for an hour and a half?

We'll get into how long this movie, it's an hour and 50 minutes, but like this movie is not that long. You can't not look at your phone. What's going on? And then the same thing as you, anytime something I would say decently cool happened in the movie and definitely a reference to the video games. This crowd lost their minds. People, they were like, I'm talking. Avengers in game level of losing your mind, folks. It was insane. I don't know what is with this fandom.

It's I honestly think what it is is they're they live in it like now the youth live in a say that the youth I'm a boomer now. Okay. Officially a boomer. Goddamn kids. Goddamn kids. Like they live in this world now where reactions are everything. So if you have the most exciting, funny reaction, then you like people will pay it like there are literally people who are influencers. simply because of their reactions.

So these kids now feel like they have to one up each other or be like the loudest person in the audience to react the most and have the loudest quip, have the loudest reaction and be noticed for how stupid they are. You know, it's funny, Aaron, is that the night before I went to go see Sonic 3, I went to go see Interstellar. course, Chris Nolan film. It's an all timer. I you it was a way different experience. It's a sold out crowd at the IMAX downtown, as I've said many times here on the show.

one of the 12 largest movie screens in the entire US. was a 70 millimeter version, a true experience. What an incredible moment in my life as a movie goer to go see this film for like one. I've only seen it maybe one time before this. So it's very fresh. The whole movie, incredible experience. No one clapped. The end of the film. Everybody walked out. People are chatting about it. Really like, Hey, that was really cool. That was so cool. I never seen space so huge on a screen.

When I tell you that people were like standing up, standing ovation to this movie. That is bad. Everybody. This movie is bad. Okay. This franchise is, like decent at its best. It is this movie though. This entry is bad. Okay. Yes. Do you agree on that summary? Do you agree with that? do. I do agree. And that's like, that's, that is bottom line upfront. This movie's bad. Okay. There is There are good things about it, but this movie in essence is a fucking shit show.

Sonic Knuckles and Tails reunite to battle Shadow, a mysterious new enemy with powers unlike anything they faced before. With their abilities outmatched in every way, they seek out an unlikely alliance to stop Shadow and protect the planet. Just, again, plot holes, goddamn galore. Not even plot holes, just bare minimum nothing. Honestly, yeah, not even a plot hole, just like we don't give a shit about writing a cohesive, like, Like full movie.

So director Jeff Fowler's mentioned playing both Sonic Adventure 2 from 2001 and Shadow the Hedgehog 2005 solo game for inspiration. The film is also inspired by narrative elements from the Saturday morning animated television series Sonic the Hedgehog in 1993. Cool. Do you have any attachment to any of those entries, by the way? I know Sonic Adventure 2. I had this kid in my neighborhood who had a dream cast.

I didn't have a dream cast and he used to play that game religiously like people who love Sonic. A lot of times Sonic Adventure 2 is their first entry. Like that's their favorite one. And then, of course, I watched Sonic the Hedgehog sparingly. Honestly, not that much as like as a kid. I caught some of the episodes. Never like never like a devout fan. That's the thing. You're absolutely right. For some reason, Sonic fans are ravenous feral monsters. They're little beasts.

They're little fucking beasts. Let me this might be a good sort of moment to sort of divulge. What is your attachment to Sonic? Do you have any history? With the video games. I played Sonic one, two and three on the Genesis that were barely a fucking cohesive story in itself. And I left it that Sonic Generations, the first one where you have to like the KO, the KO garden, things like that, terrible game, a terrible at the game.

So wasn't like I just I'm not attached to the the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise after the Sega Genesis iterations. Agreed. Same for me. Almost to the T. I like Sega Genesis. Everything in that I always wanted to play Sonic, but I also didn't have a Sega Genesis growing up. I don't know why my mom, she bought me a PlayStation. I think my mom only thought that when I asked for a game console, she just assumed that it was a PlayStation. She never like got me a Nintendo. She never got me a Sega.

You know, the game station, right? Yeah. Like the one game station that exists. Yeah. Yeah. It goes to the games op and says like, if I were to buy my kid a new, you know, console, what's you have a Sony something? Yeah. At the beginning of the film, Shadow is being held. is shown being held captive at Prison Island in Tokyo. That's not an imaginatively bankrupt name, don't worry. It's actually where Shadow was also held in 2001's Sonic Adventure 2.

And forms the basis of several levels returning again in 2005's Shadow the Hedgehog. These filmmakers really, really loved Sonic Adventures 2 and apparently so did our crowds. So when Tails and Knuckles beat Sonic in a race at the beginning of the film, they are seen tapping their foot at the finish line. This is, course, a reference to the video games where if you don't touch your controller for an extended period of time, Sonic will tap his foot and look directly at you and patiently.

Which I thought was actually pretty cute. I like that part. So we have the child garden, which is described by Tails as one of Tokyo's top 10 must see spots during Team Sonic's attempt to reconvene after getting run ragged by Shadow. This is a mini game from Aaron. You guessed it. Sonic Adventure 2 that allows the players to raise their own cuddly Tamagotchi like chaos. There was a memory card. that had like a screen on it. You could actually take your Chao, I guess it's called a Chao.

I thought it was called like a KO. Like a Chao, you can take it with you in the memory card and it has like an LED or LCD screen. So yeah, you basically raise it like a fucking Tamagotchi. I'm sorry. I feel bad. Cause like, there's no spoiler. Like fuck the spoiler warning. I'm sorry. I'm going to say offense warning. If I offend any of the audience, any of the listeners because of my feelings towards this movie or just the Sonic fandom, it's your fucking fault.

This experience in the theater is why we are so it's all your own fault. This is like, I'm still reeling. Like, I know we already talked about it and we can move past it, but that movie going experience was and we are often complaining like we are truly like some weird. There's a difference, my man. Maybe we're hypersensitive to the movie going experience. You and I know, but there is an absolute I'm going to cut you off because shut up. Shut your beautiful mouth. How I feel. feel internally.

Savage right now because I want to like beat some like I honestly like if I could never mind I'm going to like implicate myself. I just like I wanted to just tell every parent that was in that theater like you are the reason things are so bad in society. You're raising Hitler right now. You need to fucking get in there. Get in there and do your work. Do your job. Some species eat their young director is Jeff Fowler.

His only filmography is these three films like it's literally just Sonic one, two and three. And then he directed a short 2004 animated film called go for broke. So puns. We love them. Aaron, we've talked about here on the show a lot here recently, but I think anybody who listens to the Oblivion party knows this is that damn it. Do we love a bit? We love a bit. And this movie is just bit galore. Like as you said earlier, there's zero plot. Everybody.

We're not going to talk about plot in this movie because guess what? There isn't one. OK, it's just bits. and references bits reference, CGI fight bits reference, CGI, Jim Carrey do something crazy and then a bit, you know, let's just, I'll I'll give a quick rundown. I'll give a quick rundown and pretty much anything that I don't cover. didn't put in the movie. Okay. So shadow awakens because Robotnik symbol on a screen hacker attacks Tokyo somehow immediately a gun.

gets to Sonic as his friends. Last movie, we're like, Sonic's not ready to be an adult, like not ready to be a hero, but now they're just letting him go off on his own with his little fucking buddies in a government helicopter. Team Sonic go to Tokyo, which first off, plot hole number one is, are they just, how many rings do they have with them? Cause I think it was, was it the second one? They only have one? Yeah. And like in this one, like now they're just using rings to go around the planet.

I didn't know they could get them back, but apparently maybe they can create more. I don't know. But they use a ring to get to Tokyo. To me, that doesn't work. I mean, the air speed, velocity, density, like there's got to be some science thing that doesn't make it right for a helicopter to go through a portal to a completely different. You know what saying? Doesn't make any fucking sense. OK, the other thing, I'm just gonna throw this out there.

At the end of Sonic 2, Sonic turns off God Sonic, Super Sonic, whatever the Sonic mode is, Ultra Supreme, Instinctual Sonic. He sends the crystals up into the sky and then Knuckles uses his hand strength to reform the Master Emerald. But somehow in this movie, it's the same thing again. It doesn't make any sense. So anyways, Team Sonic goes to fight Shadow. Shadow beats all their asses. Yeah. And then Stone shows up and it's like, hey, let's go get Robotnik because he would know what to do.

Somehow they need Robotnik. So they go get Robotnik. Robotnik helps them track down the tech that was used to release Shadow. Guess what? They find Robotnik's grandfather who had a daughter, but Maria died as a child. So who the fuck is Robotnik's mom? Who's Robotnik's dad? Like, this doesn't make any sense. my world ended with Maria. So that means he didn't have any more kids, which means that he didn't have unless he had other kids that are older. Yeah. But then why was Maria the favorite?

But like, this is like 50 years ago. It doesn't make any sense. Anyways, Shadow, however old he is, was apparently either in love or was family to Maria now. I think it's a now kids into that in the video games that he's in love with Maria, but it's not really touched on in the movie. Yeah. So like now he wants to destroy the world. or help destroy the world with grandpapi Robotnik. Yeah, because yeah, because he's fucking, you know, sad about his girlfriend.

That the only funny thing about this movie is the is are the robot. It's Jim Carrey. Jim Carrey is the only funny good thing about this movie. The dance scene was the funniest fucking thing of this entire movie. I the final fight with the mantis and the yes. I have a feeling that Jim Carrey just started doing that on set and just added all of that in CGI. Yes. I want a Robotnik movie. I don't want anything else. I just want Robotnik doing like like I want a day in the life of Robotnik.

Like that's it. You know what just dawned on me as we're talking about all this, Aaron, is that these movies have essentially just usurped the sort of common sense. Well, yeah, but sort of the corner in the movie going world of the Fast and Furious franchise where plot doesn't matter. It's all about reference. It's all about actors taking on a role. It's all about La Familia and Corona's. Whereas in this movie, it's yeah, it's it's chili dogs and and and rings.

So anyways, the whole point of this movie is the Robotniks. They want to get these two keys that gets to Gerald Robotniks ultimate like weapon, which is like a big it basically looks like the gravity machine. What do you call it? The machine from Man of Steel? Yeah, it's the terraforming terraforming. Yeah. To make Earth into Krypton. Yeah, it looks exactly like that. And so and then come to find out that Shadow, with his chaos energy, is the thing that powers the weapon.

And so his dad wants to destroy the planet for some reason because because he loved Maria and it's his daughter. he literally kills his own grandfather. There's a weird scene where Sonic and Shadow both become god mode. Yep. Like like and also they can breathe in space. Giving off Goku, Vegeta vibes. Yeah, giving off Goku, Vegeta vibes or they can breathe in space and yet they can't handle re-entering to the atmosphere. There's more rings that are thrown around. They chop half the moon off.

Is that a reference? Because people started clapping when that happened. Is that a reference to Sonic? I guess so. I don't know. I have no idea. don't know. Yeah. And yeah. So at the end of the movie, they to with the waves of Earth. Yeah. At of the movie, that shadow takes off one of his takes off his bracelets and pushes the The the and they turn the actual laser because it's firing on earth so not destroy it shadow and sonic Use their bodies to block the fucking energy.

They turn the space station almost a plate PlayStation they turn it and it explodes supposedly killing evo and shadow and then That's and then all of sudden everything's good again. Everybody's happy. We're family making fucking s'mores and shit They literally go back to the opening scene. Yeah, they go back to the opening where they're all camping together It's so stupid. Two things. Number one, fan favorite segment here on the show where Aaron just hate recaps a movie. Love it.

Happy to have it back here at the end of the year at the end of twenty twenty five. Secondly, I love when they figure out just what's the what's the most obvious way to kick James Marsden and Tiki Sumter out of these movies. Every every one of these Sonic movies, I'm like, how are they going to just exclude them from this movie? Because for the large portion of this movie, they are irrelevant. And then when they come back to the movie.

They are just there so that they can get hurt so that Sonic has something to get the chaos emeralds for. Yeah. So stupid. Let's we'll talk and then then we'll talk about the the post credit scenes in a moment. Yeah, that's probably the thing we'll talk about the most, honestly, because yeah, our annoying crowds really like that part, too. God, like to chew an insane amount. All right. And let's get into the budget here. One hundred twenty two million dollars. I think overall.

Some parts look really good. Some parts don't. That's essentially the makeup of this movie. It's like some, some of the CGI looks really, really good. And some of it doesn't. Let's just say that it's all CGI. It's all CGI. It's all CGI. you know what's crazy is that even the human characters look CGI because they're so well groomed and like they have the perfect makeup on.

Like I'm thinking of like, shoot the two characters from the second movie that got married at the beginning of the movie, I'm forgetting their names now, but they are so well groomed and like Perfect makeup. James Marsden. Same thing. T. Sumpter. Everybody just as no hair at a place. It's insane. They're probably a I they probably sold themselves. And it's just like a fucking they're they didn't even they weren't even in the movie. Right. Box office here.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 posted a six point five million box office from preview night. That's Thursday beating out Disney's Mufasa at three point three million. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is expected to open at 60 million dollars domestically after its first weekend. This is the best preview night ever in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, Aaron. I'm immediately disgusted by myself that I was a part of this. You did this, You did it watching you. I'm sick and defy myself.

This is ahead of the previous installment at five million dollars in preview night. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 opened at seventy two point one million, the best so far in the series. Sonic the Hedgehog's preview night was three million dollars back in February of 2020. And that movie opened up before the pandemic at fifty eight million dollars. That was essentially the last movies that we got before Covid officially like shut down before we got the major shutdown.

So it's probably going to be the second most valuable of the franchise. But I wouldn't be surprised if it actually takes home more than Sonic the Hedgehog 2 overall because of it opening around the time of Christmas when people are getting off and off break and whatnot. So runtime hour and 50 minutes. This is the second shortest of The second of the three. So it's right in the middle and it's only 10 minutes longer than the first film. So feels like the fucking longest.

You know, honestly, right around the time where Jim Carrey was giving his monologue on the ship and Shadow pushing the ship to the. What is Shadow doing in this moment? I think isn't he pushing someone? He's pushing the ship somewhere. Yeah, he's like turning it away from the from the point. That's right. Yeah. Right around there as well as like, OK, this movie can end right now and I'd be happy like I'm totally fine with this movie just being done now. So, Aaron, let's talk about the cast here.

All right. You got Ben Schwartz as Sonic the Hedgehog. Colleen O'Shaughnessy as Miles Tails Prower. Idris Elba as Knuckles the Echidna. Keanu Reeves as Shadow the Hedgehog. Jim Carrey as Dr. Evo and Professor Gerald Robotnik. James Marsden, Tom Wachowski, Tika Sumter as Maddie Wachowski. Kristen Ritter didn't even fucking need to be like, she really phoned in. What a bummer for her to be in this movie, just in general. Like, yeah, such a great actor.

Love Christian Ritter and everything she does. Jessica Jones, Breaking Bad, everything. Yeah. Director Rockwell and Lee Majube. I think that's how you say it as Agent Stone. Again, I'm just going to say, like, in order of best characters of this entire franchise, Jim Carrey as Robotnik and Lee Majube as Agent Stone. Yeah, absolutely. I would I would give anything just for a show or a movie with those two.

Yeah, because there's a little bit of complexity there because you don't the relationship is sort of complex. Whereas Robotnik is this like mastermind villain and he sees he sees Agent Stone as nothing he sees him as nothing other than just like an assistant and it ends to a means. Whereas Agent Stone has like actual affection towards Robotnik Eggman. We sort of see that played out in this movie, which is again, kind of interesting.

Like you're on the you're on the doorstep of interesting and they just don't go all the way there. Like it would have been nice if Agent Stone like just fully left Eggman at some point in this movie and became something else. I mean, I honestly thought that he was going to because at one point he's like, I'm going to go get him back. I thought he was going to figure out a way to become his own character, like his own level of person.

And they like go and save Robotnik, which or sacrifice himself in some way that would have been sacrificed. Following the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Jim Carrey actually said that he was considering retirement from acting producers Neil H. Moritz and Toby Asher. stated that Kerry's role as Dr. Robotnik would not be recast if he followed through with his plans, but remained hopeful that he would be willing to continue the role if the script was satisfactory to him.

What script did Jim Kerry read? I'm wondering. They sent it to him on like a post-it note. I think they just like sat him in front of a Dreamcast and put in Sonic Adventures 2 and was like, you go. This is what the movie is going to be. Yeah. And then in February of 2024, he was confirmed to reprise his role for this film. making it the first time Carrie has starred in more than two films as the same character, which I find interesting.

Isn't that funny that Jim Carrey throughout his entire incredible career, Hall of Fame comedian, just actor in general, has never done a sequel. Firstly, it wasn't until he has, but more than two films. like, correct. You're right. Yes. To a Centura. yeah. Yeah, that's correct. He's never done like a three Pete of a character. And yeah, he's done with this. So the sequence of Eggman getting his head shaved happened on set.

That was actually Jim Carrey getting his haircut and it took a year and half for him to grow all the way out. And he had Dr. Sorry, Lee. How do we say Majob Majob Majob Majob cut his hair. Hayden Christian was rumored to play Shadow initially before Keanu Reeves was cast again. Aaron bordering on this idea that the fans are essentially deciding this franchise's track. Everyone was fan casting Keanu Reeves as Shadow for a long time. Would Hayden Christian would have been a better choice for this?

I don't know. Because he's also known for his sort of monotone voice and sort of one note everything. But again, and I say this with all the love for Keanu Reeves and everything that he's done almost not good in this role. Like, I don't like him in this in this movie for any point. Like Shadow is sort of a one note out for vengeance until he's not. He is like, yeah, good. It's about the same as it's about the same as like Keanu Reeves being again in cyberpunk 2077. Nobody gives a shit.

Yeah. Like he is not a voice actor. He is he is an he is an actor. Mm hmm. Like he's never been at least I've never I don't know what anything else besides those two things he's voice acting and maybe he's done more. But I would definitely bet you that it's nothing of of impact or significance. Right. And we have a we have an answer to our question earlier about the Super Saiyan versions of both Shadow and Sonic.

So during their fight over the Master Emerald ultimate life form, Shadow turns into Super Shadow. This is the form seen during the final stage of Aaron again, Sonic Adventure 2. The ability is only finite and requires the player to pick up rings to stay alive. And as we said earlier, this film features the iconic main theme from Sonic Adventures to live and learn. Can you be Did your did your crowd go crazy for that as well?

So that must have been when like when the when the moon when they were like flying through space and like destroying the robots and shit that must have been like guitar riffs and all that. Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly what it was. that makes sense now. Before we get into the end credits, which again, people loved. Do you have anything else you want to say about this film? I want to erase everything that does not have Jim Carrey in it. What was your favorite part of this movie?

It honestly had to be the dance scene. OK, the dancing between both the Robotniks going into the gun. That's that was so fucking funny. It was so funny. Like when he's like, you know, he's like the lasers are hitting him. He's like, I've I've created a, you know, laser absorbing suit. It will not hurt you. And then they like, then I was like this. I was that's that was my favorite part. Yeah. You know, as we were just sort of poking fun at a moment ago, it is sort of hard to not.

enjoy bits and pieces of that shadow Sonic fight at the end of the movie towards the third act. I think some parts of it are pretty cool. But overall, it was so hard to get behind it and completely get engulfed in that moment because it it was always where the movie was going to go. Never for one moment did I think that Shadow was not going to eventually go to the good guy side and help out against one of the Robotniks, whichever one it was going to be. so anticlimactic, though.

And the fight was not really that great. It was just sort of cool to see them both get super power. And again, I think I might be slightly veiled by the Doby theater that I was in because that sound anytime that someone was getting hit or the punches it, you could feel it in your, in your back and in your legs. So that part may have been a little bit helpful for the moment, but overall, yeah, it's just, it's all like Vince works as good as the character.

I like tails, you know, Colleen O'Shaughnessy as the character, obviously it just, Elba as our favorite Echidna knuckles. All of that's cool. Like I like all of that to a certain extent. But it's just the movie around these characters is so stupid. Aaron, let's talk about the end credit scenes. I'll be honest with you and everybody listening. I was so annoyed with my audience that I left before the second end credit scene.

I didn't know there was a second end credit scene until I looked it up afterwards. Well, that's OK, because I don't know if you know this or not, but all of the end credit scenes have been leaked online anyway. So people have been watching them for a while now. I didn't know that, actually. Yeah, they they had been leaked both of the scenes. And so. Again, the fact that people were so needing to stand up and fucking scream like ravenous fucking creatures in the audience.

Like I was just, my God, I never wanted to punch so many people in the fucking face. But the first scene shows Sonic once again, like we announced, like going right back to where they were at the beginning of the movie. He's running through the forest. He looks up and he stops running. Finally, he's like, He sees a sign for New York. He's like, I definitely overshot that finish line. He thinks he's alone, but all of sudden Sonic comes face to face with a robot that shares his same design.

So looks just like him. This is Metal Sonic. And then people were going fucking nuts. And then all of a sudden, after Sonic fights a singular robot, he realizes there's like dozens of them. He's like, some kid was like, there's an army! And so, yeah, so and then they start like fighting and trying to like all of a sudden.

While the odds are stacked against Sonic he is saved from the metal Sonic robots by a hooded figure wielding a massive mallets and once again people start Losing their fucking mind because they see this hammer Yeah, those familiar with the games are sure to recognize the yellow and red pico pico hammer before the hooded figure reveals their identity This is Amy Rose a pink hedgehog. Let's go Aaron And she saved Sonic from his imminent doom.

I'm so sorry for like putting the same thing that I went through onto people's ears right now. She's saying- We're not doing it during a movie though, Aaron. That's the difference between us and them. It still feels shitty. It still feels really If I could even have that self-awareness is all that matters in this moment. Although the two do not exchange any words that they're the first encounter, Amy Rose quickly proves to be Sonic's ally.

So Amy Rose is a major character in the Sonic the Hedgehog video game. She has been part of the franchise since 93 when she've made her first appearance in Sonic CD. Amy is a bright and positive character who often has a crush on Sonic. She was taken by Metal Sonic in her first appearance and saved by Sonic later in the game, setting up her to be a recurring character alongside Team Sonic in future adventures.

I don't even I've obviously seen this character throughout my history of playing Sonic, but no attachment to her whatsoever. Well, the end credits scene that I missed the second post credit scene, this is after the actual the actual credits puts the focus back on Shadow the Hedgehog Keanu Reeves is black hedgehog seemingly died at the end of the film. This scene shows Shadow picking up his wrist ring that he lost earlier in the finale.

The ring known as the limiter rings or the inhibitor rings in the games returns to the black hedgehog of the same power levels that he was at previously, seemingly confirming that Shadow was alive. Shocker, everybody. Shadows come back. Who knew? Right. Again, just following the footsteps of Fast and Furious. Like this is I'm telling you, this is just Fast and Furious with Sonic characters. That's all it is. Yeah. I don't understand, like really.

Why the limiter bracelets they never explain that's one thing they never explain the show. They never say how powerful is they got to put limiter bracelets on him The other thing is they they don't explain why he has Chaos power that he's supposed to be an ultimate life form But he why why did he come to earth and like a fucking meteorite looking thing?

Like there's there is zero explanation in this movie to make us understand what's going on I think there's rumors that he's gonna get his own peacock show. That's that's what i've heard is that similar to Knuckles, he'll get his own little show that sort of knuckles and explain sort of his backstory and all that, which everybody wants. Aaron, we're so excited about. OK, final thoughts on Sonic 3. Very popular. It's I'm I'm exhausted just from reliving the experience.

They say you got to you know, you got to heal. You got to feel it to heal it. And did we feel it? Did we ever feel it? I felt I felt that I am anxious all over again. Thoughts really just. Good God, this is a terrible movie with a couple of good scenes. And again, if I could erase every single other thing about this movie other than the robotnik scenes, I would be fine. I'll echo all that. That's exactly how I feel. It's funny. I've been to the movies a lot here in December.

I went and saw Craving the Hunter for our review. Go listen to that review, everybody, from last week. Then I went to see Interstellar again. 70 millimeter. Incredible experience. Then I saw Sonic 3 the next day. And then I'm seeing Nosferatu in two days. So it's like bad, good, bad, good. I'm just going to keep trading off for the rest of the year. I would rather sit through watching Madame Webb again. Really? Yeah. Than this? Than this. I don't know if I, I don't know if I would say it.

Like the same experiences, like the same, you, if you had to give me like a level of hell and they said, Hey, you got to sit here and watch Madame Webb, like till the end of the end of time. in that same experience or you got to sit here and you got to watch Sonic 3 in that same experience till the end of time with a packed crowd of ravenous Sonic fan. Exactly. Exactly. Same exact experience just for for an infinite amount of time. I would rather watch Madame Web. OK, all right.

Well, let's rate this thing at a five David Wires. Aaron, what are you to give Sonic 3? One. OK, let's see here. We talked about how Craven. We both gave Craven a was it a two point five? Mm This is worse than Craven. And for that reason, sharks, I'm to give it a two again. Some good parts. I think I gave Madame Webber reviewed it either a one or one point five.

And I disagree with you on that slightly that I think this movie is better than Madame Webber, but only in like the smallest amount of ways. So. All right. Let's put a pen or I guess we can close the book even on Sonic three and our last movie review of the year. And what a way to end 2024. What a year. What a year it's been, of course. And. I guess it's time for our final segment over in your corner of the Oblivion Bar podcast, which is Aaron's Arcade.

It's time for Aaron's Arcade. Greetings. I am talking about Article 99. This movie is from 1992 starring Ray Liotta, Kiefer Sutherland, Forest Whitaker, Leah Thompson, John Mahoney, John C. McGinley, Keith David and Kathy Baker. And honestly, a slew of others who are in the cast. It's an amazing cast. And I had never heard of this until somebody suggested it to me. And, you know, I actually decided to watch this as a review for another, you know, thing like like thing that I do.

And I wanted to talk about this because you as a veteran also will understand. So this is a movie that is basically. E.R. but in a VA hospital. OK, it's like to a degree. So not Article 99 is a dramedy set in a beleaguered veterans hospital where a group of dedicated doctors led by Dr. Richard Sturgis, you know, Ray Liotta, struggled to provide care to their patient patients amidst bureaucratic chaos and underfunding.

The title refers to a regulation that disqualifies veterans from receiving treatment for conditions not explicitly related to their military service. As the doctors face mounting obstacles, including a lack of resources and an uncooperative administration, they resort to unconventional and often rebellious methods to ensure their patients receive the care they deserve.

The film blends humor and drama to highlight the challenges within the health care system and the moral dilemmas faced by those trying to navigate it. It offers a mix of poignant moments and satire underscoring the human costs of Eureka. Bureaucratic in a insufficiency or inefficiency. Excuse me. Is this movie like quick? Is this streaming anywhere? So I watched it on Roku TV. Okay. And like to be or something like that. I want to watch it. That's why I was curious.

Yeah. So it's like it's like with commercials, but they're not very long commercials, but it's it's a very interesting movie. It's RIP to Ray Liotta, too. Yes. This movie is honestly like one that I never anticipated to be as good as it was. It's emotional. If you've ever been to a VA VA hospital, if you've ever been around veterans like I am one who I go around if I see a veteran wearing like, you know, like a hat or jacket or something that I thank them for their service.

This movie paints a harsh reality, but even back in the 90s where we still actually see the VAs like this, where it's so hard for people to get health care. They basically have to nearly die in the waiting rooms. Like it's a very grim look, but it's like this staff of doctors is trying to do their best to come up with the resources to take care of these heroes, these metal and award-winning soldiers, mostly from Vietnam, Korean War. There are times where it's hard to watch.

There are times where it's really good. I'm not gonna lie, this movie got me kind of emotional in several scenes. it really is, it's like... If you've been to a VA, if you've been around veterans, then you'll feel a bit of nostalgia for how this movie will make you feel. Not nostalgia, like in a good way, but like that, I kind of almost like that, that muscle memory of like, this is painful.

The movie opens with a guy basically being told that he has PTSD and they cannot treat it at the VA because they don't have the resources. So they basically give him, he's, he is an article 99 patient. So he... gets into his pickup truck and he drives it through the front door and starts walking the hallways with an M16 trying to find the people responsible for his treatment. Another guy is like trying to get a heart, he needs a triple bypass.

And so he can't get care because he's not even enrolled in the VA yet. So it's just, the whole thing is insane. So I would love for people to go and watch this and kind of see where we are now, where we were then and where we still are in capacities of both. I mean, I can you firsthand, everybody, I'm sure Aaron maybe could echo this, the VA, it's not all bad people. Obviously it's just a terribly run organization that is trying to do a good thing.

And they make, they don't make the process easy. Everybody. I'll tell you that they talk about how you get free healthcare as a veteran. Sure you do, but what's the quality of that care firstly, but also how easy, how obtainable is it also? So that's interesting. I'm going to be honest, like I said, like, mean, with with my experience here at the VA where I live in Brooklyn, my experience has been really good.

There have some been some obstacles and some hang ups, but nothing has stopped me from actually getting any of the treatment or the care that I needed. So there is it is definitely become a long way. And I can even say decades of difference. But there's still things that feel very familiar in this movie. And it's and it's it's sad and it's kind of scary.

But at the same time, this is a movie that I feel like people have not had people not not enough people have on the radar because it's just it's a star-studded cast the the the Kind of plot at one point kind of takes a little bit of a background to like a little mini love story That's not necessary. But at the end of the day, it's still a pretty impactful film. Sure. So I'm not gonna take yeah, check it out I'm not gonna take up too much time next.

We're go into my favorite part of the show, which is Chris's corner

It's time for Chris's Corner. All righty, this week for Chris's Corner, pretty basic stuff, everybody. Again, this is our last episode of the year before our last call. We're not going to have another Aaron's Arcade or Chris's Corner. So I thought I would share my top 10 favorite movies of the year, everybody. And I'll include a link in the show notes in case you want to check out the entire list. This is all the movies that I saw in theaters this year. I'm sorry.

I guess I shouldn't say in theaters. Some of them were streaming. Some of my salt home. But these are all twenty twenty four twenty twenty four movies that I've seen this year. So just for reference, there are 66 movies on this list. I saw a lot of movies this year. Not all of them were great, but I think 2024 was a pretty good year. And there's still a couple left that I haven't seen yet, like The Brutalist and Nosferatu.

And I think there's one other one that came out this year that I'm still waiting to see, but Conclave I haven't seen yet, which I'm excited to think it's going to be on Peacock next week. So here are two honorable mentions at number 12. have Wicked. What are you laughing at, Aaron? I'm laughing at Madame Webb being like number 66. Well, everybody, it's pretty bad. So it's you know, it deserves that 66th rank. So as we just said a moment ago during our review of Sonic.

So number 12, these are sorry, these are my two honorable mentions that number 12. have wicked part one. We defied gravity air and a couple of weeks ago and it was a lot of fun. So number 11, I have the substance to wildly different movies, the substance and wicked, but two very good ones at that. I have them both at, I want to say four stars each. Number 10. So first one on the list, I have Deadpool Wolverine. So we didn't cover here on the show. were on break.

Number nine, I have the first Omen, the prequel to the Omen trilogy that came out earlier this year, directed by our Kasha Stevenson. I want to say also stars Nell Tiger Free, who's awesome in the movie. Really great. This is essentially how Damien was eventually born and then eventually adopted by the people in the original movie. Number eight, my favorite horror film of the year. have heretic again. That's Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East, Hugh Grant favorite.

It's actually no, it's not my favorite a 24 movie, but it is my second favorite a 24 movie. Number seven, I have Saturday night, which is about the first recording of the Saturday night live Saturday night live. Very good. Loved it. Number six came with a plenty of apes. We covered that here on the show. Didn't we earn? No, I thought we did. Maybe not. Might have been on a break. Really good. I love the new direction of the plane of the apes movies.

Number five, we have a Nora. Do you ever seen a Nora, Aaron? Nope, not yet. OK. Number four is like ignore, ignore. Nailed it. Number four, we have the bike riders. Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, Tom Hardy. Really good movie. You see that one? Nope. OK. Number three, we have a real pain. That's Karen Kolkin, Jesse Eisenberg. Really good. You see that one? Nope. OK. Number two, I have my favorite 824 movie of the year.

And actually I want to say this is like one B. This is, it's at number two, but I think it's, it's like arguably my favorite movie of the year. Number one, that's Sing Sing with Coleman Domingo favorite 824 movie of the year. Absolutely incredible. It's about how a gentleman basically creates a, I say gentleman he is, but he's also an inmate and he creates a, a theater program for the in the inmates there. And it's based on a true story. Have you seen that one here?

Nope. Okay. Number one very different taste I want to go through all these real quick. I'm gonna I'm gonna bust through some of these I'm gonna see if you've seen them But but first I number one doing part two we cover here on the show. It's fucking awesome. It's very good Everybody knows Dean part two is great. So let me go back. Let's see Wicked part one. Give me a yay or nay. Yay. We covered on this show. I know I'm just going through Subsist the substance. Yay. Okay, Deadpool Wolverine.

Yay. First omen nay heretic nay Saturday night nay came to the planet Anora. Nay. Bike riders. Nay. A real pain. Nay. Sing Sing. Nay. part two. Yay. You've only seen like what one or two of those. I think it's three actually three movies of my top 12. What's going on? I've seen four. which ones? come on. You saw you saw you saw substance. Substance. Wicked Deadpool Wolverine. That's That's right.

The thing is, OK, the thing is, like, I want to watch heretic, but I asked Carly, she wanted to watch it. She said yes. OK, but. She doesn't want to watch it at night. That's fair. That's fair. Yes. Saturday night, we were supposed to go see that in a screening, but we something happened. Planet of the Apes. You know, I'm getting to those. Anora. think we might watch that. I'm not sure. I don't really know. Bike riders I have no interest in. A real pain.

We were actually supposed to go see that when we got into our hit and run accident. So we ended up not seeing that. Sing Sing. I love Coleman Domingo. Have not watched it because actually hadn't heard of that one yet. there's like, you know. We do have like similar, obviously, taste in movies. There's been there's a couple that I did want to ask you about, though, because I remember you specifically saying that you didn't really like I saw the TV glow. Right. No, no, no. I said I did.

I just didn't fully understand it. God. OK. It's one of it's very similar to when I went to go see Queer, where I couldn't I just couldn't wrap my arms around it. Like the movie was smarter than I was. And I. I think I just needed to maybe listen to an audio commentary or something to fully grasp what the movie was about. You also have little arms. You know, have little baby arms. You know, I'm sensitive about it, It's what you actually saw Borderlands. I did at home.

OK. Yeah, I didn't go see it somewhere. Should I talk about my last five? Sure. Bottom five here. Bottom five. We have Madden Webb last place at 66. I gave it a one star Borderlands, then venom. It's funny that the Bottom three are nerd related movies. Venom, The Last Dance, actually the bottom four. Yeah, the bottom four. then the so basically it goes down a web borderlands venom. The Last Dance Watchmen Chapter one, which is an abomination.

And then speaking of abominations, the new roadhouse, all terrible. I like the new roadhouse. You're silly. I don't understand that. OK, and just for reference, Sonic three is at number thirty nine. That's Weird. So like you liked Sonic 3 more than you liked Transformers. No, it's right there below Transformers one. Like almost as much as you like Transformers one. I didn't like Transformers one as much. No, that was fine.

But it was it wasn't I think right where Transformers one is is where I start to like at least enjoy the movies. Self-reliance. That was that was funny. That was a funny movie. I enjoyed that one. Yeah. Okay. Like I said, this will be in the show notes, everybody, if you want to take a look at it and give me a follow over there on letterbox as well. Give Aaron and I both a follow.

All right, everybody, that'll do it for episode 178 and that'll do it for 2024 and sort of in a way we've got one more episode next week. Again, our last call awards, which is our sort of year in review. Basically all of our favorite things, our least favorite things, all of the, all the things just in general. after that, we'll basically be taking all of January 2025 off, but we'll talk more about that next week. Aaron, yo, take us out of here.

Sure. Subscribe to our podcast, podcast, Spotify, YouTube, audible, iHeart radio, wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. That's where we are. Thank you. Our patrons, Alex, Aaron, Alice, Potter, Chris S, Chris Y, Christie, David, Elliott, George, Johnny, Greg, Haley, Cam 6, Jake, Jeremy, Kyle, Lucy, Mac, Mike, Miles, Olivia, Ryan, I, Ryan Robert, Travis, Jack, Zach. And Brad and Lisa. Jesus Christ. Did you delete something? No, I added Ryan. I've got a new we had a new picture. remember.

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Brand new official show of the year. Brand new official merch for the show is on our website at oblivionbarpodcast.com. Thank you, KXD Studio for all of our oblivion bar art. He's at KXD graphics on Instagram. Quit fucking with shit while I'm reading. Thank you, Dream Kid for all of our musical themes. Thank you, DJ Skyvac for our grid theme. Don't forget you take your bartenders 20 % or more. And Chris is messing with me. Okay. All right, buddy. Thank you so much. Got a flat.

What's what's what's a saying from Sonic? I was gonna say gotta go fast. Gotta go fast. I was gonna say gotta blast, but that's Jimmy Neutron. Jimmy Neutron. Gotta blast. Gotta blast. All right, buddy. Thank you so much. We'll see you next week for episode 179.