Knowing the history of movies adapted from games and my love of the Sonic franchise, I was dreading “Sonic the Hedgehog” since we first saw those grotesquely muscular blue legs on the teaser posters. However, after the VFX team redid the entire movie, I felt an obligation to watch it. For better or for worse.

I entered the theater expecting a movie geared entirely towards children with a simple and cheesy story, poor dialog and excessively hammy acting from Jim Carrey. To my pleasant surprise, I was completely wrong.

“Sonic” appropriately reflects the mindset of its main character and narrator. Seemingly childish on the surface, it harbors a deeper theme of isolation, loneliness and friendship. There were points where I questioned Sonic’s motives for acting as he does, only to remember the first ten minutes explain it all. Nearly every question I had regarding plot points was inevitably answered along the way, even if it took me a few hours after the movie ended to realize some of them. While the story is great for kids, it has plenty of subtlety and heart in it that adults can enjoy without any cringey moments (except for one) that make you want to get up and leave.

Interaction between characters was well executed, too. There were moments of dialog I felt could have been better but didn’t bring down the movie. On the topic of acting, Carrey performed far better than I believed he would. His over-the-top comedic style ended up working in favor of the mad scientist motif without the character becoming another Ace Ventura, as I feared he would.

There are obligatory references to the source material sprinkled throughout the movie. The nostalgic sound effects of rings and spin dashes, and notes of the classic soundtrack make appearances. Characters make several references as well without shoving it in your face. It’s there, but you won’t know it’s a reference unless you already know the Sonic franchise well enough. All of the subtler tributes to classic Sonic are made more apparent during the credit sequence where it recaps the entire movie in the same style as the original games.

Overall, “Sonic the Hedgehog” is good. We are still early in, but I dare say it’s a contender for one of my favorite movies of the year. It had decent special effects, a solid story, commendable acting, and it felt like most of the people working on the movie truly cared about the characters. If you are a fan of the Sonic series, then you will enjoy this movie, and I happily await a sequel.